World Mythology
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The Tragedy of Nandi and Surabhi
Few animals have shaped Hindu imagination as deeply as the bull and the cow. Shiva’s mount is Nandi, the great humped bull, while the divine cow Surabhi symbolizes nourishment and abundance. Yet the modern story of their descendants is full…
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Djinns Amongst Us
The Quran describes jinn as beings created from a “smokeless flame of fire,” while humans were created from clay and angels from light. The Arabic word jinn comes from a root meaning “hidden” or “concealed.” They inhabit a parallel dimension…
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Civilisations, Time and the Turning Wheel
Financial crises, endless wars, political polarisation, demographic decline, climate anxiety and the rise of new global powers have made many wonder whether civilisations can also decline.
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The Rise of Nava-grahas
In Vedic times, graha meant malevolent spirits who hurt mothers and babies. It had nothing to do with planets. The 3000-year-old Vedic Jyotisha had nothing to do with predicting the future. It was a practical science of timekeeping — fixing…
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Who Is Baal?
The name Baal has been appearing a lot lately, especially in Western media, in the context of war between Iran and Israel. Known as a false god in the Bible, his images are being burnt in public. Western capitalists are…
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Imagining Hinduism Without Caste
For centuries, what we now call Hinduism was never a single religion. It was a civilisation organised through caste. Each caste had its own gods, rituals, food rules, taboos, and ideas of the sacred. Diversity was not accidental; it was…
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Are God’s Messengers Real or Imaginary?
We know that information about Gautama Buddha, Chanakya, and Shankaracharya come from textual sources that were composed centuries after their supposed lifetimes. There is no material proof of their existence. But they are assumed to be historical figures. The same…
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The Seven Steps To Partnership Over Promises
The idea of taking vows during weddings is not part of Hindu traditions. This idea comes to us from West Asia and the Middle East.
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Ramayana in Thailand & Cambodia
The Thai and Cambodian Ramayanas developed between the medieval and early modern periods as court-centred narratives shaped by performance, visual art, and Buddhist ethics. Though they share a common source, they reinterpret the story through parallel but contrasting treatments of…
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Comparing Sun Tzu and Kautilya
Sun Tzu, the author of The Art of War, and Kautilya, the author of the Arthashastra. Both wrote for rulers and generals who were constantly at war. Both believed that power was too important to be left to emotion, impulse…
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Salt to Remove the Evil Eye
In India, salt is not just a mineral. It is a magical substance that not only enhances the taste of food, but also protects the body from ‘nazar’ or evil eye.
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Is Zohran Mamdani Muslim, American or Gujarati?
With the victory of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City, a man with a Muslim name, an African past and an Indian lineage, the American-Christian establishment suddenly feels threatened.
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Kailasa in Cambodia
A few decades before the Chola king Rajaraja I built the Brihadeeswara Temple in Tamil Nadu, around 1000 AD, a Khmer king called Jayavarman IV had begun building a temple to replicate the Kailasa mountain in Cambodia, at Koh Ker,…
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Why is Marxism turning homophobic?
Marxist movements have always aligned with groups seen as oppressed by capitalist regimes. On one side, progressive left voices (e.g., queer activists, gender-fluid theorists) proclaim ‘no binaries, no genders.’ On the other, Marxist solidarity movements justify or ignore homophobia when…
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Biblical Tales in the Puranas
The Bhavishya Purana imagines an India (Bharat-varsha) from the Himalayas to the sea, with the Indus or Sindhu-desha forming the main barrier between Arya-desha, land of civilised folk, and Mleccha-desha, land of barbarians.