Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
Fox With Nine Tails
Published on 29th November, 2020, in Mid-day. In ancient China, the belief was that as the common red fox grew older, it would get supernatural powers. Its colour would change and its tails would multiply. Therefore, with the passage of time, an older fox would turn white and grow up to nine tails. A white…
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Articles
The Imposter In My Bed
Published on 4th October, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror. A common theme in mythology around the world is where a man enters his bed and makes love to a woman who he thinks is his wife. However, it turns out to be another woman who tricks him by taking the form of his wife. Likewise, there…
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Articles
Middle Eastern Mythologies
Published on 12th July, 2020, in Mid-day. The Middle East includes Mesopotamia (Iraq), the area watered by the Euphrates and Tigris. To its East is Persia (Iran); to its South is Arabia; to the West is Levant (Near East); and to the North is Anatolia (Turkey). Egypt is also included in the Middle East due…
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Articles
Let Me Sleep And Dream
Published on 28th June, 2020, in Mid-day. A long time ago, in the rivers and ponds of Europe, there lived a special creature called Ondine. She, one day, fell in love with a human. He was a handsome man; but not the most faithful of men. When she discovered he was unfaithful, her heart broke.…
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Articles
View: Fake News & Politics & Economics Of Faith
Published on 13th June, 2020, in the Economic Times. The Knights Templar was an order of warrior knights that existed nearly 900 years ago. It owed its allegiance to the Christian Church. In its 200-year history, it also established one of the first banking institutions in the world, before it was brutally suppressed by French…
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Articles
World’s First Queer Non-binary Superhero
Published on 31st May, 2020, in Mid-day. Nearly 4,000 years ago, the land between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates was known as Mesopotamia. It is now called Iraq. This is where some of the world’s most ancient civilisations such as Sumer, Assyria and Babylon thrived. Sumerian, Akkadian or Babylonian society was familiar with queer people—from…
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Articles
How Was Hindu Rajdharma Different From Turuku’s?
Published on 26th April, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror People often speak of a civilisational rupture that took place when Islam came into India. The easiest way to understand this is to go back in history and figure out the different ways in which kingship was perceived, in medieval India and medieval Persia, before 1,000 AD.…
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Articles
Is Hinduism timeless?
Published on 10th November, 2019, in Mumbai Mirror. Hinduism is called Sanatan Dharma in popular understanding. It is based on the line from the Bhagavad Gita where Sri Krishna describes the wisdom he is sharing assanatan, which means timeless. Any attempt to ask when this idea was articulated in history is seen by Hindutva politicians…
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Articles
Aryavarta
Published on 24th August, 2019, in Mid-day The word ‘Aryavarta’ has become quite popular. There are novels written about it, tele-serials based upon it, and it is increasingly being associated with an extremist Hindu vision of the past. But, the word ‘Aryavarta’ means land of the civilised people. Those who spoke Sanskrit were considered civilised,…
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Articles
Sea-faring Kaundinya
Published on 8th June, 2019, in Mid-day. If you travel to Cambodia, you will come across a folklore that a sage from India known as Kaundinya travelled across the sea to what is now called Cambodia, where he encountered a Naga princess, who fell in love with him. She happened to be the ruler of…
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Articles
The sorcery of Harut and Marut
Published on 2nd June, 2019 in Mid-day. In Middle Eastern (aka Islamic) mythology, when god created Adam, he expected all the angels to bow down before Adam. The angel, Iblis, refused to do so. Therefore, Iblis was cast out of paradise. He became the Devil, or Shaitan, who was determined to tempt humankind and make…
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Articles
Suleiman and the djinns
The right-wing communities around the world have one common feature: they believe there is only one truth and that truth is theirs. Therefore, they have a problem with other mythologies and science. …
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Articles
Love for Notre Dame
Published on 5th May, 2019, in Mid-day. Notre Dame means Our Lady in French. Though popular as a name for the most famous Parisian church, which recently caught fire, it refers generally to Mary, Mother of Jesus, who plays an important role in Catholic mythology and in medieval European history. The New Testament of the…
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Articles
Herding Indian cats in a non-compliant culture
Published on 9th February, 2019, in Economic Times. One of the things that you notice when you travel to countries like Australia and Singapore is the obsession with rules and regulations, and the rigorous implementation of systems…
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Articles
As you sow, so you may not reap
Our entire life is about repaying debt’s incurred in previous lifetimes and avoiding a generation of new debts…
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Articles
Of hunger in heaven
We realise the three Swargas in Hindu mythology are designed very differently from the single heaven of Abrahamic mythology…