World Mythology
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Taoist Way Of Contentment
Published on 7th February, 2021, in Mid-day. Before Buddhism, China had two dominant worldviews: Confucianism promoted by urban centres, and Taoism that was popular in the rural countryside. Confucianism valued the king, the court, and civilised conduct, based on obedience…
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Horned Demons and Rebels
Published on 17th January, 2021, in Mid-day. The image of a horned, White man storming the US Capitol building is now part of history. It reveals the fragility of democracy and the lure of megalomaniacs and conspiracy theories. But, why…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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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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…
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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