Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
-
Articles
Teacher Of TEACHERS!
Shiva seated under a banyan tree facing south is called Dakshinamurti, or the south-facing image. It presents Shiva as the teacher of teachers…
-
Articles
What are Vedic values, aka ‘Indian Ethos’ of the Hindus?
We are all in between, hopefully moving towards dharma and atma…
-
Articles
Waiting for Ram
At her abode in the caves of Jammu, the Goddess manifests herself as three outcroppings of rock which represent its three forms Maha-Lakshmi, Maha-Saraswati and Maha-Kali…
-
Articles
God in Indian history
So questions are raised: is Hinduism polytheistic (many gods), monotheistic (one God), pantheistic, monistic, henotheistic or kat henotheistic?…
-
Articles
The hermit’s smile: How celibacy, non-violence and purity work to establish patriarchy in India
Of these, purity is the most lethal as it is here where we find the seed of the inhuman practice of untouchability…
-
Articles
How a new akhara of transgendered people stole the spotlight at the Ujjain Kumbh
Thousands of devotees lined up to seek the blessings of the kinnar order…
-
Articles
THE LION ON THE HILL
Simhachalam is special for the worship of a composite image of ‘masculine’ avatars of Vishnu, Varaha and Narasimha…
-
Articles
Caste Purana
Traditionally, there are 18 Maha-puranas or major texts, 18 Upa-purnas or minor texts, hundreds of Kshetra-puranas, that tell the story of pilgrim spots, Jati-puranas, that tell the story of different castes…
-
Articles
The Bacchus of Bharat
On the fringes of mainstream Hinduism lie the stories of Kilkari Bhairava — raw and elemental, they deal with sex and violence…
-
Articles
Beheading you, beheading me
Have you been noticing the rising number of politicians and ‘religious leaders’ who seem obsessed with lopping off heads: either their own or that of others. Are they influenced by tales of head-offering that we find in the Puranas?…
-
Articles
A forlorn Yamuna
The restless Ganga complements the still Shiva and the still Yamuna complements the restless Vishnu…
-
Articles
Good-deva-bad-asura divide misleading
The eternal battle between the two forces, both descended from Kashyapa, has many layers of meaning. It cannot be seen in simple moral or ethical binaries…
-
Articles
Prosecuting the Gods
Conversations that seek to ‘justify’ the actions of mythic figures often miss the point…
-
Articles
Divine domestic discords
The malaise of modern scholarship on Hinduism often comes from the assumption that Hindu sacred texts, like Bible and Koran, are instructive and seek to ‘reform’ humans…
-
Articles
Unlimited Choice
The Ramayana is not a text; it is an evolving tradition; the many versions only enrich it further. You can choose the one that appeals to you…
-
Articles
The complete man
There are two Krishnas… The first is historical (a person), the second mythological (an idea)…