Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
The Global Resurrection of Islam
Earlier, Islam was sustained by rulers. In the modern era, it is sustained by communities. Authority shifted from courts and empires to classrooms, print networks, voluntary organisations, and individual conscience…
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Articles
If Usha Vance became Christian, would she be American enough?
Sensing the shift in public narrative following the killing of Charlie Kirk, now seen as a Christian martyr, Vice President JD Vance declared publicly that he hoped his wife, Usha, daughter of Telugu Brahmin immigrants, would convert to Christianity. But in today’s America, that is not enough…
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Articles
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 holds true for religious leaders like Jesus Christ and Prophet Muhammad. Believers insist they are…
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Articles
Tales of Biblical Jealousy
Jealousy moves quietly through the Bible, slipping into homes, upsetting marriages, splitting kingdoms, and turning love into rivalry. Each tale becomes a mirror for our own anxieties about attention, approval, and belonging…
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Articles
Six Signs Your Friend Has Been Colonised
Once your friend starts saying things like ‘karma is a b*tch’ or ‘you’ll get your karma’, he’s turned an ancient idea into a moral courtroom. He has replaced karma with justice, a concept that entered India through Christian and Islamic theology — through colonial education that divided the world into good and evil, heaven and…
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Articles
Can There Be a Sanatani Missionary?
A missionary (pracharak, in Hindi) is a relentless salesman. He sells God. He sells God’s message. For centuries there have been Christian missionaries, Muslim missionaries, and Buddhist missionaries. The last century saw the rise of Hindu missionaries. Many of these call themselves sanatani today. But what exactly are these sanatani missionaries selling?…
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Articles
Increase upon Increase
The Sanskrit term for compound interest is chakra-vriddhi, literally ‘wheelgrowth’ or “increase upon increase”. This word occurs in classical Sanskrit lexicons and legal-economic literature, where it denotes interest that accrues on previously accumulated interest, i.e., compound interest…
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Articles
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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Articles
Papas and Politics
When we think of the Pope, we never think about the Roman Empire. We think of an avuncular religious leader, not a shrewd political leader…
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Articles
Crescent Moon of Rome
Many Islamic nations choose the Crescent Moon as their symbol, a reminder of when Islam overpowered the Christian city of Constantinople, the second Rome. We can say the Crescent Moon is not so much about Islam as it is about the Muslim victory over Christendom…
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Articles
Raiders and Traders of the Desert
What turned Muhammad, the trader, into Muhammad, the raider? It was the lack of empathy. …
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Articles
Seventy-Two, Not Just Houri
But in mythology, seventy two is a very exciting number. It is 2 raise the power of 3 (2x2x2) multiplied by 3 raise to the power of 2 (3×3). A perfect symmetry which gives us 8×9 = 72. In ancient times, such numbers had sacred meaning…
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Articles
Jinns and Aliens
When the Turkish soldiers from Khilji’s army, and later the Mughal army, saw the ruins of Ellora, they were convinced that these were supernatural creations. The caves were not created by humans, but created by jinns. Jinns are supernatural creatures referred to in the Quran. They live in a parallel universe. Like humans, they have…
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Articles
Diverse tombs of the rulers of Turkey, Iran and India show that the Islamic world was not homogeneous
Published on 24th February, 2023, in The Hindu. After the sack of Baghdad in the 13th century, the Islamic world, dominated by Arabs since the 8th century, gave way to the Ottomans in Turkey, the Safavids in Iran, and the Mughals in India. These empires owed their success not to religion, but to gunpowder, a…
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Articles
One Christ, But So Many Churches
Published on 25th December, 2022, in Mid-day. About 1,900 years ago, documents were compiled in Israel that described the virgin birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, who was identified as the Christ, the anointed one, the prophesied messiah of Jewish mythology. These documents were called the Gospel, as they brought the good…
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Articles
American Snakes in Hindu Ganga
Published on 27th November, 2022, in Mid-day. A section of American Hindus are trying to turn the phrase “snakes in the Ganga” into a neo-Hindutva metaphor for Hinduphobia. This is highly disrespectful to revered Naga-devata or snake deities of Indian rivers and water bodies, including Ganga. This is another case of American Hindu IT engineer…