Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
A Brahmin in Kerala
Published on 21st August, 2021, in Economic Times. The Puranas tell the story of an asura king called Mahabali who gave people whatever they desired. Mahabali had thrown out Indra, king of devas, who ruled the skies, and now controlled the three worlds: the sky, the earth and everything in between. Mahabali was a generous…
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Articles
How Did Tantra Spread from India to Tibet?
Published on 14th August, 2021, in Times of India. Tibetan Buddhism is called Vajrayana Buddhism, which is sometimes also called Tantrik Buddhism. Here, women play an important role, which is why the symbols of Vajrayana Buddhism are a double-sided dagger (vajra) and the bell (ghanta), representing male and female principles, which in turn represent the…
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Articles
From Vedas to Puranas
Published on 8th August, 2021, in Mid-day. Vedas were composed 3,000 years ago, while the Puranas were composed 1,500 years ago. In between, came the great epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, after the Vedas, but before the Puranas. The two reflect dramatically different world views. Vedas do not factor in monastic ideals; the Puranas do, as…
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Articles
What the Chinese Saw In India
Published on 25th July, 2021, in Mid-day. Chinese scholars realised the Buddhism they were receiving was in diluted or corrupted form. So, many monks travelled to India by land and sea routes to get the original documents. They translated them into the local languages. This happened between the fifth and the eighth century, over a…
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Articles
What Was Hinduism Like Before Temples?
Published on 16th July, 2021, in Times of India. Harappan seals indicate that its residents worshipped trees, and holy men who lived in forests. There are were no temples in Harappan cities. The oldest of the Vedic scriptures, the Rig Veda, was composed 500 years after the collapse of the Harappan cities. It also does…
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Articles
Lustful Women of the Jataka
Published on 4th July, 2021, in Mid-day. We rarely talk about it, mainly because they have been kept out of popular translations, but in the Jataka collection, which retells stories from Buddha’s past lives, there is the firm belief that women have a ravenous sexual appetite. Here are a few examples: In Sulasa Jataka, a…
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Articles
Of Weight and Value
Of Weight And Value: The human mind has power to create value and also strip value. Published on 11th June, 2021, in Economic Times. One of the most peculiar things about the Harappan civilization is its obsession with weights and measures. They had binary measuring systems and decimal measuring systems. They also had pans for…
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Articles
Why Do Hindu Gods Never Give Sermons?
Published on 22nd May, 2021, in Mumbai Mirror. Buddhism speaks of the discourses given by the Buddha to thousands of monks, nuns and lay people at Jetavana. Jainism speaks of samavasaran, when the Tirthankara reveals Jain wisdom to all creatures, earthly and heavenly, who sit around him in a circle. Jewish folk speak of Moses…
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Articles
Bhairava’s Truth In the Light Of the Funeral Pyre
Published on 17th May, 2021, in Scroll.in . Hindutva is a 19th-century political ideology that proclaims itself to be the defender of Hinduism. Yet it is terrified of truth. The truth of death – of hundreds of bodies floating down the Ganga and thousands being cremated in funeral pyres across India, which reveals not the…
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Articles
How Brahma Lost His Position
Published on 25th April, 2021, in Mid-day. In Vedic times, 3,000 years ago, Brahma referred to ‘brahman’, the impersonal divine energy linked to consciousness, spirit and meaning. Gradually, in Puranic times, 2,000 years ago, the idea of a god named Brahma emerged. This god created all life and established codes of civilised conduct, and dharma.…
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Articles
Tamed by Buddhism
Published on 18th April, 2021, in Mid-day. Buddha taught the sacred lore (dhamma) that would end all suffering. Many of his students renounced society and became monks (bhikku) and nuns (bhikkuni) of his sacred order (sangha). They travelled everywhere spreading Buddhist ideas. The people they encountered had their own gods—friendly or dangerous spirits who lived…
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Articles
A Forgotten Buddhist Journey
Published on 4th April, 2021, in Mid-day. About 2,500 years ago, Buddha revolutionised the intellectual world with his idea that desire is the cause of suffering. He invented practices that would end desire and so suffering. He established a community of monks to carry forward his message. But as the centuries passed, the monks built…
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Articles
Is Goddess Saraswati Connected to Love and Longing?
Published on 14th February, 2021, in Mumbai Mirror. Valentine’s Day upsets Hindutva, that valorises men over women, celibacy over sensuality, politics over arts, and lets saffron eclipse the rainbow. They want to save India’s culture but this does not include the vast tradition of love festivals, the Madan-utsava, and at springtime, Vasant-utsava. Hindutva prefers to…
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Articles
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 to authority, and veneration of traditional rites, and customs. It valued culture over nature. Taoism…
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Articles
View: The Beginning and End of Using Religion
Published on 6th February, 2021, in The Economic Times. When the Romans went about conquering, they did not destroy local temples or reject local gods. They simply demanded that those conquered owed libations to the Roman emperor, while carrying on with their own religious practices, to show their allegiance to Rome. They even tolerated the…
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Articles
Guru Teaches Autonomy Not Submission
Published on 10th January, 2021, in Mid-day. The idea of guru being greater than mother, father, even God, is an idea that emerges from medieval times and is articulated in the “Guru Gita”, a conversation between Shiva and Shakti from the Skanda Purana. This chant is very popular today but was not popular in Vedic…