Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
How India lost its rich maritime tradition to Europeans
Published on 22nd March, 2019, in Economic Times. Sea travel is mentioned in the Buddhist Jataka tales but not in the great epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, perhaps because the former was patronised by mercantile communities (vaishyas) and the latter by landed gentry (kshatriyas). Sailors from India travelled along the monsoon winds to Southeast Asia and…
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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…
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Articles
Radha In Space And Time
All Dharmashatras say, all traditions (riti) and laws (niti) must be subject to change depending on geography (desh), history (kala) and capability of communities (guna) involved…
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Articles
Who is a Hindu? The politics of bodily fluids
By using body physiology to create a spiritual hierarchy, some Hindu orders have placed men above women…
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Articles
Is post-truth same as myth?
Western myth, or the dominant worldview that shapes the long history of the West, remains singular and linear…
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Articles
Acknowledging Islam’s Diversity
At the time of the World Wars, beyond the traditional Shia-Sunni divide, Islam had many regional forms: there was an Arabic form, there was a Persian form, there was the Indian form, there was an Indonesian form…
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Articles
Who is a Hindu?: Gods and judges
Rules are supposed to make us humans. It is unfortunate that those who came up with these theories and rules, both the Brahmins and kings, did not apply these principles of dharma on themselves…
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Articles
Vedanta and LGBTIQ
A selective understanding of the faith by those who control social discourse is the tragedy of Hinduism…
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Articles
Who is a Hindu? How Hinduism was enriched by rivalry
Every religion is an outcome of many historical and geographical forces. Every religion has a past and transforms over time…
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Articles
High cost of diversity
Can we say that India’s diversity is the reason why it seems ‘chaotic’?…
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Articles
How Brahmins helped create temple-states and kingdoms in South India and Southeast Asia
It is fashionable nowadays to use the word ‘Brahmin’ with contempt … But this outrage (real and imagined) must not blind us to the contribution of Brahmins …
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Articles
Trishanku in America or those betwixt and between
Trishanku is a famous character in Hindu mythology who hangs upside down between heaven and earth, belonging nowhere…
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Books
Padmavat: An Epic Love Story
More than five hundred years after the Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi wrote his epic poem Padmavat, the story of Padmavati, princess of Simhal and her lover and husband, Ratansen, the king of Chittor, continues to capture the imagination of readers everywhere. In Padmavat, we meet Padmavati’s friend, philosopher and guide—Hiraman—a parrot, as well as…