Religions
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Are You a Harappan or Vedic Woman?
Published on 5th March, 2023, in Mid-day. Harappan cities thrived between 2500 BCE and 1900 BCE. The Vedic culture thrived between 1000 BCE and 500 BCE. Almost 1,000 years apart, the two cultures reveal two different worlds for women. When…
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Polytheism Enables Mother of Democracy
Published on 4th March, 2023, in Economic Times. Monotheism propagates the idea of one God. This very easily telescopes into the idea of one all-powerful leader of all people, which enables dictatorship. In polytheism, by contrast, there is no all-powerful…
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Parshuram’s Tryst With Kshatriyas
Published on 26th February, 2023, in Mid-day. Parshuram was born in a Brahmin family of the Bhrigus. His father, Jamadagni, was a sage who performed rituals in exchange for which he received cows. His mother was a princess. Parshuram is…
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Why the Location of Shiva’s Pillars Has Become So Controversial
Published on 25th February, 2023, in Times of India. The Assam government’s claim that the Bhimashankar Jyotirlinga is located in the northeastern state has spawned yet another religious flashpoint. This is what happens when mythology is assumed to be history…
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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…
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Veda, Vedanga, Vedanta
Published on 19th February, 2023, in Mid-day. Hinduism can be divided into three major eras. Veda dominated 3,000 years ago, Vedanga dominated 2,000 years ago, and Vedanta became central 1,000 years ago. These are approximations of course, but a good…
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Donation of Courtesans
Published on 17th February, 2023, in Economic Times. Chanakya’s Arthashastra talks about appointing a superintendent for the ganika, variously translated as pleasure women, prostitutes or courtesans. This is done in a matter-of-fact way. No morality is attached. Ganikas were valuable…
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Diversity Amongst Brahmins
Published on 12th February, 2023, in Mid-day. Our textbooks teach us that Hindu society is divided into four groups: Brahmin, Kshatriyas, Vaishya, Shudras, consisting of priests, landed aristocrats, merchants and servants. This is the Vedic varna system. However, this is…
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The Forgotten Women Who Helped Shape Jainism
Jainism follows the path revealed by 24 sages known as Tirthankara, who appear in every era of the human age. In the Shwetambar school of Jainism, popular in western India, Parsvanatha and Mahavira, the 23rd and 24th Tirthankaras were married…
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Oxus Between Harappans and Aryans
Published on 5th February, 2023, in Mid-day. No conversation about Harappans and Aryans is now complete without discussing the Oxus civilisation. Cities of the Oxus civilisation, in what is now Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, traded with cities of the Harappan civilisation…
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Bhakti Is Devotion? Is Loyalty?
Published on 4th February, 2023, in Economic Times. Most family business owners in India prefer loyal staff over professional staff. Loyal staff can be paid less, work on Saturdays, take abuse but they will never leave your side. The professional…
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How Gods, Demons Formed India’s Mountains, Rivers and Seas
Published on 28th January, 2023, in The Times of India. One of the ways you map India is through the Shakti Pithas. It is said that when the goddess got angry with her father, Daksha, for insulting her husband, Shiva,…
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How the Gayatri Mantra, composed by men, heard by men, for a male deity, became embodied as a goddess
Published on 27th January, 2023, in The Hindu. Mantra is a carefully crafted sound formula that has the power to invoke and anchor divine energy for the benefit of humans: this is what Hindus, Buddhists and Jains believe. Rig Veda…
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View: Privilege to Saraswati at the cost of Durga & Lakshmi is an old Brahmanical hangover
Published on 21st January, 2023, in Economic Times. In America, the state serves the rich. In China, the rich serve the state. The American politicians get the military to ensure American businesses have access to resources and markets. The Chinese…
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In Joshimath, the question is: What is the cost of pilgrimage?
Published on 12th January, 2023, in Indian Express. The pandas of Jagannath Puri in Odisha are often chastised for aggressively demanding daan and dakshina from pilgrims. They argue the temple is their mother – she feeds them through those who…