Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
Islam in Bengal and Odisha is not the Islam of Gujarat
As per Sanatani lore, Islam came to India, smashing the Somnath temple of Gujarat. They forget to mention that the Jagannath temple of Odisha, attacked over eighteen times, remained resilient and continues to stand tall. Different parts of India responded differently to Islam. …
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Articles
Demon King of Brahmaputra
Once upon a time, the earth-goddess Bhumi was dragged under the sea by an asura called Hiranayaksha. Vishnu took the form of Varaha, killed Hiranayaksha, placed Bhumi on his snout, raised her up and thus rescued the earth-goddess. …
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Articles
Transformations of the Stupa
In 1898, William Peppé, a British engineer, excavated the Piprahwa stupa near Siddharthnagar in Uttar Pradesh (nine miles from Lumbini, the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama), and found bone fragments, ashes, and hundreds of gems. The inscription claimed the bones were those of the Buddha himself. …
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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
Why lotus remains India’s simplest yet most profound symbol
The lotus today is a symbol of a leading political party in India, but for thousands of years it has been part of Indian myth, ritual, architecture, and craft. At the village level, the lotus thrives as a simple floor drawing made with rice flour. …
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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
Karma’s Cosmic Order In Jain Manuscripts
In Jain thought, every action creates a transaction in the cosmic account. Consumption incurs debt. Fasting reduces debt. Charity generates credit. Liberation is achieved when there is no debit or credit left. Those who teach this path are the Tirthankaras, the spiritual fordsmen who help others cross the river of existence…
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Articles
The Two Faces Of Varuna
Varuna is one of the most ancient gods of the Vedic pantheon. In the Rig Veda, he is majestic, distant, and terrifying. He sits above the world, ruler of the sky and the ocean, guardian of the cosmic law called rta. He sees everything. Nothing escapes him. …
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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
A Problematic Indra
In Purana, Indra is a luxury loving god who lives in paradise. Stories of this later Indra are not very flattering. He is always scared of losing all that he has…
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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 Buddha a historical or a mythological figure?
No one ever talks about the “300 Buddhas” or the many narratives that recount the story of the Buddha. The assumption is that the Buddha is a historical figure, even though every Buddhist scholar knows that the Buddha story we recognise today was constructed by 19th-century Europeans using a variety of texts and arbitrary principles…
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Articles
How Vasudeva Became Vishnu
At Malhar, a small town near Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, we find an image of a soldier with four arms, holding a conch shell, a wheel and a mace. It has been identified as the earliest image of Vishnu. The inscription on the stone has been dated to 200 BC…
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Articles
The Durga of Dalit Mythology
In recent years, there has been a growing clash between ‘Sanatani mythology’ and ‘Dalit mythology’. During the festival season last month, a well-known Dalit activist argued that the worship of Durga is nothing but the celebration of an Aryan invasion of Dravidian lands. In his retelling, Mahishasur, the buffalo demon, represents dark-skinned Dravidians while Durga…
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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
The Cannibal’s Victim
Kaisika Dwadashi, the 12th day of the waxing moon after Diwali, is celebrated in many Vishnu temples of South India. During this time, people are encouraged to visit the temple and hear the story from Varaha Purana of Nampaduvan, a “low” caste singer who was caught by a cannibalistic demon known as Brahma-Rakshasa…