Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
Decoding Ganesha’s Parenthood
Ganesha’s arrival, in the latter half of the monsoon, marks the transformation of Shiva, the hermit, into Shankara, the householder. …
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Articles
From Shiva’s Knot to Ram’s Chanda Mama – Our Stories of the Moon
As Chandrayaan-3 lands on the moon, it just so happens that the name of the current Chief Justice of India, D Y Chandrachud, means “on whose brow the moon takes refuge” – a title for Shiva…
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Articles
When the Rising Sun in the South Was Auspicious
The South has been the home of Sugriva, king of monkeys (vanara) and Ravana, king of demons (rakshasa). …
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Articles
The Story of Stolen Gods
In the medieval times, Indian kings declared their victory by bringing back home images of gods that were worshipped in the land they conquered. These gods became minor deities in the victor’s temple, living in the shadow of the victor’s patron deity, just as the defeated king lived in the shadow of the victor. It…
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Articles
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 Until recently, most people believed that Bhimashankar Jyotirlinga is located in Maharashtra. But then the…
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Articles
Passionate Devotion for Shiva
Published on 7th August, 2022, in Mid-day. About a thousand years ago, we are told that the Chola king was drawn to a Jain epic called Jivaka Chintamani. It tells the story of a young man’s erotic and valient adventures, who eventually becomes a Jain monk. To prevent local kings from becoming monks, a Tamil…
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Articles
Economics Of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva That Businessmen Across the World Need to Know
Published on 25th June, 2022, in Economic Times. The Puranas were composed 1500 years ago, between 5th and 10th century AD. What differentiates the Puranas from the Vedas is the value placed on temple worship, pilgrimages and stories to express a philosophy. The chief protagonists are the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and their…
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Articles
Shiva from Tibet?
Published on 19th June, 2022, in Mid-day. The idea that Tibet was the homeland of Aryas came from Swami Dayananda Saraswati, who in the late 19th century, founded the famous Arya Samaj. He valued the Vedas as the original source of Hinduism, but saw Puranas including worship of Shiva-linga as a degeneration of Arya-dharma, a…
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Articles
Why Scholars Don’t Agree About the Origins of the Shivlinga
Published on 18th May, 2022, in Times of India. Orientalist academicians love describing the Shiva-ling as a ‘phallic symbol’ because it irritates the Hindu who prefer to see the object of their devotion as something spiritual, not sexual. For the Orientalist, i.e. Western and Westernised scholar, such descriptions are, at one level, a way of…
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Articles
Is Shiva the Destroyer of Evil?
Published on 26th September, 2021, in Mid-day. In popular understanding of the mythology, Brahma is called the creator, Vishnu, the preserver and Shiva, the destroyer. When you ask people why Shiva is called the destroyer, they will answer, it is because he is the destroyer of evil. But if Shiva is the destroyer of evil,…
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Articles
Why Does Shiva Behead Brahma?
Published on 3rd January, 2021, in The Times of India. Social Justice warriors will often tell the story from the Uttara Ramayana of how Ram beheaded the ‘low’ caste Shambuka for breaking caste rules and performing austerities like a dvija or a twice-born, ‘upper’ caste Savarna. But they will not tell you that the same…
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Articles
When Shiva Used His Trident
Published on 7th June, 2020, in Mid-day. Some of the oldest and most spectacular images of Shiva are found in Elephanta and Ellora, cave temples built by Chalukyas and Rashtrakutas roughly 1,500 years ago, when a new form of Hinduism, based on Puranas and Hindu trinity began overshadowing the old Vedic and Buddhist ways. Amongst…
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Articles
Mahabharata On the Hills
Published on 26th January, 2020, in Mid-day Badrinath and Kedarnath are two major centres of pilgrimage in Uttarakhand; both are shut during winter months. Both centres are closely associated with Adi Shankara, the scholar who revived Vedic scholarship, about 1,200 years ago. He was the one who identified pilgrim spots and connected intellectual Hinduism (gyana…
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Articles
Hinduism in Nepal
Published on 24th November, 2019, in Mumbai Mirror There are primarily three differences that one observes. First, you notice that Hinduism and Buddhism are not separated from each other within the local population. Second, one does not find any influence of Islam. Third, one does not find the influence of Bhakti traditions, although people do…
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Articles
Why Shiva marries
Published on 27th October, 2019, in Mumbai Mirror When we read stories of Shiva, there is a constant reference to how he is forced to marry and produce his children, Kartikeya and Ganesha. When Shiva gets married, he comes down from the mountain Kailasa, which is cold, where no vegetation grows. He descends with his…
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Articles
Child-sage Balak Nath
Published on 23rd June, 2019, in Mid-day In Himachal, and nearby regions, a yogi is worshipped, who is considered a form of Shiva in Kalyug. His name is Baba Balak Nath. In art, he is visualised as a young boy with a yoga staff in his hand, seated on a peacock wit h the hood…