Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
Radha Tantra
Published on 15th November, 2020, in Mid-day. About 400 years ago, a Shakta text was composed in Sanskrit language, probably in Bengal. It was called Radha Tantra. It was a response to the rising tide of the Chaitanya Vaishnava movement, where Krishna is the supreme divine being and Radha is the subordinate. From the 12th…
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Articles
How Hindutva Threatens the History of Hindus
Who is a Hindu? How Hindutva threatens the history of Hindus Published on 5th July, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror. Hindutva history makes the history of Hindus fragile — people whose temples were destroyed by Muslims and who need Hindutva politicians to help them recover. It gives power to Hindutva politicians but strips Hindus of power…
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Articles
The rise of Durga
Amongst the earliest images we know today are one from Ajanta and Ellora caves in Maharashtra, and from Mammalapuram dated before 7th century…
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Articles
Who is a Hindu? The temple as saviour
Our monumental temples, such as Puri’s Jagannatha temple, were a reaction to the arrival of a foreign faith, and a sign of resistance to it…
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Articles
The Gita without the Mahabharata
However, when we remove the Gita from the Mahabharata we miss out on the context. And so, miss out much of the learnings…
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Articles
Is divorce permitted in Hinduism?
In many cultures, marriage is a contract. Divorce is the breaking of the contract. Some, like the Catholic Church, believe that the contract of marriage is sacred and hence, must never be broken. Others disagree…
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Articles
Why do Hindus worship cows?
Hindus don’t just worship cows. They also worship cobras and monkeys and elephants, as finite forms of the infinite divine…
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Interviews
Meet the characters who appear in both the Mahabharata and the Ramayana (and find out why)
From Parashurama and Jambuvan to Shiva and even Sita/Draupadi…
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Articles
What is Tamil Veda?
Depending on who you ask, you will find one of three books identified as the Tamil Veda, locally known as Dravida Veda or Tamil Marai…
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Articles
Who made God Perfect?
When Shiva and Vishnu merge into one being Hari-Hara, to show they are the same, not different, not higher or lower…
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Articles
Is a Hindu prayer different from a Christian or Muslim prayer?
Prayers exist in a mythic worldview, and depending on the worldview, the nature of the prayer is different…
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Articles
The Goddess Meenakshi of Madurai
Published on 27th November, 2016, in Mumbai Mirror. We have all heard the story of Ram, a prince from North India, who went to the southern tip of India. But when was the last time you heard of a queen who travelled from Madurai in the south to Kailasa in the North to find herself…
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Articles
The gates of Dwarka
The Krishna in Dwarka has four arms, the upper arms holding the chakra on the left, the gada on the right, and the lower arms holding the shankha on the left and the padma on the right…
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Articles
How Adi Shankaracharya united a fragmented land
Is our current understanding of Shankara contaminated by the ambitions of his not-so-intellectual followers who relish the idea of domination?…
