Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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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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Why is Holi celebrated more in north India than south India?
Holi is indeed celebrated mostly in north India, not south India. No one knows the reason why…
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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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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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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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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 …
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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?…
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Articles
Ranganatha, and his Muslim consort
Six hours from Chennai is the shrine of Ranganatha-swamy, where Vishnu is reclining as Narayana, on the coils of the five-hooded serpent known as Adi-Sesha…
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Articles
Waiting for Ram
At her abode in the caves of Jammu, the Goddess manifests herself as three outcroppings of rock which represent its three forms Maha-Lakshmi, Maha-Saraswati and Maha-Kali…
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Articles
The faces of Mahalakshmi
While the word Mahalakshmi evokes images of the Hindu goddess of wealth seated on a lotus, the deity in Kolhapur, referred to as Amba-bai by locals, evokes Durga, the goddess of war…
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Articles
THE LION ON THE HILL
Simhachalam is special for the worship of a composite image of ‘masculine’ avatars of Vishnu, Varaha and Narasimha…
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Articles
Doesn’t Shiva take drugs?
To understand this mystery, we have to appreciate how Hinduism divides the world into inside and outside, the home and the wilderness, the realm of the householder and the realm of the hermit…
