Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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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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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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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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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…
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Tirupati: Playing dice with a god in debt
Debt or rina is a key concept in Hinduism… life is about ‘giving’ not about ‘taking’. Giving reduces debt and liberates us. Taking binds us to the world…
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Articles
Worshipping the womb
At a time when any public discussion of genitalia evokes shame, goddess Kamakhya celebrates a woman’s fertility and desire…
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A ritual cleansing
Notions of reform are often based on ‘assumptions of deformity’, which are dependent on ‘assumptions of normality’…
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Divine domestic discords
The malaise of modern scholarship on Hinduism often comes from the assumption that Hindu sacred texts, like Bible and Koran, are instructive and seek to ‘reform’ humans…
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Did Shabari actually feed Ram ‘tasted’ berries?
The idea probably came from 15th century Odia poet Balaram Das, who challenged Brahmanical orthodoxy in his writings…
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Two endings of the Gita
Krishna’s conclusion is rather psychological. Sanjaya’s conclusion is very material…
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Articles
No fish for Gauri this year?
Myriad oral explanations indicate that the ritual is locally rooted and organic to the community; a ceremonial household expression of emotion, not based on any particular scriptural injunction…
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Articles
Gazing at a dying god
In the run-up to Rath Yatra, a magical night spent inside the Jagannath temple…
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The tantrik sow-Goddess
Varahi is a goddess described as having the head of a sow and pendulous breasts and pot belly and anywhere from two to six arms bearing many weapons, which includes a trident, a noose, a mace, a discus, who sometimes holds a child in her arms, and is often shown riding a buffalo…
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Articles
The wives of Krishna
Krishna’s polygamous nature is designed to stand in stark contrast to Ram’s monogamous nature. He is romantic rake, who breaks hearts while Ram is the faithful husband, who is always distant…
