Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
The Maleness of Shiva
This leads to questions if Shiva and Shakti are equal halves or is she the inferior half? Are they talking about men and women, or about mind and body?…
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Articles
Rishi Pippalada of the Atharva Veda
Atharva Veda is the collection of hymns containing spells for helping, healing and even hurting, composed by the Rishi who was generally excluded from the list of Seven Sages (Sapta Rishi): Atharva, Angirasa and Bhrigu…
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Articles
Loss and Recovery of the Vedas
The conch-shell trumpet heralds the shift of time: a great battle that witnesses the end of Dwapara Yuga and the start of Kali yuga. …
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Articles
From Vedic Soma to Puranic Amrut
Early scholars wondered what this Soma was, leading to rather colourful research. Was it a magical drink?…
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Articles
Rise of Hindu Monotheism
Vedic philosophy starts considering the idea of one god. It seems monotheistic. But that is not quite true…
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Articles
Non-Vedic Hinduism
The study of Hinduism reveals much more than the narrow ideas of the Vedic corpus. Yet it was the Veda that was privileged by the British, who were looking for a Hindu “holy book”…
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Articles
Agni In Hiding
We find a great number of hymns where there is anxiety about loss of fire…There are many stories where fire runs away. The hungry gods chase him and beg him to return and do his sacrificial duties…
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Articles
Property Disputes in the Vedas
Veda is 3,000 years old and is made up of poetry (mantra) and prose (brahmana). Within the prose we find stories (itihasa) about conflicts over resources between humans, between gods and sometimes between humans and gods. …
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Articles
Indian Knowledge Systems
The first list of an educational syllabus in India comes from the Chandogya Upanishad, when the Sanatakumar sages ask Narada what subjects he is proficient in. …
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Articles
Is Governance a Yagna?
The word yagna is translated even today by eminent scholars as sacrifice, or fire-sacrifice, or fire-ritual. …
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Articles
How Hindu Temples Evolved
We assume that temples were always part of Hindu culture. But historians present a far more complex story. …
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Articles
The Lion Goddess and the River God
Nourished by the river Nile, Egyptian culture began with many settlements on its banks and in the delta, each its own god and chieftain. …
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Articles
History of Luv-Kush
The word kushalava in Sanskrit literature like Manusmriti and Arthashastra refer to lowborn travelling entertainers. This feels strange as Kusha and Lava are the names of Ram’s twin sons — Ram who is the greatest king of Indian lore…
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Articles
The Politics of Ghosts
The spirits of the dead people were considered to be powerful, and these spirits are channelized during special ceremonies by special groups of people who are associated with singing, dancing, playing drums and going into trance. …
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Articles
Fifth Veda Uses Gender As a Metaphor
We need to remember that as per popular lore, the gods created the Puranas as the Fifth Veda to transmit Vedic wisdom to women and lowborn people who did not have access to the mantra and the ritual…
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Articles
The Forest and the Field
Increasingly, we find laws that protect forests being cut down, giving way for industries. This brings tribal communities into conflict with the state. …
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Articles
The Celestial Stories of Plants in India
We have come a long way from the days when there were sacred groves across India, where no one was allowed to graze cattle, plant crops or forage for fruit or firewood…
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Articles
Caste Tales They Don’t Tell Us
Caste is a word introduced by Europeans about 300 years ago for what Indians have referred to as jati for at least 2,000 years…