Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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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…
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Articles
How Vedic Are We Today?
Hymns of the Rig Veda were composed in the Punjab-Haryana region around 1500 BCE…
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Articles
Shaped By the Rains
Aryans came from lands north of the Himalayas where there was no monsoon rains. They focused on four quarters of the year, based on the solstices, and equinoxes. Balgangadhar Tilak pointed out how Vedic hymns refer to long days without sun. He pointed out how great importance was given to dawn, Ushas, who appeared in…
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Articles
Krishna’s Sister and the Varying Interpretations Of Her Image
One of the oldest caves (number 27) in Ellora in Maharashtra, has the image of a goddess holding a lotus flower, flanked by two gods…
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Articles
Who are the power-broking landlord monks of Tamil Nadu?
Sengol is a staff of royal authority. We can call the symbol of justice in the spirit of wordplay, when a symbol of monarchy is made the symbol of democracy. …
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Articles
The Naked Philosophers
Published on 19th May, 2023, in The Hindu. The naked philosophers: the reason some Indian ascetics renounced their robes The naked ascetic in India is euphemistically referred to as Digambara or sky-clad. These are men who have rejected the material world totally: not just relationships and property, but also clothes. The earliest images are found…
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Articles
Not Blood Or Bones, But Sweets
Published on 14th May, 2023, in Mid-day. There is one temple of Sachi, wife of Indra. And it is a Jain-Hindu temple, located in Osian, Rajasthan, near Jodhpur, where she is revered as clan goddess of local Jains, Rajputs and other communities. In the Veda, Sachi is the wife of Indra. Not much is known…
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Articles
The Hindu History of Bengal
Published on 6th May, 2023, in Times of India. When we talk about Bengal, we speak of its partition. The eastern part became Muslim Bangladesh, the western part became communist West Bengal. It almost seemed as if Hinduism had been wiped out in this eastern corner of India. Yet, this is where Hinduism was defined…
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Articles
Indra’s Paradise Is the Indian Paradise
Published on 30th April, 2023, in Mid-day. Swarga or paradise of the gods, full of wish-fulfilling trees, damsels and musicians, is described in Buddhist and Jain mythologies, not just Hindu mythology. When Buddha attains nirvana, he first travels to the heaven of 33 gods where he meets his mother (reborn as a god) and then…
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Articles
A Serial Killer From Vedic Times
Published on 16th April, 2023, in Mid-day. The Jaiminiya Brahmana is the prose section of the Sama Veda, composed almost 2,800 years ago. It tells the story of one Yavkri, the first serial rapist and murderer of Hindu mythology. The text states that Yavakri has the power to attract any woman to him. He seduces them, and…
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Articles
Reframing Hindu Gods As Saviour Gods
Published on 9th April, 2023, in Mid-day. As per Christianity mythology, Jesus was crucified on Friday and he resurrected himself on Sunday. By defying death, he declares his status as Son of God. He is the saviour. Why do humans need a saviour? The answer is found in the Old Testament of the Bible. Humans…
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Articles
Why Puranas Represent a Wider Indian Ethos Than the Vedas
Published on 5th April, 2023, in Times of India. The Puranas are called the fifth Veda, but they are not quite Vedic. We realise this from a single incident that took place in Maharashtra at the start of the 20th century. During the royal rituals of Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur, the Brahmin priests chanted Puranic…
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Articles
How Was I Conceived?
Published on 2nd April, 2023, in Mid-day. In Ramayan, Sita is ploughed out from the earth. She is called the daughter of the earth. Earth is her biological mother but she has no biological father. Janaka, King of Mithila, is her foster father. In the Mahabharat, Draupadi is born of fire after the priests throw…