Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
Son of an asura
Because Hiranyakashipu receives a boon from Brahma, he cannot be killed by any human or animal, either inside or outside a dwelling, at day or at night…
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The sacred form of Kashi
In Kashi, the river Ganga, which normally runs from the Himalayas to the sea in the south, takes a turn and moves northwards. This reverse flow of the Ganga is considered spiritually significant because it is believed that one can manifest certain tantric ideas in such places…
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Dhruva Or The North Star
In this story, there are many layers. One level becomes an etiological myth: how a country explains why the Pole Star is fixed in this position…
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Radha In Space And Time
All Dharmashatras say, all traditions (riti) and laws (niti) must be subject to change depending on geography (desh), history (kala) and capability of communities (guna) involved…
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The gallery of female rogues
Women can be dangerous forces of nature, or hypersexual beings, who take away the power of men, chain them to the material world and prevent them from walking the spiritual path…
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Ancient incest in the sky
In the Vedas, long before people knew about gods such as Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma, there was a story of how the god of heaven committed incest with the goddess of dawn, his daughter…
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Men and women in Hindu mythology
God cannot exist without Goddess. Goddess cannot exist without God. Indian author Devdutt Pattanaik sheds light on Hindu mythology…
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Metaphors of the Goddess
It is a mystery for many why Hindus, for whom divinity is both male and female, treat women so badly…
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Who is a Hindu? Why do intellectuals scorn Hindu deities?
Hindus as it doesn’t comply with their preconceived notions of what god and religion should be…
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Krishna As a Girl
Strivesha is a depiction of Krishna as a woman, writes DEVDUTT PATTANAIK, and narrates stories related to the form of Krishna that displays joy and showers affection…
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Expressing devotion sensually
The classic Sanskrit version is found in the 1,000-year-old Bhagavata Purana…
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8 stories about Lord Krishna you have never heard before
In his new book, Shyam, mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik finally puts together the whole story of Krishna. What you will read below is not an excerpt from the book, but eight things that Devdutt himself learned about one of Hinduism’s most popular gods…
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Articles
Who is a Hindu? Indra: Entitled, insecure, dispensable
How the primary god and great warrior of the Vedas ended up as a minor Puranic god…
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In Hindu mythology, Lord Vishnu is associated with economic activities
In contrast, Shiva is about letting go and accepting what is while Vishnu is about making efforts to enjoy a good life…
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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 end of the Buddha’s clan
This story from the Bhaddasala Jatakas is very similar to the story of the death of the Yadava clan decades after the war at Kurukshetra between Pandavas and Kauravas…
