Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
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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Momaji & other horse-riders
Such horse-riding deities are a common part of local culture in India…
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Reverse devotion
The most peculiar form of devotion is called reverse devotion, or devotion of the enemy. This is viparit-bhakti…
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Articles
Why bother with icons? (Learn to respect your symbols)
We can blame the government and the education system, but how many parents actually take their children to museums, or temples, and play the game of ‘let us identify this god’…
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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
Big, bigger, biggest
The idea of measurement is a key theme in Hindu mythology: three measures of man are not quite the three measures of God…
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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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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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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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Nathdwara God in the Haveli
To devotees, Shrinathji at Nathdwara is the swayambhu (self-created) and swarupa (self-image, not representation) of the seven-year old Krishna…
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Krishna, the wrestler
When you think wrestling, Krishna is not the first name that comes to mind… And yet, Krishna is a great wrestler…
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Articles
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…
