Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
Brief History of Rasa, India’s Aesthetic Theory
Ancient Indians analysed the experience of beauty (aesthetics) using the rasa theory. Rasa means juice. Just as the mere thought of food makes the mouth water, the experience of art generates a flow of aesthetic juices (rasa) in the audience – be it the performing arts (music, song, dance, story, theatre) or the plastic arts…
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Articles
Kubera, the Refugee From Lanka
When the Constitution of India was first published, over 75 years ago, it included many artworks. Amongst them was one showing Kubera, Ravana’s brother and the king of wealth and yakshas (nature spirits), fleeing from Lanka. It is often mistaken for Hanuman burning Lanka, but there are no flames of a burning city or a…
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Articles
In the Lion’s Royal Shadow
Lions have long been symbols of royalty across the world. In India, kings sat on lion thrones (simha-asana), and Durga, the patron goddess of royal households, is shown riding into battle on a lion. Uniquely, in our country, lions are also linked with ascetics and their guardian goddesses. …
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Articles
How Is Indian Music Different From Western Music?
Music was not linked with the ascetic. It was popular with bhakti saints. Music was a sin in orthodox Christian and Muslim circles, except songs and hymns in praise of God. Music thus reveals a lot about culture…
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Articles
What Sculptures Tell Us About Indian Culture
Sculptures typically show human, animal and plant figures or supernatural beings standing in isolation or emerging from walls. The most ancient sculptures we have come from the Harappan Civilization (2500-1900 BC) — the clay figurines, usually female, bejewelled, perhaps of ritual use; tiny bronze images such as the 10.5-cm long “dancing girl” made in the…
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Articles
A Supper With Bacchus In India
Both Jesus and Bacchus have an Indian connection. Many argue that Jesus visited India, probably Kashmir, and learnt Buddhism here and the concept of Sangha (Church). Likewise, in Greek mythology, Dionysus, god of wine, known to Romans as Bacchus, came from India, with wild chemicals, drugs, mushrooms, juices, wines, and alchemy that drove people, especially…
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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
Hindu Gods Are Singers, Dancers and Artists
But, in Hindu mythology, gods also sing, dance and make music and this is what makes Hinduism stand out from most other religions…
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Articles
Seven Holes of Hundun
Published on 13th March, 2022, in Mid-day. Hundun gave food to two beings, one who came from the north and the other who came from the south. Grateful, the two decided to help Hundun. Hundun had no eyes, nose, ears or mouth. He did not have the seven holes to appreciate the world around. So…
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Articles
What Creates Culture Also Creates Cult
Published on 5th November, 2021, in The Hindu. Cult refers to religious groups, or brainwashed communities, who believe in the occult, the mystical, the spiritual, the paranormal or the supernatural. Culture refers to a community’s aesthetic expression: food, fashion, customs, literature, and art. Both words, ‘cult’ and ‘culture’ have the same etymology – from words…
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Articles
Why Is Secret Love So Important In Gita Govinda?
Published on 28th August,2021, in Times of India. Krishna on television appears in bright light, with fair complexion and light eyes. No one is outraged or offended, even though Krishna means someone with a dark complexion, a fact reiterated by other names of Krishna such as Ghanashyam, which means one who is as dark as…
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Articles
So Many Buddhas
Published on 3rd February, 2020, in The Times of India Buddha was imagined differently by Ambedkar, Savarkar and Nehru. Ambedkar believed that Navayana Buddhism, rooted in social justice, was the only way to stop caste affirming Manuvadi Brahminism that threatened India’s Constitution. Savarkar argued that pacifist Buddhism is the reason why India gave up its…
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Articles
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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Articles
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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Articles
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
Queer Gaze for the Indian Tourist
A manifestation of thought, temples like the hidden verses of epics, have unseen images on their walls. What you understand depends on what you want to see…