Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
Re-centring the Hindu Goddess
Re-centring the goddess is not anti-male. It is pro-ecosystem. It reminds us that festivals are contracts with land, water, animals, and labour — especially women’s labour. When we reduce Diwali to a warrior’s homecoming, we miss Lakshmi’s audit of how we earned, spent, hoarded, and gave. When we make Navaratri a fashion parade, we forget…
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Articles
Today’s Sanatan Dharma prefers ‘trad’ Bhisma
The Trans Bill signed by the President of India aligns with the commander of the Kauravas, not Krishna. The Kauravas were more aligned to Christian Evangelists, not “woke” Krishna…
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Articles
Blood Pacts of Kutch
Priestly role was often performed by Charans. They were bards, negotiators, ritual specialists, poets, warriors, royal companisons and much more. They preserved memory in the old Dingal language. …
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Articles
Can a French man be a ‘civilisational Hindu’?
In New India, an Italian woman with an Indian passport remains a ‘foreigner’, but a French man with an Indian passport becomes a ‘civilisational Hindu’, and is even asked to influence young impressionable minds by creating ‘decolonised’ school textbooks…
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Articles
How Ganesh Became The God Of All Things
To understand why Ganesha is worshipped as the remover of obstacles and invoked before every Hindu ceremony, we must understand—and appreciate—the role elephants have played in Indian history and imagination. …
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Articles
Are vegetarians kinder people?
Vegetarianism has become associated with Jains, Brahmins, Baniyas, Lingayats and with the idea of purity, even though Kashmiri, Maithili, Bengali and Odia Brahmins are meat-eaters. Meat eating became associated with communities considered “untouchable” and “impure”: Tribals, Dalits, Chandalas, Ati Shudras. Over time, diet has become a caste marker. …
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Articles
How Diwali Changes Shape Across India
Diwali is celebrated across India, but contrary to popular assumption, it is not a single, uniform festival. It takes very different forms depending on where you go. …
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Articles
The Seven Steps To Partnership Over Promises
The idea of taking vows during weddings is not part of Hindu traditions. This idea comes to us from West Asia and the Middle East…
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Articles
The Great Satvic Scam
Across India and in the diaspora, satvikism is now being marketed as a refined, enlightened Hinduism. However, it subtly divides Hindus into two camps. …
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Articles
The hook-swinging rituals of India
Across India there are festivals where men and sometimes women do hook swinging. Here, an iron hook is passed through the back of the person and they are hung from a pole that either rotates around a pillar or is attached to a pillar of a cart that is pulled by buffaloes. This is not…
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Articles
How Indian Mythology Maps Emotion to Geography
In Tantrik lore, Shiva sits in the mountains, Chamunda sits in the crematorium. When they make a home, they find joy in Kashi, on the banks of the Ganga…
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Articles
Equality In Love
Every context is different. Standard rules do not apply. The point is that we witness each other and allow each other to grow…
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Articles
What Does Indian Mythology Have To Say About Marriage Dynamics?
In Shiva temples, the couple are always together, but in Vishnu temples, the goddess has her separate shrine, asserting her identity…
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Articles
How Ahimsa Enables Untouchability
Ahimsa is presented as the highest Hindu virtue. It evokes images of gentle sages, compassionate saints, and morally superior lives. But beneath this halo lies a social technology that has, for centuries, enabled and reinforced untouchability. …
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Articles
How Metaphors Reveal Ancient India’s Cultural Secrets
Early Indian metaphors emerge from three very different cultural zones: the Vedic northwest, the Tamil south, and the Prakrit-speaking Deccan. Each region had its own climate, flora, fauna, settlement pattern, and historical rhythm. …
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Articles
China’s Eternal Loop
Just as India is torn between the academician’s truth and the politician’s truth, so is China. But relative to India’s history which is strongly based on diversity, Chinese history is a product of unification…