Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
Brahmin Wars Beneath Vande Mataram
We already have a national anthem, ‘Jana Gana Mana’. Why then the ruckus over a national song, ‘Vande Mataram’? Could it have something to do with the caste of the respective poets, both Bengali Brahmins, but one lesser in ritual stature and the other higher?…
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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
When the Sky Remembers What Humans Forget
Over generations, people realised that constellations did not rise at the same place during the same season. Spring was once marked by one set of stars, but later by another. This shifting sky puzzled ancient observers until they learned to read it as history written across millennia…
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Articles
Decolonising India’s Erotic Heritage
We were never a culture of shame. We were made into one. Not just by the British. But also by their Brahmin collaborators. Both found common cause in attacking powerful rich independent Hindu women, the women who gave India its musical and dance heritage…
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Articles
Why lotus remains India’s simplest yet most profound symbol
The lotus today is a symbol of a leading political party in India, but for thousands of years it has been part of Indian myth, ritual, architecture, and craft. At the village level, the lotus thrives as a simple floor drawing made with rice flour. …
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Articles
Was Macaulay Anti-India Or Anti-Brahmin?
The debate around Macaulay, English, and education is not just about colonialism. It is about whether India wants a future shaped by open inquiry or a past shaped by inherited authority…
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Articles
Pigeon Spirituality
Who funds these monks who promote non-violence and vegetarian food? Those who make money from industries that pollute rivers, seas, and air. India’s biggest industrialists are vegetarians. …
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Articles
Is Lingayat a caste or a religion?
The Lingayat community today insists it is a separate religion. They refuse to be placed within the Veerashaiva fold, or being seen as a subset of Hinduism. This demand has upset those who seek to unite Hinduism under a single umbrella by referring to it as ‘sanatan dharma’…
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Articles
How Merchants Shape the Satvik Holiness
The richest families in India are strictly vegetarian and belong to the vaishya varna. They are supported by politicians committed to the cause of vegetarianism or Satvikism, a new form of Hinduism. As these rich communities take control of temples and pilgrimage sites, we find them pushing for Satvikism…
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Articles
How Beer Established Civilisation
We are told that the dawn of agriculture was about bread. That our Stone Age ancestors settled down to plant wheat and barley so they could bake loaves. But a growing body of research suggests that this may not be entirely true. The real lure of grain was not bread. It was beer. …
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Articles
The Non-Brahmin Priests of Hinduism
Hinduism has many groups and communities. Different castes and tribes have different gods. Each of these gods have different priests.…
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Articles
The Horsemen Of Kanchi
For over 3,000 years, horses were imported into India. They were critical to govern empires and, therefore, were always in demand. But a little known fact is that horses are difficult to breed in our country, which explains the need for annual imports…
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Articles
How Afghan and Turkic Invaders Transformed Indian Warfare
We know that from the 10th century, horse‑breeding groups from Afghanistan and Central Asia invaded India in successive waves. The early invaders simply looted the gold‑rich temples of the land. The later invaders, after the 12th century, established Sultanates to exploit India’s vast agricultural wealth and to control trade routes. Religious aspects of these invasions…
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Articles
Stories Behind Diverse Calendars of India
India has many calendars; different communities use different calendars in different regions. Therefore, it is very difficult to create a single Indian calendar, even if it follows traditional rules…
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Articles
Cultural Significance of the Buffalo
Buffaloes are found in ponds, rivers, marshes, and wetlands meant for rice cultivation. Cows, on the other hand, prefer drier jungle areas. India has both dry jungles and wet river basins…
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Articles
Vegetarianism Is Not About the Environment, But About Caste
You start deluding yourself that you are a kind person because you build a zoo to house animals that have been displaced by your industries, that destroyed their natural habitat, in the first place…