Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
The metaphor of the forest
Published on 21st April, 2019, in Mid-day. To understand Hindu mythology, it is critical to …
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Articles
Dharma is not a game of thrones
We live in times where politicians talk of Ram and Ram-rajya, but take no lessons on what raj-dharma meant to Ram and his Ikshavaku clan. They refuse to take responsibility for failures of their own governance…
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Articles
Beyond justice and forgiveness
Published on 3rd March, 2019, in Mumbai Mirror. The two ideas may shape our understanding …
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Articles
So many different Indras
Published on 16th February, 2019, in Mid-day. When we speak of Indra, we must keep in mind that the scriptures refer to six different types of Indra, belonging to different periods of history…
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Articles
Who is a Hindu? The Curious Case of Brahmins
Published on 17th February, 2019 in Mumbai Mirror. In Hindu scriptures, killing a Brahmin is deemed the worst of sins. It is called Brahma-hatyapaap. And he who kills a Brahmin is considered the greatest sinner…
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Articles
The march of Yudhishthira’s horse
This is not just a conquest by a victorious king, but also an attempt to reconcile with former enemies…
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Articles
Bypassing the womb
In Puranic literature, we come across the concept of ayonija, someone who is not born from the womb, and consequently, is able to bypass or rise above the cycle of birth and death…
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Articles
Who is a Hindu? The forest of sacred stories
Puranas introduce us to the classical Hindu trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and their spouses — goddesses Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati…
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Articles
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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Articles
Misreading Gita As Motivation
The Bhagavad Gita is a philosophy being presented in the middle of a battleground…
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Articles
Othering the Asuras
Published on 8th July, 2018, in Mid-day. In Hindu mythological stories narrated in the Puranas, …
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Articles
The spread of Hinduism
By the time the Upanishads were composed, 2,500 years ago, there was a familiarity with the Gangetic Plain…
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Articles
The Gita without the Mahabharata
However, when we remove the Gita from the Mahabharata we miss out on the context. And so, miss out much of the learnings…
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Articles
Shunning the feminine
How many of us know that the Indian Parliament’s circular shape was inspired by a Yogini temple? How many of us have been told the story from the Mahabharata of Sulabha … (or) the story from Yoga Vasishtha of Chudala?…
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Articles
From five to ten directions
The concept of 10 diggapalas reached its final form about a thousand years ago when grand Hindu temples of stone started being built across India. But the thought can be traced to the Gangetic plains where Vedic yagna was being performed 3,000 years ago…
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Articles
Both Rahul Gandhi & Narendra Modi subscribe to a western, Christian reading of Mahabharata
The villain in Hindu narratives is not evil but is just someone frightened and clinging to wealth, power and throne…
