Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
The Yugas Came Later
The four yugas of Hindu mythology (Krita, Treta, Dvapara, Kali) are based on the numbers on traditional four-sided dice: four, three, two, one. They refer to the four legs of the bull of dharma…
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Articles
No Dharma Without Dharma-sankat
Yagna is the primal ritual of the Veda. Mistranslated as sacrifice, it is a ritual of exchange and reciprocity. …
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Articles
LGBTQIA+ Tales in Temples
For a long time, gatekeepers of Indian culture insisted that all things queer were Western. Then, people started reading the scriptures and realised, that was not quite the case…
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Articles
Gold Effigy of Sita and a Half-golden Mongoose
For all the violence depicted in the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata, they carried a profoundly human message for the heart. It is told through the two curious often overlooked moments, one in the Ramayana, featuring a golden effigy of Sita, and one in the Mahabharata with a half-golden mongoose…
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Articles
Dharmic Leader in Modern Times
Western leadership models are military in nature. Command and control. It’s about tracking tasks and achieving targets. Indian leadership models were about people – reminding them that the purpose of life is not to eat, but to feed. To feed is dharma. He who enables feeding is the Dharmic Leader…
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Articles
What Makes Ramayana “Curiously Modern”?
Ramayana is a curiously modern book, because it deals with CONSENT. Both male and female…
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Articles
How Ramayana and Mahabharata Spread the Idea of Dharma
The earliest Ramayana retellings do not refer to the Lakshman rekha. The earliest Mahabharata retellings do not refer to Draupadi’s vastra-haran. …
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Articles
Rama Beyond the Hindi Belt
There are several hundred Ramayanas beyond the Hindi belt, composed in the last 2,000 years, that deserve equal respect…
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Articles
Pushpak Viman Was a Wooden Peacock
Pushpak Viman of Ravana was shaped like a peacock. The origin of this idea comes from an old Sri Lankan folk tale…
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Articles
Ramayana’s Golden Deer
The story of the golden deer comes from the Valmiki Ramayana. In the forest chapter, Ravana tells Marichi to turn into a deer and enchant Sita and draw Ram and Lakshman out of the hermitage, leaving Sita unguarded enabling Ravana to abduct Sita…
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Articles
History of Amrita Manthan
There are far more Samudra Manthan images found in Southeast Asia than in India, and this remains a huge mystery…
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Articles
History of Luv-Kush
The word kushalava in Sanskrit literature like Manusmriti and Arthashastra refer to lowborn travelling entertainers. This feels strange as Kusha and Lava are the names of Ram’s twin sons — Ram who is the greatest king of Indian lore…
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Articles
Faithful Husbands, Faithful Wives of the Ramayana
Renuka is polluted in thought. Ahalya is polluted in body. Sita is polluted in reputation. …
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Articles
Ravana’s Women
Women are shown as Durga, again a warrior, again alone. Bharat Mata is also alone, with a lion and weapons. God is male here and if not male, certainly violent. …
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Articles
Iron of the Asura, Gold of the Rakshasa
Where did Ravan get his gold from? Was Ramayana the story of Aryans in search of gold?…
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Articles
Sons Who Kill Their Fathers
A recurring theme in Greek mythology is of sons killing their fathers…
