Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
-
Articles
That Holy City Which Never Unites
As we march towards constructing that single city, using social media, it feels like a new Hinduism is being forged, one that erases the female principle…
-
Articles
Maritime Culture of Jambu-Dvipa
India’s long coastline experiences monsoon winds that create a highway over the seas, connecting the Middle East (Shveta-dvipa, white island) to Southeast Asia (Suvarna-dvipa, golden island) via India (Jambu-dvipa, land of Indian black plum). …
-
Articles
Bollywood Wives and Brothels
Bollywood encourages housewives to dance in public and courtesans to pine for lovers. This conflation now has made its way to wedding altars…
-
Articles
Kings Who Hide in Kitchens
Have you ever wondered why, in many parts of North India, the cook is called a Maharaj? This may have something to do with the way the cook treats the kitchen as his sovereign territory that no one can trespass. Or, it may have something to do with the legend of a king who in…
-
Articles
Can Dalit Food Ever Be Satvik?
Imagine a meal made of coagulated blood cooked with oil, salt and chillies, or a meal of the flesh of rats, or the flesh of a dead, not slaughtered, animal. Or imagine a meal which contains the brain, intestines and trotters of a goat or a sheep or a meal involving dried flesh of cattle…
-
Articles
Influx of Islamic Ideas
Today, when people talk about Indian knowledge systems, they usually refer to Indian knowledge systems which originated in India. In the process, we forget the major contribution that happened to India in the Islamic period…
-
Articles
Pleasure, a Brief Indian History
Atharva Veda says, “Desire gives. Desire receives”. Kama, we are told, is what stirs the first being to create the world…
-
Articles
Why is Holi celebrated more in north India than south India?
Holi is indeed celebrated mostly in north India, not south India. No one knows the reason why…
-
Articles
It Is Not Just Hindus Who Love an Imagined Past
Imagined history has always served ideologies. Colonial powers have sought to present precolonial states as barbaric and savage to justify their imperial outreach. Muslims insist that a society before conversion to Islam is ignorant (jahila). For Marxists and Cultural Marxists, the world is full of social injustice, which is why a revolution is needed…
-
Articles
What Makes Ramayana “Curiously Modern”?
Ramayana is a curiously modern book, because it deals with CONSENT. Both male and female…
-
Articles
Did Krishna Resist Jarasandha’s Hegemony?
Krishna embodies the nomadic cowherds. Kamsa is described as the dictator of Mathura, who overthrows an oligarchy (janapada). …
-
Articles
Three Aryan Invasions
When people speak of the Aryan invasion, it is important to clarify which Aryan invasion they are talking about. Believe it or not, there are actually THREE…
-
Articles
How Hindu Temples Evolved
We assume that temples were always part of Hindu culture. But historians present a far more complex story. …
-
Articles
The Saint Outside the Temple
There is tension between the social idea of purity and pollution, and the spiritual idea of connection between the deity and the devotee. Here are five such stories drawing attention to the tension…
-
Articles
Are New Reservation Policies Becoming Jagirs?
Now reservation has become a reward for those who serve the democratic process, available to anyone who can legally convince the state that their community is backward, or minority. …
-
Articles
Science Values Doubt Over Faith
Most people confuse science with logic. Anyone can be logical, even analytical, in establishing causality. But science is about stepping outside the human mind, relying on measurement, comparison and evidence. …
