Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
-
Articles
Prithu’s Cow, Ashoka’s Lion
Dharma is being equated with development, with the destruction of forests and rivers. The literal cow is honoured with melodramatic sentimentality while the earth-cow is plundered for minerals and timber, her air and water poisoned. She is crying, and there is no Prithu with a balanced bow to save her…
-
Articles
Taxing Varuni, the Goddess of Intoxication
Varuni, the goddess of wine, churned out of the ocean of milk, joined Indra and transformed Swarga into paradise. So say the Puranas. However, very little is mentioned about Varuni in popular lore. Scholars believe this was grape wine imported in vast quantities from Rome to the western coast of India around 2000 years ago…
-
Articles
Is Sanatan Dharma Only 200 Years Old?
‘Sanatan Dharma’ (common noun) as a phrase is very old. It appears in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions as a common noun meaning ‘eternal order’ or ‘timeless law’. However, ‘Sanatan Dharma’ (proper noun) as the name of an organised conservative Hindu movement emerged only in the 19th century under British colonial rule…
-
Articles
From Gulamgiri to The Immortals of Meluha
Phule’s work is insurgent literature that anticipates evidence from below. Tripathi’s 21st century civilisational literature evades it from above…
-
Articles
The Selective Sanctity of the Ganga
In Ayodhya Kanda, verse 52.89, Sita stands before the Ganga before crossing into exile and makes a vow. The Sanskrit is unambiguous. “Sura-ghata-sahasrena”: a thousand pots of wine. “Mamsa-bhuta-odanena”: cooked rice mixed with meat (the original Vedic biryani?). …
-
Articles
Did Proto-Naxals fight the East India Company?
Today, the word Naxal is used casually by politicians and businessmen to demonise anyone protesting against exploitation as anti-national. This does not bode well for a country where a large proportion of the youth are unemployed and risk a bleak future with the rise of AI…
-
Articles
Sanatan Dharma: A Hinduism That Defines Itself Through Food ‘Purity’
Notably, the term “satvik” food does not appear in Ayurveda, yet it has become central to the Sanatan Dharma movement. North Indian temples now demand that no meat-serving establishments operate within 15 km of their premises. This dietary politics points to the real character of the movement: Sanatan Dharma is essentially a vegetarian Hinduism, promoted…
-
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…
-
Articles
Why Lord Ram Was Painted Green
In Nayaka art, Ram is painted green, the colour of tender leaves that emerge from the earth after rains. Green is not the colour of fear or dominance. It is the colour of renewal, fertility and calm strength. This Ram is not alone. …
-
Articles
If Usha Vance became Christian, would she be American enough?
Sensing the shift in public narrative following the killing of Charlie Kirk, now seen as a Christian martyr, Vice President JD Vance declared publicly that he hoped his wife, Usha, daughter of Telugu Brahmin immigrants, would convert to Christianity. But in today’s America, that is not enough…
-
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. …
-
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…
-
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…
-
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. …
-
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. …
-
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?…