Society
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Gujarat’s Violent, Historical Relationship with Muslim Warlords
Published on 22nd April, 2023, in Times of India. Somnath, on the Gujarat coast, is the spot where the moon-god, Soma, prayed to Shiva when he suffered the wasting disease. He was waning and feared he would disappear. But Shiva…
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No Hymns for the Donkey
Published on 21st April, 2023, in The Hindu. In the past 30 years, the donkey population of India has dropped by 90%. It’s sad, considering large donkey fairs have been held annually for centuries in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and…
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Pre-history of Aryans They Don’t Tell You
Published on 11th March, 2023, in Times of India. Nationalists on social media argue that the Mahabharata war took place 5,000 years ago, in 3,000 BCE, based on verses from 2,000-year-old manuscripts. They believe that Krishna and Arjuna rode a…
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Polytheism Enables Mother of Democracy
Published on 4th March, 2023, in Economic Times. Monotheism propagates the idea of one God. This very easily telescopes into the idea of one all-powerful leader of all people, which enables dictatorship. In polytheism, by contrast, there is no all-powerful…
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Donation of Courtesans
Published on 17th February, 2023, in Economic Times. Chanakya’s Arthashastra talks about appointing a superintendent for the ganika, variously translated as pleasure women, prostitutes or courtesans. This is done in a matter-of-fact way. No morality is attached. Ganikas were valuable…
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Diversity Amongst Brahmins
Published on 12th February, 2023, in Mid-day. Our textbooks teach us that Hindu society is divided into four groups: Brahmin, Kshatriyas, Vaishya, Shudras, consisting of priests, landed aristocrats, merchants and servants. This is the Vedic varna system. However, this is…
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Oxus Between Harappans and Aryans
Published on 5th February, 2023, in Mid-day. No conversation about Harappans and Aryans is now complete without discussing the Oxus civilisation. Cities of the Oxus civilisation, in what is now Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, traded with cities of the Harappan civilisation…
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In Joshimath, the question is: What is the cost of pilgrimage?
Published on 12th January, 2023, in Indian Express. The pandas of Jagannath Puri in Odisha are often chastised for aggressively demanding daan and dakshina from pilgrims. They argue the temple is their mother – she feeds them through those who…
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History of How Brahmins Migrated to All Parts of India
Published on 31st December, 2022, in Times of India. To appreciate the history of Africa, we have to study the history of its many tribes. To appreciate the history of India we have to study its many castes. Not the…
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Those Who Give Gifts Voluntarily Are Truly Rare and Great
Published on 10th December, 2022, in Economic Times. Many people think the world is unravelling itself today. Politicians insist this unravelling began a thousand years ago with the coming of Muslim warlords of Central Asia (Turuka) followed by the Europeans.…
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India and China Have Received Many Ideas from Each Other
Published on 26th November, 2022, in Economic Times. Nationalists in India and China love the idea that their culture influenced the world, but hate the idea that their culture was influenced by the world. While the Chinese preferred isolating themselves…
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Bindi: A Homage to the Devadasi
Published on 20th November, 2022, in Mid-day. Devadasis, a crude catch-all word used to describe independent female dancers, musicians, and entertainers of India, have been wiped out of Indian history. She probably invented the bindi, and other female adornments, worn…
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Why Goan Hinduism Is Unique in India?
Published on 18th November, 2022, in Times of India. Goa is a sliver of land between the Western ghats and the sea, divided by rivers opening up to estuaries, much like Kerala, visited by sea traders for the past 4,000…
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Temples Used to Give Spiritual Benefits to the Market and Get Material Ones in Return.
Published on 15th October, 2022, in Economic Times. Along the banks of the Tungabhadra, the Vijaynagara kings established grand temples in the 14th century. Each temple was attached to a marketplace. There was one temple for the spice market, another…
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Why the Hindus Owe Their Tallest Temples To the Cholas
Published on 7th October, 2022, in Times of India. Nobody will admit this, out of respect for the venerable filmmakers, I suspect. But, I found, many non-Tamilians were rather bored with Ponniyin Selvan: I , the new Tamil epic period…
