Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
The Jealous God of Science
Published on 26th November, 2017, in Bangalore Mirror. Western scholars often state that Indians do not have a sense of history. Rows over films like Padmavati confirm that. Unlike their Chinese, Arabic and Greek counterparts, ancient and medieval Indians show little interest in historical documentation, except maybe land grants on copper plates or stone walls…
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Articles
Who is a Hindu? Always and everywhere
The notion that religious texts have always been around may be rooted in the timelessness of philosophies…
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Articles
Middlemen In God’s Market
Published on 11th September, 2017, in Outlook. It is human to try and understand nature and use that knowledge to improve the quality of life. The forager did it. The hunter did it. The fisherman, the herdsman and the farmer did it. But where does nature end? Does it exist beyond sight and sound? Beyond…
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Interviews
The mythology of one god is what we call religion
The interpreter of mythology explains the importance of pluralism and diversity…
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Articles
Did arrival of Muslim invaders a thousand years ago destroy Hindu culture?
Published on 31st May, 2017, on www.dailyo.in . The arrival of Muslim invaders a thousand years ago dramatically transformed the Hindu culture. Like in any invasion, there was destruction, mayhem and trauma. Hindu Kush in Afghanistan literally means ‘killer of Hindu (slaves)’ during early phase of this invasion and the ruins of Vijayanagara by a…
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Articles
Is One Belt, One Road the Chinese ashwamedha?
How China’s mythology influences its politics…
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Articles
What exactly happens after death according to Hinduism?
The simple answer is, we can either be reborn (punar-janma) and experience life once again, or be liberated (moksha) from the cycle of rebirth (samsara). However, the answer is a bit more complex if we see it geographically and historically…
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Articles
The Immortals
Published on 23rd April, 2016, in Mid-day. In Hindu mythology, whenever an asura asks for immortality, Brahma tells them that they can have whatever they wish except that. The clever asura then asks for a boon that will render him immortal for all practical purposes. But, embedded in the boon is a loophole, a vulnerability…
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Articles
Imagining a nation’s past
Government imaginaries are usually of two types: reforming imaginaries and reclaiming imaginaries…
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Articles
Classifying Jati
There are over 3,000 jatis in India today, most are regional, not known across India…
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Articles
China’s Buddhist Goddess
In China, a female Bodhisattva, Guanyin, came into being. This is her story…
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Articles
Question for the Alt-Fact world: Why can’t truth be plural?
When truth is singular, it becomes a territory and thus, a battlefield…
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Articles
From Macaulay to Frawley, from Doniger to Elst Why do many Indians need White saviours?
Would non-White Indologists evoke such passions as the likes of Sheldon Pollock and Wendy Doniger or David Frawley and Koenraad Elst do?…
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Interviews
Shiv Visvanathan on the importance of being (and thinking like) Devdutt Pattanaik
‘Devdutt Pattanaik is an exponent of myths, using them to analyse management practice, deepen storytelling, and obtain a sense of life and living.’…
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Articles
Was Harappan civilisation Vedic, or Hindu?
This is an extremely tough question to answer as it depends on what you consider Harappan, Hindu and Vedic…
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Articles
Is samosa Indian, or Vedic?
Many ingredients and dishes came to India from foreign lands. Likewise, many ingredients and dishes went from India to foreign lands…