Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
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 placed him on his forehead and thus helped him regenerate or wane. This is where…
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Articles
Forgotten Ballads Of Indian Merchants
Published on 1st April, 2023, in Economic Times. India was famous for trading with Southeast Asia and the Middle East since ancient times. However, Hindu scriptures shunned mercantile economy and focussed on agricultural economy. Value was placed on land tax, not on toll tax. By contrast, Buddhism and Jainism greatly value merchants. This is why…
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Articles
Temples of Swaminarayan
Published on 13th November, 2021, in Economic Times. Most Indians are familiar with Raja Ram Mohan Roy and his Brahmo Samaj and link it with the 19th Century Hindu reformation. But very few know about Sahajanand Swami or the reforms instituted by his Swaminarayan sampradaya, even though both men lived in the same period of…
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Articles
The Treacherous Truth
Who Is a Hindu? The Treacherous Truth Published on 11th October, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror. Popular politics chooses to ignore the many strands of mythology in favour of convenient figureheads. Not long ago, a man on a television channel yelled, ‘Jaichand! Jaichand!’ –which is Hindutva for ‘traitor’. A few hours later, the man being yelled…
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Interviews
“Struggle is good. It helps us clarify what matters”: Devdutt Pattanaik weighs in on the fight against Section 377
In an exclusive interview, Devdutt spoke to Ujjawal Krishnam…
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Articles
How India favoured the kshatriya feudalism to market-based economies of vaishya
The discomfort with all things associated with the market can be seen in India when holy men warn people not to be bhogi (seek satisfaction of desires), when desire for goods and services and ideas is what creates the market, with the goods provided by the craftsmen, the service by the shudras, and the ideas…
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Articles
Chef Nala
Once upon a time, there was a man who cooked so well that a woman decided to marry him… His name was Nala…
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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
Epics as Novels
Most people in India are not familiar with the Sanskrit Ramayana or Mahabharata. We read popular versions…
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Articles
Nathdwara God in the Haveli
To devotees, Shrinathji at Nathdwara is the swayambhu (self-created) and swarupa (self-image, not representation) of the seven-year old Krishna…
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Articles
The everlasting flame
The agiary is off limits to non-Parsis, but the basis of the exclusion may be common to the Vedas and the Avesta…
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Articles
Our relationship with wealth
In the Hindu Puranas, the problem is never with wealth. The problem is with our relationship with wealth…
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Books
Gujarati: 99 Thoughts on Ganesha
Works Translated in Gujarati and the sites on which they are available…
