Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
Jinns and Aliens
When the Turkish soldiers from Khilji’s army, and later the Mughal army, saw the ruins of Ellora, they were convinced that these were supernatural creations. The caves were not created by humans, but created by jinns. Jinns are supernatural creatures referred to in the Quran. They live in a parallel universe. Like humans, they have…
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Articles
Diverse tombs of the rulers of Turkey, Iran and India show that the Islamic world was not homogeneous
Published on 24th February, 2023, in The Hindu. After the sack of Baghdad in the 13th century, the Islamic world, dominated by Arabs since the 8th century, gave way to the Ottomans in Turkey, the Safavids in Iran, and the Mughals in India. These empires owed their success not to religion, but to gunpowder, a…
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Articles
Why Did Medieval Indian Cavalries Shun the Parthian Shot In Archery?
Published on 17th June, 2022, in The Hindu. In one retelling of the epic Ramayana, Ram was so righteous that even though he knew Ravana’s weak spot was his navel, he kept shooting arrows at Ravana’s head, in keeping with Kshatriya dharma. Exasperated, Hanuman got his father, the wind god, to send a fierce breeze…
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Articles
How Nepal Came to Be Once Called ‘Asli Hindustan’
Published on 7th May, 2022, in Times of India. In the 18th century, as many tiny principalities and kingdoms of Nepal were being unified to one mighty kingdom, the king of Nepal saw his land as ‘Asli Hindustan’ and saw India as the land controlled by ‘ulta dharma’ of Mughals. Since then Nepal has been…
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Articles
The Jogi As Seasonal Hermit
Published on 23rd April, 2022, in The Hindu. In North India, especially in the Gangetic plains, in what is now Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, we find songs known as Baramasa. It is a 12-month cycle in poetry, expressing the loneliness and longing of a woman in a village, for a husband who is travelling…
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Articles
How Hindutva Threatens the History of Hindus
Who is a Hindu? How Hindutva threatens the history of Hindus Published on 5th July, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror. Hindutva history makes the history of Hindus fragile — people whose temples were destroyed by Muslims and who need Hindutva politicians to help them recover. It gives power to Hindutva politicians but strips Hindus of power…
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Articles
How Was Hindu Rajdharma Different From Turuku’s?
Published on 26th April, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror People often speak of a civilisational rupture that took place when Islam came into India. The easiest way to understand this is to go back in history and figure out the different ways in which kingship was perceived, in medieval India and medieval Persia, before 1,000 AD.…
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Articles
From Square Harappa to Circular Mandala
Published on 23rd February, 2020, in Mid-day Hindutva historians insist that the Harappan cities, that thrived 4,500 years ago across Punjab, Sindh, Rajasthan, and Gujarat, were full of Aryas chanting Vedic hymns and pouring ghee in fire altars made of brick. These convoluted theories have not accepted in any peer reviewed international journal—but this is…
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Articles
Seven Abrahamic influences on contemporary Hinduism
Published on 2nd February, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror When someone passes away and people say, Rest in Peace, or RIP, they are being part of a paradigm where death is followed by waiting in purgatory till the final day of Judgement, a concept found in Christianity and Islam. In Hinduism, the soul does not rest…
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Articles
Even the Gods played sport
We can safely say that sport in India began in both agricultural communities as well as martial communities…
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Articles
Rasgullas for Lakshmi
As a Non-Resident Odia (NRO), I am often asked if rasgulla, the sweet dish, is of Odia or Bengali origin. So, what do we know?…
