Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
King of the Blink
Published on 1st December, 2019, in Mid-day If you travel to Lucknow, it is possible …
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Articles
A cannibal of the Puranas
Published on 27th October, 2019, in Mid-day The Rigveda refers to the battle of 10 …
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Vedic stories are different from Puranic stories
Who is a Hindu? Published on 29th September, 2019, in Mumbai Mirror In the Vedas, …
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Articles
The metaphor of the forest
Published on 21st April, 2019, in Mid-day. To understand Hindu mythology, it is critical to …
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Articles
Indra’s rise to kingship
Published on 14th April, 2019, in Mid-day. The Brahmana, orally transmitted by priests who came …
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Articles
The pillars of gods and kings
Published on 31st March, 2019, in Mumbai Mirror. The Rig Veda refers to giant houses …
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What came first: the world or life?
Published on 24th March, 2019, in Mid-day. As per scientists, the world began 13 billion …
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Articles
So many different Indras
Published on 16th February, 2019, in Mid-day. When we speak of Indra, we must keep in mind that the scriptures refer to six different types of Indra, belonging to different periods of history…
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Articles
Bypassing the womb
In Puranic literature, we come across the concept of ayonija, someone who is not born from the womb, and consequently, is able to bypass or rise above the cycle of birth and death…
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Articles
No definite article in Indic culture
A word like Satya, does not mean the truth, it means infinite truth. Mithya, doesn’t mean falsehood or interpretations or perceptions, it means limited or finite truth…
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Articles
Who is a Hindu? The forest of sacred stories
Puranas introduce us to the classical Hindu trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and their spouses — goddesses Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati…
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Breaking the binary
Binaries are a cultural concept for simplicity. But, in nature there is no such thing as binaries, things wax and wane, telescope into each other, there are species which mingle and merge and there is no absolute…
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Using Puranas for politics
Politics may change but there is always a political enemy, and so the Puranas lend themselves to serve as communication and even propaganda tools to whip up popular sentiment…
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Articles
Is there such a thing as Hindu Halloween?
In Hinduism, there is no exact equivalent of Halloween, but there are many rituals performed that recognises the proximity of ghosts and seeks to keep them away…
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How did the world come into being according to Hinduism?
What comes first, mind or matter?…
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Articles
What Devdutt Pattanaik Says about the Kinnars/Third-Genders and Kankalas/Skeletons of Tantrik Temples in Nepal
I was told that Guhyeshwari Temple was one of the revered holy temples in Kathmandu, Nepal. This temple is dedicated to Adi Shakti…
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Articles
Breaking the royal pillar
Stories are not created in vacuum. They respond to a historical context and emerge to communicate a point of view…