Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
Oppenheimer’s Gita
Many Indians get excited when White People read Indian religious texts. Hindutva WhatsApp groups proudly …
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From Fortune’s Favourite to Mother’s Son
Indians have visualised India in many different ways. Often through the lens of outsiders. About …
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Hill Fairies Who Abduct Men
The idea of enchanting magical women abducting men is a recurring idea around the world. …
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Why Stories of Floating Idols Crashing Ships Continues to Endure
The idea of a temple or a deity attracting ships, forcing them to move off course and causing shipwrecks by their magnetic power is also found on the western coast of India…
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Raiders and Traders of the Desert
What turned Muhammad, the trader, into Muhammad, the raider? It was the lack of empathy. …
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Articles
Rashtra-Devta Inside a Tree
A king’s dream about a god in a tree connects Manipur and Sri Lanka with Odisha…
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Articles
When the Rising Sun in the South Was Auspicious
The South has been the home of Sugriva, king of monkeys (vanara) and Ravana, king of demons (rakshasa). …
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Articles
The Goddess Came Later
We can argue that goddesses have been integral to Hinduism since Vedic times. But of the 1,000 hymns of the Rig Veda only the maximum number of hymns dedicated to a goddess as the 21 hymns for Usha, the dawn-goddess…
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Articles
Seventy-Two, Not Just Houri
But in mythology, seventy two is a very exciting number. It is 2 raise the power of 3 (2x2x2) multiplied by 3 raise to the power of 2 (3×3). A perfect symmetry which gives us 8×9 = 72. In ancient times, such numbers had sacred meaning…
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Articles
Which Game Are You Playing Today?
Increasingly, modern society is trying to turn every game into a competitive game, where someone has to be defeated to win. The dopamine rush comes only when you triumph over others. This is the value that we are giving people. …
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Articles
Where Vishnu Serves Buddha
Many Hindus argue that the ninth avatar of Vishnu is Buddha. But hardly any Hindus know about how Vishnu is a guardian-god in the Buddhist faith in Sri Lanka…
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Articles
How Gujarat Got Temples That Are Upside-down Or Topped With Mountain Peaks
Internet alien hunters have concluded that in Gujarat there is an underground upside-down temple, despite the fact that the ‘upside-down’ temple has upright images of Vishnu and his avatars…
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Articles
Origins of the Rice Goddess
The oldest Indian mythology of rice can be found among the Bonda tribal people, who live in Odisha, who are linked to the Munda and Austroasiatic communities who entered India from the Southeast, and brought rice growing technology with them over 4,000 years ago…
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Articles
Capitalism and the Alpha Predator
In nature, the predator eats the prey, the hound hunts the hare. But in culture, the prey will fight back and will not be reduced to food…
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Articles
Surpanakha’s Shambuk
It’s great fun to read Ramayan by politicians and activists. Right-wing Hindutva folks will go …
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Articles
How the Worship of Radha, Krishna Spread, Amidst the Shadow of Islam.
Chaitanya, known to his followers as Mahaprabhu (great lord, incarnation of Krishna), popularised the worship of Krishna with Radha and the circular dance of Raas Leela in India…
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Articles
The Story of Stolen Gods
In the medieval times, Indian kings declared their victory by bringing back home images of gods that were worshipped in the land they conquered. These gods became minor deities in the victor’s temple, living in the shadow of the victor’s patron deity, just as the defeated king lived in the shadow of the victor. It…
