Aryans came from lands north of the Himalayas where there was no monsoon rains. They focused on four quarters of the year, based on the solstices, and equinoxes. Balgangadhar Tilak pointed out how Vedic hymns refer to long days without sun. He pointed out how great importance was given to dawn, Ushas, who appeared in the sky in spring but did not let the run rise until summer. But when the Aryans entered India, they encountered the monsoon rains. Dawn and sun lost their importance to the rain. Suddenly the year was divided into three parts, the pre-monsoon spring and summer, the post monsoon a ..read more

The Ramayana has been retold by several communities and several people over a period of 2,000 years and over a region that spreads over 5,000 miles. Scholars have found the Ramayana retellings even in faraway places such as Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. The story was taken there by seafaring merchants.  However, in these retellings, we find many variations due to a mix of local tales. This mixture makes the reading and narration more interesting. For example, the Ramayana which is narrated in Malaysia incorporates local Islamic lore, such as concepts of Nabi (Islamic prophet) Adam . W ..read more

One of the oldest caves (number 27) in Ellora in Maharashtra, has the image of a goddess holding a lotus flower, flanked by two gods. The two gods have been identified as Vishnu on her left, and Balarama on her right. She is identified as Ekanamsa, the portionless one. She is the supreme goddess as well as Krishna’s sister. But the image on her left is not Krishna, it is Vishnu — indicated by his four arms, bearing lotus, wheel, conch shell and a mace (gada). This indicates two things. Firstly, the story of the mighty cowherd Krishna is being merged with the idea of the Vedic god Vishnu, who i ..read more

When I wrote my book ‘My Gita’ a few years ago, a right-wing lobby led by men with Brahmin surnames launched a campaign on social media that since I do not know Sanskrit, I did not have the moral authority to write on the Bhagavad Gita. They were effectively discrediting the work of hundreds of translators of the Bhagavad Gita. Now with the rise of many AI chatbots offering free and easily accessible Gita advice, I wonder what their stance would be, since these platforms rely on freely available online English translations and commentaries on the Gita, and offer rather bizarre answers to quest ..read more

Published on 5th March, 2023, in Mid-day. Harappan cities thrived between 2500 BCE and 1900 BCE. The Vedic culture thrived between 1000 BCE and 500 BCE. Almost 1,000 years apart, the two cultures reveal two different worlds for women. When we study Harappan women and Vedic women, we realise they display characteristics found in Indian women even today. From Harappa, we get information about clothes, jewellery and food. From the Vedas, we get more information about their relationship with men. We know about Harappan women from archaeological evidence. There are images of women stopping men from ..read more

Published on 26th February, 2023, in Mid-day. Parshuram was born in a Brahmin family of the Bhrigus. His father, Jamadagni, was a sage who performed rituals in exchange for which he received cows. His mother was a princess. Parshuram is famous for raising his axe for two reasons. The first time he did so, he beheaded his mother on his father’s orders, because she desired another man. And the second time he raised this axe was to kill the king who tried to steal his father’s cow. In most stories, the man to whom the mother is attracted, and the man who steals the cow is the same, the king, Kart ..read more

Published on 27th January, 2023, in The Hindu. Mantra is a carefully crafted sound formula that has the power to invoke and anchor divine energy for the benefit of humans: this is what Hindus, Buddhists and Jains believe. Rig Veda is the oldest collection of mantras: 10,000 verses that were brought together like flowers to make 1,000 songs-garlands ( suktas), placed in 10 chapter-baskets ( mandalas) It was compiled over 3,000 years ago, in the Punjab-Haryana region, and orally transmitted meticulously by men who came to be known as Brahmins, who were so focussed on the pronunciation, that over ..read more

Published on 30th December, 2022, in The Hindu. At the start of anything new, like New Year, Hindus look towards Ganesha. We want him to remove obstacles from our lives, and usher in prosperity. We have been conditioned to see his big belly or lambodara as a symbol of wealth. We have forgotten that this is the symbol of contentment: for the snake around his belly does not chase the rat at his feet, who in turn does not nibble the modaka sweet that Ganesha holds in his hand. The obstacle to our happiness is the discontentment that seems to be our Zeitgeist. Business schools tell us never to be ..read more

Published on 4th December, 2022, in Mid-day. Indonesia today is a Muslim country except for the island of Bali. However, over 1,000 years ago, the island of Java saw great competition between Tantric Buddhism and Tantric Hinduism. This resulted in the creation of some of the most magnificent structures in the world that even today evoke awe in the beholder. Indonesia is made up of over 17,000 islands of which 7,000 are inhabited. Java is one of the larger islands with several volcanic peaks. These are considered sacred because the volcanic ash makes the land fertile. The mountains collect rive ..read more

Published on 8th January, 2021, in Mid-day. In Gujarat, there is a river called Saraswati that originates in the Aravalli mountains, and runs for 350 km. In Uttarakhand, there is another Saraswati river that is a tributary of the Alakananda that joins the river near Badrinath. There is another Saraswati river that flows through the city of Indore, in Madhya Pradesh. Rivers do not give themselves names. People give them names. People identified these rivers as Saraswati, perhaps in memory of the great river that is mentioned in the Rig Veda. In pilgrim lore, this river disappeared at Prayag, wh ..read more