Trivikrama, Mahabali, and Onam
Onam is the national festival of Kerala, celebrated with grand fervour retrieving the agrarian lifestyle in synchronisation with the environment. The legend of Mahabali and the Vamana Avatara of Lord Maha Vishnu constitute the basis of the festivities. In this article, I briefly examine the conceptualisations of Trivikrama, Mahabali, and the history More...
Nara, Nārāyaṇa, and the Bhagavad Gita
Probably one of the most revered, loved and worshiped god among Hindus is the 8th son of Vasudeva, the 8th Avatara of Vishnu and the reincarnation of Rishi Nārāyaṇa, who, along with Nara is supposed to be engaged More...
Book Review: Avishi by Saiswaroopa Iyer
Avishi: Vishpala of Rig Veda Reimagined by Saiswaroopa Iyer is available for purchase on Amazon Kindle. Avishi by Saiswaroopa Iyer is a fictional re-telling of a female warrior Vishpala who appears in a few verses More...
Vedānga: The limbs of Vedic knowledge
The meaning of Saṃskrta (Devanāgarī: संस्कृत) word Veda (Devanāgarī: वेद) means knowledge of primordial origins, which Rishi-s (Devanāgarī: ऋषि) gathered over the time through More...
A Memo about Women in Mahabharata
A recent controversy has erupted in Google with an employee writing an internal memo against gender diversity and equality. Its now known as the anti-diversity memo. This memo was 10 pages long and has been going More...
Is there an Indian solution to Global challenges?
Western Consumerism and Global Challenges We are living in very difficult times today and the future is quite bleak despite the best efforts of governments worldwide to sugarcoat the situation. Whether we accept More...
The perils of textual transmission: decapitation and recapitulation
Prologue Gaṇeśa as Vyāsa’s scribe has found popular but not critical acceptance. Yet, complicated issues regarding the text, its transmission,and its reception are revealed by paying attention to this story. More...
Rechurning Turbulent Waters of Mahabharata Studies: Removing Poison, Revealing Nectar
[contextly_sidebar id=”6C2ft0dboWfVALCadsOgL5mdBA37Uztt”] Two weeks back, I received several quizzical looks when people found out that I had traveled from New York to Delhi for a 4-day workshop on the More...
Mahabharata as a manual of Advaita Vedanta
[contextly_sidebar id=”HNd2i4bMWNuun0iJ25Hfz2r2ltOWm0EL”]I recently attended a four-day workshop titled “The Mahabharata as Itihasa”, which was not only enlightening for its exposition of the Mahabharata, More...
Hierarchy of Rasa-s in Vyāsa’s Mahābhārata: Themes, Forms and Aesthetics
Is there a singular, supreme, overarching conclusion – superseding all others – which the composer(s)/compiler(s) of the ‘epic’ text of Mahābhārata (the one traditionally attributed to Vyāsa) had intended More...