Voluntary death in Sanatana Dharma
[contextly_sidebar id=”PYl6G6IkFknYKACFWgIjvJ1iOVMk0NRH”] Death is considered a very frightening and unwanted event because it ends the visible existence of a living being. Since realms other than the More...
Book review: Blue Vanquisher by Manoshi Sinha Rawal
Blue Vanquisher by Manoshi Sinha Rawal is available for purchase from Amazon. “What is right can never be wrong.” – Krishn’s dialogue from The Blue Vanquisher Perhaps because of Krishn’s divinity, More...
The Modern Shalya-s
Whenever, one’s position gets endangered, it is natural to get indignant. I could feel the same anger in Devdutt Pattanaik‘s latest article critiquing PM Modi’s choice of Shalya to paint the opponents. There 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...
The Queen who cursed a God: An excerpt from an upcoming book
Gandhari screwed her eyes shut behind her blindfold. She shrunk her eyes into their sockets, withdrawing as far into herself as she could. If she could, she would have squeezed her ears shut. She shrank into 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...
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...
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...