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...
Rediscovering Rama (Part-II)
[contextly_sidebar id=”BQzPyGmN5Q8HcvPd5atWwDe3IPqepls3″] Even if, for the sake of argument, we do take into account the interpolation of the Uttara Kanda as part of the Ramayana, the story of Sita’s More...
Agni and the Fire of Self-Inquiry
Self-inquiry (Atma-vichara), such as taught by Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, is regarded as the simplest and most direct path to Self-realization. However, Self-inquiry is also very subtle and can be hard to accomplish More...
Rediscovering Rama (Part-I)
Rama is one of the most exalted figures in all of Hinduism, yet we find him very much maligned today. Scholars like Wendy Doniger accuse Rama of abandoning Sita because he was afraid of becoming a ‘sex addict’. More...
Bahubali’s Mahishmati: A glimpse into magnificent architecture of ancient India
People who have watched the Bahubali movie are mesmerized by the grandeur depicted in every scene. The design of Mahishmati is out of the world and is beyond anything that we see around us and can imagine. It surpasses More...
Ram Janmabhoomi Temple at Ayodhya is more about India’s honour than religious belief
I vividly remember that Sunday afternoon when I was loitering in our neighbourhood along with other children. We were school students then, and apart from cricket, the other topic of our passionate discussion was More...
Search for Sita: An Adaptation of Select Passages from Kishkindha & Sundarakanda
One of the saddest things about our society today is how few of us go back to the original sources to read about Rama, Krishna and our other devatas from our Itihaasa (our civilization’s history) and the Puranas. More...
Ayodhya Dispute-II: A Timeline of Events
[contextly_sidebar id=”ytIacg78MWBFbBzpPAqdiRBZ1iYY3Y36″] Between writing Part I and Part II of this series, I came across this article by Deepanjana Pal on a documentary by Anand Patwardhan on Babri-RJB More...