Reza Aslan’s ‘Believer’- An Exhibit of Unconcealed Hinduphobia
From colonial times, Indians have been characterized as predominantly savage, otherworldly, uncivilized, and by implication, in need of ‘civilizing’. These long perpetuated portrayals of Hindus did not remain More...
Excuse me, there is nothing wrong in worshipping phallus or yoni
Last week, as I prepared for going on a week’s holiday, a friend of mine drew my attention to an article provocatively titled “Excuse me, I do not want to worship a phallus anymore”, which purported to show More...
Tibet – Land of Lamas & Lament
Some lands live more in imagination and fabled lore than on the physical planes of Earth, have more reality in their legends and mystical mysteries than in the dry pages of history and geography, exude such great More...
Best of 2016: IndiaFacts’ articles that made a difference
2016 has been exciting and a very fulfilling year at IndiaFacts. We have published a large number of well-researched semi-academic articles focusing on a number of key areas in Indology, Hinduism, Cross-civilizational More...
Nath, Siddhacharyas, and Sabar Tantra
During the medieval era, roughly between the 9th and 13th century, there arose a group of spiritual adepts known popularly as the Nath Siddhas. Some accounts believe they were from North West India, but there is More...
Demystifying Tantra- V: Magic, Sex, Distortions and Divinity
[contextly_sidebar id=”VTQP6QXHqVB0mB8seDdStuXrlAXRofrG”] Earlier we have discussed the classification of tantric texts to help us make sense of the huge diversity of traditions. We have covered the More...
A brief study of possession in Hinduism-II: The Spiritual Context
[contextly_sidebar id=”JJfzmWQUKhdNCtXJr0s5A2odKlfpfRP4″] Japanese scholar of Sanskrit and Buddhist literature, Minoru Hara, in his study of the Mahabharata lists nearly sixty semantic contexts in which More...
Kālī: The Mother of vīra-s
Diwali is arguably one of the most prominent Hindu festivals across India with various associated stories that speak of its importance. Some believe this was the day Rama returned back to Ayodhya, others link it More...
Demystifying Tantra-IV: Shakta tantras, Kaula tantras, Mantrashastra and Nibandhas
[contextly_sidebar id=”FuK9o27OYL3qGG4wIfNakWo3W2dMil45″] In the previous article, we had started an exercise of classifying tantric texts to help us make sense of the diversity of traditions, and to More...
Demystifying Tantra-III: Śaiva and Vaiṣṇava Tantras
[contextly_sidebar id=”euLkcKuZemLFvF1URNiov2zllkawOGSi”] The tantra śāstras are an integral part of Hinduism, and provide spiritual practitioners concrete guidelines to achieve spiritual ascendancy. More...