By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist For generations, western history was told as a story of progress. Humanity marched steadily from superstition to reason, from monarchy to democracy, from poverty to prosperity. Whether expressed through Enlightenment optimism, Hegel’s philosophy, Marx’s historical materialism or 20th century modernisation theory, history was imagined as moving…
Today, noise is no longer merely pollution. It is harassment. From blaring loudspeakers at religious events to morning walkers playing music on their phones; from irreverent honking to loud videos on trains, we are surrounded by people who think it is their right to make noise and everyone else’s obligation to endure it. The…
By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist Few animals have shaped Hindu imagination as deeply as the bull and the cow. Shiva’s mount is Nandi, the great humped bull, while the divine cow Surabhi symbolises nourishment and abundance. Yet the modern story of their descendants is full of irony. To understand this, we…
On Thursday, our Chief Minister said, “Someone had sent agents to sting me.” Karnataka, it appears, is no longer run by politicians alone. Vidhana Soudha has a buzzing population of honeybees! Not the kind that make honey, but the kind that leave politicians trapped in it, a honey trap. Last year, Co-operation Minister K.N. Rajanna…
By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist About a thousand years ago, when Rajasekhar wrote his discourse on poetry, the Kavya Mimansa, Aryavarta stretched from the Himalayas down to the Vindhya mountains, bounded on the east and west by the seas of Bengal and Gujarat. He knew little of the southern regions and…
Having turned professional in 2016, Pranavi Urs ended India’s 24-year wait for a gold medal in golf at the Asian Games. She became the first Indian woman to win gold in golf at the Games and also helped the Indian women’s team win its first-ever silver medal. After a disappointing campaign at the 2023 Asian…
By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist In Hindu thought, Vayu, Marut, Vata and Prana represent different ways in which breeze as well as breath were imagined. Vayu is the oldest and most cosmic of the wind gods. In the Rig Veda, he is a swift-moving deity who rides across the skies, often…
The recent debate over the ‘creamy layer’ within Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST), coupled with allegations of caste discrimination at IIT Bombay, has once again thrust caste into the national spotlight. But it has also exposed one of India’s biggest myths that caste is the exclusive burden of Hindu religion. For decades, Left-leaning intellectuals,…
By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist On the outer walls of the Chennakeshava temple in Belur, built by the Hoysala kings in the 12th century, stands a woman holding betel leaves. But the tambula or betel appears nowhere in the Vedic Samhitas, the Ramayana or the Mahabharata. It was not part of…
By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist On television, Arjuna is presented as the true hero of the Mahabharata: masculine, entitled, radiant, unmatched with the bow, chosen to receive the Bhagavad Gita from Krishna himself. He eclipses his elder brother Bhima so completely that few remember it is Bhima, not Arjuna, who kills…
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