By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist Whenever archaeologists uncover a site of human habitation, they invariably come upon artifacts and monuments that are neither simply utilitarian nor merely aesthetic. These include ritual objects and structures such as charms, talismans, sacrificial altars, temples and tombs. They make little sense to the outsider, but…
The Five-Headed Hanuman
February 28, 2019By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist One of the popular images of Hanuman is one where he has five faces and five pairs of hands. It is known as the Panchmukhi, or five-faced, Hanuman. It reminds us of Krishna’s Vishwarupa described in the Bhagavad Gita, albeit a diminutive version. It transforms Hanuman…
North-Eastern love for Krishna
February 21, 2019By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist When one speaks of Krishna, one usually speaks of North Indian traditions of Surdas and Mirabai, or South Indian traditions of Andal and the Alwars. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu dominates eastern traditions of Krishna, just as Vallabhacharya and Dyaneshwara dominate the Western traditions. But we rarely pay attention…
Institutionalising Mahabharata
February 14, 2019By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist In the Ramayana, when Dashrath asks his son, Ram, to go into exile and Ram obeys, one wonders what is Ram’s motivation. Is he obeying his father? Or is he taking an action that ensures that the integrity of the royal family is never questioned? In…
When a man loves a woman
January 17, 2019By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist In the Mahabharata, we come across two very interesting stories: in one, the husband saves his wife’s life; in the other, the wife saves her husband’s life. The first story is of Ruru and Priyamvada. Ruru’s beautiful wife, Priyamvada, died at an early age. Distraught, Ruru…
Nachiketa’s question
January 10, 2019By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist The story of Nachiketa comes from the Upanishads, so from 2,500 years ago, essentially, belonging to a period in history when the theories of karma, rebirth and liberation, were being slowly consolidated in the Indian subcontinent. Nachiketa was a young boy who observed his father donating…
Son of an Asura
January 3, 2019By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik In the Vishnu Purana, we are introduced to the story of Prahalad. We are told he is the son of an Asura king, Hiranyakashipu. Because Hiranyakashipu receives a boon from Brahma, he cannot be killed by any human or animal, either inside or outside a dwelling, at day or at night….
Dhruva or The North Star
December 27, 2018By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist The story of Dhruva comes from the Puranic traditions, especially the Vishnu Purana and the Bhagavata Purana. It is, at once, a metaphysical story, as well as a story of devotion, recounted most simplistically. Once upon a time, there was a boy called Dhruva, who wanted…
A Buddhist Goddess
December 20, 2018By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist A thousand years after the Buddha’s nirvana, Buddhists finally acquired a Goddess of (almost) equal stature to the Buddha. Before this, the only Goddess who was very prominent in Buddhist literature was Shri or the Goddess of Fortune, clearly included within the Buddhist iconography by the…
The march of Yudhishthira’s horse
December 13, 2018By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist In popular re-tellings, the Mahabharata ends tragically with vast bloodshed on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, where the Kauravas are defeated by the Pandavas. Following this episode, there is the Ashwamedha Parva. It describes how Yudhishthira becomes king and lets loose his royal horse across the land,…
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