By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist The Gita is a part of the Mahabharata. It is the dialogue of 700 verses between Krishna and Arjuna just before the Kurukshetra War, where the Pandavas fight the Kauravas. This dialogue is found in the Bhisma Parva, one of the 18 books of the epic….

By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik Some feminists expect me to ‘explain’ Hinduism’s misogyny. Typically, a verse from Manusmriti will be thrown at me. For example, verse 2.213: It is the nature of women to seduce men in this world; for that reason the wise are never unguarded in the company of females. Or verse 5.151: Girls are…

By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist Ancient India was known as Arya-varta, or the land of the noble people. In the early scriptures, the extent of this region was described as the forests where the black buck roamed. Hunting deer, the black buck, was the favourite pastime of kings in Vedic times….

By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist The Buddha and his followers used to always eat one meal in the house of a layman. King Pasenadi of Kosala asked the Buddha how a monk chose a house to eat at. The Buddha replied that it will be a house that one trusts. The…

By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist Valmiki composed the Ramayana and it is still popular though no one reads the old 2,000-year-old Sanskrit version nor the 1,000-year-old regional classics in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Assamese, Awadhi. What we usually access as colloquial folk versions, often transmitted orally, known as the Ramakatha….

By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist Every woman does not have a vagina. Every man does not have a penis.” This language is familiar to students of gender studies around the world. Here, gender and even sexuality are seen as a social constructs, not biological fact, outcomes of nurture and culture, not…

By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist When we use the word demon in English we are instantly drawn to dark and hideous evil creatures. This idea comes to us from the Christian world that gave us the mythology of the Devil, and from the Zoroastrian world before that, where all things ugly…

By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist When a man is born he is born in debt (rinn). This is the Hindu concept of debt. He is obliged to repay his ancestors without whom he would have a lineage. He is obliged to his parents who raise him. He is obliged to his…

By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist As an Odia child raised in Mumbai, I am often asked about my roots. My parents told me we belong to the ‘karana’ caste. No one in Mumbai had heard of this caste. Later, I learned that karana caste is what is known as karanam in…

By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik Sport, as we know it today, comes from ancient Greece where games were part of the funeral rituals to honour dead heroes and leaders. India also has a long history of sport. In Harappa, one finds seals that suggest that the people of Harappa were familiar with bull fighting or bull…