By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist Vedas were composed 3,000 years ago, while the Puranas were composed 1,500 years ago. In between, came the great epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, after the Vedas, but before the Puranas. The two reflect dramatically different world views. Vedas do not factor in monastic ideals; the Puranas…

By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist Most people in India are not familiar with the Sanskrit Ramayana or Mahabharata. We read popular versions, which in turn are based on regional re-tellings, which began appearing less than 1,000 years ago and became very prevalent from around 500 years ago. Many regional works are…

By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist Once upon a time, Vishnu came looking for his wife, Lakshmi, who left their house after a fight. During his search, he took residence in a termite hill under a tamarind tree. A cowherd came and gave him milk there. So he made that place his…

By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist Vedic Gods resided in the sky. They were unbound by geography. Temple Gods are firmly bound by geography. Jagannath is firmly linked to Odisha, Tirupati to Andhra Pradesh, Nathdvara to Rajasthan. The temple as we know it today is closely linked to land given by kings…

By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist These days, business families are including their daughters in the family businesses. Yet on careful observation, one notices that the son is given responsibility for “outside” jobs such as production and sales, the jobs that take you to the factory and the market. The daughter is…

By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist The Vedic people worshipped celestial beings known as devas. They also worshipped their ancestors known as pitras. The worship of these two sets of divinities complements each other. People worship the devas during the waxing of the moon, in spring and summer, before rains. People worship…

By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist Hindu mythology uses metaphor of human relationships to explain concepts. This can be confusing as metaphors are rarely consistent. This confounds those who see mythology as history and insist on reading stories literally. The case of the three Goddesses — Lakshmi, Saraswati and Durga — who…

Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist The 19th century saw Hinduism being re-framed for two reasons. First was missionary activity that, with its aim of gaining converts, consciously spotlighted aspects of Hinduism that the elite could not explain and found embarrassing. Second was exposure to humanistic values of the Enlightenment, with ideas such…

By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist In the Mimansa school that became popular 2,000 years ago, the Rig Veda was considered ‘apaurusheya’ (not of human origin) and ‘ekavakya’ (a single sentence), with no breaks between words and no punctuations. Sounds (pada) fused to create words (shabda) which merged with other words (sandhi)…

By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist One of the most peculiar things about the Harappan civilisation is its obsession with weights and measures. They had binary measuring systems and decimal measuring systems. They also had pans for measurement. The people of Indus were particular about measurement. The weights and volumes were standardised…