Yogena cittasya padena vacam Malam sarirasya ca vaidyakena Yo pakarotam pravaram muninam Patanjalim pranjaliranatosmi I offer my salutations with folded hands to Patanjali The renowned amongst the sages, Who removed the impurity of mind through Yoga Of speech through grammar and of body through Ayurveda Following the tradition of bowing…

NURTURING KUMBH MELA IN A SECULAR WORLD Atul Sinha & Gunjan Mohanka First Published in Indiafacts.org in February 2019 While Kumbh Mela may be the greatest show on earth thanks to its antiquity, diversity and sheer scale, it is also at odds with our times. The reason to say this…

First Published in Indiafacts.org in January 2019 The Sabarimala imbroglio has been framed as a gender discrimination issue. The side in favour of lifting restriction presents this as a clash between modern values and traditional patriarchy. …

India’s narrative from antiquity is Unity in Diversity. Plurality of thought, religion and languages have thrown up a vast array of literature strongly held together by common religious pursuit, customs, festivals, arts, family and social values. A thousand years of colonisation first under Islam and then under Christianity battered the…

THE UNTOLD STORY OF INDIA’S PARTITION First Published in Indiafacts.org in November 2018 It was by sheer chance that Narendra Singh Sarila came across certain documents which revealed that the partition of India was linked to the great game being played between Britain and the USSR at the time. …

KAMA IN INDIAN TEMPLE ART- A PERSPECTIVE FROM PURUSHARTHA, NATYA SHASTRA AND TANTRA Purushartha A discussion on Kama needs to be placed in the context of the Purushartha. Purushartha refers to life goals as enunciated in ancient Indian literature. The supreme goal of life is freedom from the bounds of…

(First published in mynation.com in 2018) HIGHLIGHTS The author cites Rajiv Malhotra-Aravindan Neelakandan’s book Breaking India to establish how some foreign forces tried to belittle everything Indian: from our civilisation to our languages. They said Sanskrit had arrived in India via Christians and that the Tamil-speaking people had Christian roots…

(First published in mynation.com in 2018) HIGHLIGHTS West’s short period of romance with Sanskrit soon gave way to a diabolical project of appropriation. The next step was to frame the Whites as a superior race to justify colonisation. The subtexts were the European identity pageant and superiority of monotheism. …

Indian Culture & History: Whose Narrative Should It Be- 4 (First published in indiafacts.org in 2017) What makes Indian culture and history unique is the multiplicity of conflicting narratives that it is made up of. Previous Parts Indian Culture & History: Whose Narrative Should It Be-1