Keshav Srinivasan
4 min readDec 22, 2016

Potential Hinduism-related writing projects

In addition to my voluminous questions and answers on Hinduism Stackexchange, I have so far written two pieces of writing related to Hinduism:

  1. My fictional dialogue about Kapila and the Samkhya school: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ev0XgyKjqu1iktUfgRIWhXnjor6KoWOuvRiGCb9_AYU/edit?usp=sharing
  2. My short story “What if God was one of us?” about Advaita: gdurl.com/xFjv
  3. My short story “Secrets Lost” about Sri Vaishnava history: http://gdurl.com/G3XW

But here are some other Hinduism-related pieces of writing I’m considering writing in future:

  1. “Mimamsa Magic” — a book about Purva Mimamsa that would serve two purposes. First of all, it would offer a proof that Hinduism is true using the traditional arguments given in the Purva Mimamsa Sutras, updated for modern readers. Second of all, it would present the metaphysics of Mimamsa-Vedanta and how it differs from the more commonly-known metaphysics of Samkhya-Yoga and Nyaya-Vaisheshika. That’s where the word “magic” comes in.
  2. A novel inspired by a quote from the Yajur Veda: “As are men now, so were the gods in the beginning.”. The Yajud Veda quote is referring to how the Devas used to be human beings and then they did Yagnas to attain the status of Devas. So my novel would be about the Devas in the time that they used to be human beings, and what led them to do the Yagnas necessary to become gods. Note that this is different from Amish Tripathi’s books, which are based on the Euhemerist notion that Hindu mythology was originally based on the stories of human beings which were exaggerated into stories of gods. My novel would be based on the notion that human beings magically became actual gods. In any case, this novel would a potential for sequels, which would focus on what Indra and the gods did after they became gods. This series of novels would be able a explore a lot of Vedic stories that people don’t know.
  3. A short story related to the first three Alwars. There’s a famous story about how Pey Alwar, Poigai Alwar, Bhoodath Alwar were once caught in a lightning storm, and they all went into small cave for shelter. But they gradually realized that there was a fourth person in the cave: Vishnu. So they each spontaneously composed 100 poems in order to pray that that the lightning strikes more and more so that they can see Vishnu. In any case, my short story would be based on the conceit that this incident took place during the reign of Yudhishthira after the Mahabharata war. Yudhishthira receives reports that somewhere in South India, night turned into day, lightning kept striking the sea repeatedly, and the sea was set on fire. He sends for Krishna to find out what’s going on, and Krishna explains that Vishnu is responsible. The story ends with Yudhisthira traveling to South India and meeting with the Alwars, providing them with the resources they need to preserve their poetry.
  4. A novel about a student living in an ashram. Initially the book is vague about the time period it’s taking place in, since technology and lifestyle in ashrams hasn’t changed much in hundreds or even thousands of years. In any case, one day the student learns the Mahabharata from his guru. He assumes the Mahabharata must have taken place in ancient times, since stories involving grand wars and miracles and all that sound like stuff that happened long ago. He wants to know how long ago it happened, so the next time a merchant comes to the ashram, he asks the merchant “Who is currently ruling Hastinapurs?” The merchant replies that Janamejaya is ruling, and that’s when the student realizes that the Mahabharata is a brand-new work, and that he is currently living just 25 years after Krishna departed the Earth! So he decides to leave his ashram, in the hope that he can somehow see Krishna or other gods somewhere. The novel centers around the student’s journey across India, and it ends with him reaching Tirupati and attending the wedding of Venkateshwara and Padmavati.
  5. A novel inspired by the Christian movie Risen. Risen is a fictional stody about a Roman soldier who is sent to investigate the disappearance of Jesus’ body after Jesus’ death. He ultimately learns that Jesus was resurrected, which is an important belief in Christianity. My novel would also be a fictional story, about a spy sent by Duryodhana to investigate Krishna. Duryodhana doesn’t understand why so many rishis and other illustrious souls keep proclaiming that Krishna is divine. He speculates that Krishna may be bribing rishis to praise him, so he sends a spy to investigate the matter. The spy follows Krishna around, talking to various figures who have interacted with Krishna, as well as Rishis and others, and finally reports back to Duryodhana that Krishna really is an incarnation of Vishnu. The novel ends with Duryodhana stubbornly refusing to accept the spy’s findings, and perhaps it may depict the famous incident where Krishna shows his Vishwarupam in Duryodhana’s court.

I have more ideas, but these five are the most well-developed. I’d appreciate feedback as to whether people would be interested in reading any of these.