Article/Essay
 6 Aug 2015 Article/Essay
Essay:
The ‘Evolution’ Of Hindu Gods
By Anil Kumar Suri
Swarajya

How did the current Hindu pantheon come to be? Given below is a brief introduction to an essay on the topic by Anil Kumar Suri. Link to full essay is given at the end of the introduction.

How did Hinduism come to have the deitie... Read More
 5 Aug 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
How Siva evolved over the years
By Rohini Bakshi
daily O

In truth the divine is unknowable, and to try and find his origins is a reckless task.

In part 1 of this series on Siva we touched upon the presence and development of Rudra as he appears in texts before the beginning of the comm... Read More
 5 Aug 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
Why Śiva is the most mysterious of all Hindu gods
By Rohini Bakshi
daily O

A lot of questions remain unanswered about the widely revered deity.

Of all the deities in the Hindu pantheon, by far the most complex and mysterious to me is Śiva. Devotees and scholars alike have attempted to ... Read More
 2 Aug 2015 Article/Essay
Essay:
The Pernicious Effects Of The Misinterpreted Greek Synchronism In Ancient Indian History.
By Kosla Vepa PhD
Paper presented at The ICIH 2009, Delhi, India

Read Online:

http://bit.ly/1MEcbLN

It was F E Pargiter, who introduced the notion of a Synchronism in Indian Historiography, in one ... Read More
 30 Jul 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
Buddhism: Origin, Spread and Decline
By Pankaj Jain
The Huffington Post

Contemporary Indian Society and Buddhism's origin

A keen observer of the world history may notice a pendulous motion. At one end of the pendulum's swing is the society immersed in crass materialism, Pravritti (lite... Read More
 27 Jul 2015 Article/Essay
History of the Somnath Temple, Gujarat

The Someshwar Mahadev temple stands tall among the temples of India. The construction of the present temple in Junagadh district began in 1947. It is the seventh temple built to commemorate the glory of Lord Somnath who is said to have known as Bhairaveshwa... Read More
 26 Jul 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
Nalanda and the pursuit of science
By Amartya Sen
The Hindu - 24 January 2011

‘Nalanda stood for the passion of propagating knowledge, understanding.' Amartya Sen's keynote address at the 98th Indian Science Congress in Chennai on January 4.

The subject of this talk is Nalanda and the ... Read More
 26 Jul 2015 Article/Essay
Essay:
The Nalanda debate - Grist to the reactionary mill
The above account mentions the fortress of Bihar as the target of Bakhtiyar’s attack.
By D.N.Jha
Indian Express - 9 July 2014

I was amused to read ‘How History was Made up at Nalanda’ by Arun Shourie who has dished out to readers his ign... Read More
 26 Jul 2015 Article/Essay
Essay:
How history was made up at Nalanda
The story behind a Marxist historian’s story of its destruction by ‘Hindu fanatics’.
By Arun Shourie
Indian Express - 28 June 2014

“The mine of learning, honoured Nalanda” — that is how the 16th-17th century Tibetan historian, Taranath, referred to the u... Read More
 25 Jul 2015 Article/Essay
An article on RBSI:
A rare kind of book club
By Shrabonti Bagchi
Times of India - 25 July 2015

"...there is a need for us to go to primary sources to know more about historical events and personalities and form an opinion. The intermediation of historians, who always bring their own set of biase... Read More
 26 Jun 2015 Article/Essay
Essay:
The Islamization of Yoga in the Amrtakunda Translations
By Professor Carl W. Ernst
Department of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Read and download pdf:

http://bit.ly/1LtZNgP Read More
 25 Jun 2015 Article/Essay
Essay:
Muslim Interpreters of Yoga
By Carl W. Ernst

Read more:

http://bit.ly/1Ls0Qhh

Yoga is perhaps the most successful Indian export in the global marketplace of spirituality. In terms of religious associations, it is most often juxtaposed with the Hindu and Buddhist traditions, though it is... Read More
 24 Jun 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
Winning mutual respect
By A.N.D. Haksar
Telegraph - October 2003

Not many know about two old Indian texts, one translated from Persian into Sanskrit, and the other from Sanskrit into Arabic and Persian. Both are examples of interaction between Hindu and Muslim thought, and of some relev... Read More
 23 Jun 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
Under the Spell of Yoga
By William Dalrymple
The New York Review of Books - March 2014

Around 1600, a dramatic shift took place in Mughal art. The Mughal emperors of India were the most powerful monarchs of their day—at the beginning of the seventeenth century, they ruled over a hundred... Read More
 21 Jun 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
Regulate the mind field
By Sheela Rani Chunkath
The Hindu - June 21, 2015

It is the month of the year to make new resolutions. I know it is not the beginning of the New Year but the United Nations General Assembly has declared June 21 the International Day of Yoga. What better time then... Read More
 20 Jun 2015 Article/Essay
Essay:
Yoga in the Indian Imagination, 16th–19th Century
By Debra Diamond

Yogis were a cherished theme of painting, in which they were an intriguing foil to the art’s materialism. In illustrated ragamala paintings, each of which depicts a scene associated with a musical mode, images of holy men ... Read More
 18 Jun 2015 Article/Essay
Essay:
The Path of Yoga
By Debra Diamond

Extract from the book -
Yoga: The Art of Transformation
By Debra Diamond and Others
Published by the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington - 2013

Like yoga or indeed any aspect of India’s Hindu traditions, the identities of y... Read More
 16 Jun 2015 Article/Essay
Essay:
From Guru to God: Yogic prowess and places of practice
in Early-Medieval India
By Tamara I. Sears

One of the best known depictions of yoga’s power is found in a relief sculpted across the vast façade of an unfinished rock-cut temple in the southern Indian village of Mamallapuram, not far ... Read More
 3 Jun 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
Why Muslims and Christians are safer in India than most places on earth
By Minhaz Merchant
daily O - 2nd June 2015

Our country, the birthplace of nearly half the world's nine major religions, has long been a haven for the other half.

When the Narendra Modi government took office last M... Read More
 31 May 2015 Article/Essay
Interview:
What I am inheriting will need to be a force contributing to the state: King of Mysore
By Karuna John
Saddahaq

Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar talks about how a UMass Amherst grad became King.

Q: How does it feel going from student to King? Who initiated the formal adoption t... Read More
 25 May 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
Move over, Mughals
By William Dalrymple
Times of India - May 17, 2015

Just as the Mughals dominated early modern India politically, controlling all the rich lands from Kandahar down to the Vindhyas, so until recently they have also dominated the work of both modern historians and schola... Read More