Mahabharata II – The Kuru dynasty
Last time on this retelling of the Mahabharata we left off with Shantanu and his sons. Bhishma, the firstborn, stayed as advisor due to his vow, and Chitrangada became the Kuru king. Chitrangada died in a 3-year long battle with his namesake, the king of the Gandharvas (celestial demigods). His brother Vichitravirya inherited the throne…
Mahabharata I – Shantanu
The Mahabharata is one of the cornerstones of Hindu mythology and I have talked about it a LOT in this blog. So starting today, I will summarize this great epic in short snippets, so let’s go to the beginning. Our story starts with Shantanu, the king of the Kuru kingdom. Once, when Shantanu went hunting,…
Soma: Psychedelics in the Ancient World and India
Drugs are one of the foremost problems in our modern-day society. Drugs bolster all kinds of criminal organizations, and are nothing but a detriment to society. They destroy lives, families, and whole cities, even. The moral of the story? Don’t take drugs, kids! It may surprise you, though, that drugs have been consumed in form…
Sapiens: A Review + Essay
The book Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind by Israeli author Yuval Noah Harari has both captivated and frenzied readers since its publication in 2011. A controversial and famously cyniecal book on the history of human society and culture, Harari’s writings have been subject to both admirant praise and harsh criticism from those who argue…
Review of Kahlil Gibran’s “Knowledge and Half-knowledge”
Kahlil Gibran is one of the most widely acclaimed poets of all time, and he wrote a lot of works in his career. While leafing through a collection of his greatest works, one short, simple, but rather mindblowing poem stood out to me, and that was “Knowledge and Half-knowledge”. I read it and it was…
A Comparison of Indo-European Legends
Greek mythology – and its close equivalent Roman mythology are some of the most popular ancient myths that people know of today. Norse mythology, or the stories of the Germanic peoples are also popular today – mainly because of the rise of modern-day children’s books like the Percy Jackson series, which offered kids a modern,…
Partition: An overview of Pakistan
The partition of India was, and still remains, the most controversial decision made by either the British government or the Indian government, depending on how you look at it. Based on religious differences, the division of India into ‘Hindustan’ and ‘Pakistan’ still has its not so benevolent repercussions. Why, then, was it created? And what…
The Younger Dryas – was there civilization in the Ice Age? Part I: Itihasas
We are taught in school that the earliest civilizations rose 6,000 years in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley. However, the mainstream academia has said that the earliest signs of civilization stretch further back to at least 8,000 BCE, or 10,000 years ago. And yet, there are some fringe scientists who disagree, who say (with…
How “wheat (and other grains) domesticated us”
You read the title right! Wheat, in fact, domesticated us. Well, if you look at it in a certain way. Let me explain. This article was inspired by author Yuval Noah Harari, whose words I have paraphrased here, who proposed a really interesting argument that, while it sounds absurd at first, has a lot of…
Us and Them: When we first met our siblings
Homo sapiens evolved in relative isolation in the south of Africa, so when we met our cousins the Neanderthals and Denisovans for the first time, it was quite the shocker. After all, even today we like to discriminate against those who are slightly different from us, and other hominins certainly fit the box of too…
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Anay Ganesh 