Once, Navratri Kanjak was more than a ritual—it was a living expression of trust, where every home in the neighborhood welcomed children like family. Today, rising walls and shrinking connections have turned a shared celebration into a hollow formality. This article reflects on how rituals once built community and belonging, and how their spirit fades when relationships disappear. It is both a memory of what was and a call to rebuild neighborhood bonds with intention.
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Category Errors in the Study of Bharatīya Jñāna Paramparā
Modern scholarship often misreads Bharatīya Jñāna Paramparā by forcing it into text-centric, innovation-driven frameworks that do not match its transmission-based nature. This article argues that the confusion arises from deep category errors about what knowledge is and where it resides. Rather than a collection of texts, the tradition functions as an integrated epistemic architecture sustained through guru–śiṣya paramparā. Recognising this distinction reframes continuity not as stagnation, but as disciplined preservation of valid knowing.

Accident : A Philosophical Essay
A reflective essay that begins with everyday “accidents” to probe a deeper philosophical question: what is an accident? Moving from legal definitions to Aristotle and Hume, it argues accidents arise from human ignorance of causes. Drawing on Hindu acharyas like Shankaracharya and Ramanujacharya and scriptures like the Isha Upanishad, Bhagavad Gita, and Srimad Bhagavatam, it advances a final insight: what appears accidental is ultimately governed by divine grace.

The Story of the Musunuri Nayakas – The Rise and Fall of a Telugu Resistance
After the fall of the Kakatiyas, Telugu land was plunged into devastation under the Delhi Sultanate, with temples desecrated and society disrupted. From this chaos emerged the Musunuri Nayakas, who united scattered warriors and waged a fierce resistance to reclaim their homeland. Led by Prolayanayaka and later Kapayanayaka, they drove out invaders and restored cultural life, inspiring wider southern revolts and the rise of Vijayanagara. Yet internal rivalries and betrayal weakened this hard-won unity, leading to a tragic fall. Their legacy endures as a powerful chapter of resilience, resistance, and civilizational revival.

The two streams of the Bengali language: Claims, Counterclaims and Facts
Published in the ISPAD Partition Center Journal (Oct 2025), this paper challenges claims that vernacular languages in India emerged only under Islamic rule due to a supposed Sanskritic monopoly. It shows that regional literary traditions flourished under Hindu patronage well before this period. The paper also disputes the idea that modern Bengali was artificially Sanskritized by colonial institutions, demonstrating that both Hindu and Muslim writers historically used a shared Sanskrit-based linguistic framework. It further highlights that later attempts to Islamize Bengali had limited success.
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Bodh Gaya – The centre of the Buddhist world
The centre where Gautam Buddha attained enlightenment is truly the centre of Buddhism.
Catholic Ashrams: Adopting and Adapting Hindu Dharma
Instead of outright denouncement of the native Hindu culture, missionaries have adopted the tactic of inculturation to help get converts.
Buddhism and Its Vedic Connections
Buddhism was one of the nastik schools of thought that rejected the authority of the Vedas but used many of its teachings to build its philosophical foundation.
Yaksha’s Lake and the Fire Drill
The Pandavas' encounter with a Yaksha on the lake leads to a deep and profound discovery.
Philosophical Systems Of India – A Primer – Part 3
In the third part of the 5-part series on Indian philosophical systems, Dr. Pingali Gopal discusses the most important differing point of Indian philosophies from Western philosophy: Perception as a valid means of obtaining knowledge regarding the objects of the senses. In Western philosophy, perception is unreliable, and in the Indian tradition, perception is the eldest of the proofs needed to understand reality.
Unlike the western notions of an unknowable noumenon where the perceived world loses its intrinsic character, in Indian philosophy a conceived object cannot be unknowable; and if unknowable, it becomes inconceivable as well.
Footsteps of Ram at Rameshwaram
The Ramanathaswamy Temple will transport you back in time to live through the dramatic events that occurred in the lives of Ram, Sita, and Lakshman.
A legacy in bronze
The reign of the Chola empire was synonymous with artistic magnificence which still hypnotizes those who encounter it.
Sung by God: V (The Way of Renouncing Action)
Renouncing fruits of actions, the yogi attains to supreme peace.
The Beautiful Tree and Putana’s milk
A brief view of the history of education in India, the impact of Christian education and the attitudes that it inculcates.
Jainas and Buddhists in Ayodhya
The recent upheaval about a Hindu temple for Thalaivetti Muniyappan (“Muni Baba with the broken head”) in Salem TN, apparently a patched-up and restored Buddha statue, and therefore taken away from its worshippers by Court order with the prospect of giving it to the Buddhists , reminds us of a similar line of argument in the Ayodhya debate of 1990-91.
Accession Of Jodhpur To Union Of India – Facts Vs Myths
This is a very popular belief that Jodhpur wanted to accede to Pakistan, but with the efforts of V.P. Menon, Sardar Patel, and Mountbatten, it didn’t happen. In this essay, the author examines and disproves the various misconceptions about Jodhpur’s accession to the Union of India.
India’s Impact on French Thought & Literature
A brief survey of the impact that the discovery of Indian literature, philosophy and spirituality had on French thought and literary movements from the 18th to the 20th century.
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Lifestyle Choice – Material, Spiritual or a Combination
A few of the factors and reasons why we should choose to accept a fully dedicated spiritual life, or remain in material pursuits, or for now choose a balance of both.
The prism of class
Class is a useful lens for understanding caste but it could lead to misleading conclusions that do not account for a plethora of contradictory evidence.
Woman in Indian history: A few vignettes from epigraphy
Through the centuries, misconceptions have arisen about the role of women in Indian society, often neglecting to mention the diverse roles that they played.
Philosophical Systems Of India – A Primer – Part 1
In the first part of a 5-part series, Dr Pingali Gopal introduces the ideas of the great Indian philosophical systems to the uninitiated.
Western Philosophers equate philosophy with only western thought which, puts philosophy between theology and science, and in turn, is either ignorant or dismissive of Indian thought.
Indian philosophy (or Darshanas) does not have an extreme reverence for science and because of the biases of the West, and resulatantly has disappeared from popular discourses; being termed ‘religions’ and hence lacking any validity in a ‘secular’ world.
Dr Gopal delves further into classification of Indian systems as orthodox and non-orthodox on the acceptance or rejection respectively of the Vedas as a reliable authority, and uncovers depths of Jainism, Buddhism, Samkhya, Charavaka and Nyaya-Vaisheshika philosophies for the uninitiated.
Further installments of this series will foray into the other orthodox and non-orthodox branches of Indian philosophical systems.
9 Days – A magical journey of unexpected revelations!
Kishkindha, as the kingdom of the Vanara King Sugriva evokes feelings that transport you to another time.
Hampi – Poetry in stone
The ruins of Hampi are a testament to the grandeur of the glorious Vijayanagara Empire and its unsurpassed architectural brilliance.
Hindu Love Stories by Aditi Banerjee – A Review
In this review of "Hindu Love Stories" by Aditi Banerjee, we learn about the author's motivation behind writing the book; and her treatment of her characters. She brings forth the popular tales, as well as some lesser known ones; and shows us that some of the lore known to us as tales of duty and surrender can also be viewed from the Hindu view of love, which is very different from the single-hued romantic love marketed by the West.
A.M.Hocart’s ‘Caste: A comparative study’
A look at the caste-system from perhaps the only unprejudiced European from colonial times, anthropologist Arthur Maurice Hocart.
Rāsa Lilā through an Abrahamic Lens – A Modern Hindu Malady
The moralistic standards set by Abrahamic religions have had a devastating impact on the psyche of modern Hindus.
Buddhism versus Hinduism: Encounters of the imagined kind(Part I)
The often misunderstood relationship between Hinduism and Buddhism is the work of those who intend to create a rift between the two Indic faiths.
India: The land of traditions, not religions(Part 1)
According to Dr. SN Balagangadhara, the framework to define a religion as done by Semitics does not apply to Indic religions as they more akin to traditions.
Ārya Prajñā: Artificial Intelligence according to Indian ethical values – Part I
Various applications use AI to only distract human users, not as a means of Tantra (software/meditative framework). But why not? According to the Indian philosophical thought, there is a very lofty ideal for the development of AI.
