This book by Sudha Mohan breaks many of the myths surrounding the ‘caste system’. A deep study of the book helps one to realize that the various groups across the country—the ‘forward’ castes, the ‘backward’ castes, the ‘scheduled’ castes, and the scheduled ‘tribes’ are the diverse jatis with all kinds of practices, an array of flowers in the same garden of India as Hindus.
The Jambukeswarar temple, situated in Trichy, was built by the Sangam era Chola King, Kochengannan. It is here that Lord Shiva is worshiped as the manifestation of the element, Water.
The existence of the Medieval Mauryas is supported by abundant evidence, but there is insufficient data to construct a coherent picture of their reign.
Barua's book is an important reflection on the nature of colonial subjecthood, at least in its elite manifestations. We discover that it was by no means completely lacking in agency. The elite colonial subject was not a passive receptacle for the political, or, in this case, the religious and philosophical ideas issuing from the West.
While a lot of energy is spent on understanding the threats posed by Islam, Christianity, or leftist liberals to the Hindu way of life, we don’t spend as much energy on understanding the threats posed by secularisation and the costs thereof to Hindu religion.
Dr Pingali Gopal reviews Essence of the Fifth Veda, a captivating compendium by Gaurang Damani.
Halley Kalyan introduces an important work by Prof. AK Saran.
Mihir Keshari, a student at JNU, analyses the coexistence of "Hindu" and "Tribal" cultures.
Dr Pingali Gopal encapsulates an old debate about the nature of Hinduism.