Literature from across the world engages with ethical questions and moral quandaries, and plays a role in cultivating our moral sensibilities. Religious literatures often present ethical teachings indirectly, such as in the form of parables, or more directly, such as moral commandments. In the Upanishads of late Vedic India, we…

In the ancient Indian epic Mahābhārata, we read about a shocking and devastating war at Kurukṣetra that seems to have many parallels with the ongoing war in Ukraine. In this summary of some key points about the Kurukṣetra war, we may perhaps find some revealing similarities. The Kurukṣetra war was…

तिब्बत और भारत के सांस्कृतिक और ऐतिहासिक सम्बन्ध​ कई प्रकार के हैं | अतीत में, बहुत सी भारतीय साहित्यिक और आध्यात्मिक शास्त्रों को तिब्बत भेजा गया था, और उनके तिब्बती भाषा अनुवाद भी किया गया था | इनमें से बौद्ध ग्रन्थ हैं, जैसे के नागार्जुन, शान्त​रक्षित, और कमलशील के लेखन…

In a recent article, I discussed the theft of fire in the Rig Veda, and this may remind us of another similar incident of theft from the gods, viz. the theft of mead or soma by a falcon. In the Indian context, the two substances are addressed together here - …

The film Memoria is highly unusual and intriguing, prompting me to reflect on how to make sense of what is actually happening in the film. …

I recently saw an impressive work of public art by the sculptor Peter Randall-Page, which is pictured above. In the words of the artist - “‘The One and The Many’, is sculpted from a 24 tonne naturally eroded granite boulder and inscribed with many of the world’s scripts and symbols…

In our ancient literatures, we frequently encounter stories about how mortals obtained something that was withheld from them or forbidden to them by the gods, or brief allusions to such stories. What is stolen may be something significant as concerns wisdom, forbidden knowledge, and access to divinity itself. Divine trickery…

As we begin the Gregorian New Year, we are reminded of the relentless passage of time. The deepest parts of our personalities are structured in terms of our sense of time, such as our memories from the past, our hopes and dreams for the future, and our awareness of our…

One criticism sometimes made against Prof. JRR Tolkien is that he somehow imitated the ring-based plot of Richard Wagner’s opera cycle ‘The Ring of the Nibelung’ in his own master work ‘The Lord of the Rings’. Prof. …