Author: The Editor

While formally there are four castes in Vedic culture: brahmins, ksatriyas, vaishyas and sudras, the social reality of this structure is very different in certain parts of India. The social rules enjoined by various religions...

In the chapter “Direction, Place and Time” (Suryasiddhānta, Ch.iii), E Burgess writes: “(bracketed words are mine) : The (Surya Siddhāntic) theory which the passage (verses 9-12), in its present form, is...

The ancient Tulu nadu extended from Gokarna in the north, all along coastal Karnataka down to Kasargod in the south. This included both coastal Uttara Kannada district as well as all of Dakshina Kannada district. Over many...

Scholars generally agree that before the advent of Zarathushtra, the religion of the devas was current in Iran. For want of a better term, some have called the pre-Zoroastrian religion Persian paganism. But here we argue that to...

Despite the casual tossing away of Puranic accounts by Indologists prejudiced by western historicism, the fact remains that these texts provide a remarkably detailed account of dynasties of rulers, along with a picture of social...

Despite the casual tossing away of Puranic accounts by Indologists prejudiced by western historicism, the fact remains that these texts provide a remarkably detailed account of dynasties of rulers, along with a picture of social...

Hamsa (or hansa) is the Sanskrit term for a transcendentally situated swan or goose. Considered by scholars to be either the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) or the Bar-headed Goose (Anser indicus), the Hamsa is best known and loved as...

Describing how a brahmin should earn his livelihood, Lord Brahma said to Narad: “Alms, which a brahmin gets without making any demand for it is called Vritta. ‘Unchhavritti’ is even better than Vritti, and it...

It is not easy to give a historical account of ancient Bengal. There is very little recorded history of the land, language, and its people. The history of Bengal is one of the most complex in the world. The territory inhabited...

On the purnima of the month of Pausa, Narayana (December-January), the last day of the astrological month (Pushyami nakshatra), one is instructed to bath the Deity in five seers of ghee (approximately 2.5kg of ghee). According...