The term Chandala, referring to the “lowest of the low” in Brahmin lore, appears a few times in the Vedic literature itself. It is essentially absent from the Rigveda Samhita and emerges only in the ...

Arundhati is remembered today as the ideal wife, the tiny star beside Vasistha in the Saptarshi constellation, shown to every new bride as a model of fidelity. But beneath this polished image lies a ...

Pavan K Varma, diplomat, writer and politician, embarks on a quest about Hinduism's great thinker's stay in Varanasi. IMAGE: The murti of Adi Shankaracharya at the SAT temple in California. Photograph ...

“The banana grown in our dump yard is the offering to your God, / The basil flower grown in our dump yard is the garland of your God. / Still why do you argue over caste? / When you are wounded, isn’t ...

In our country, where this play takes place, lives an old demon “who feeds on hate”; who divides the world into four varna s — at the height of purity are Brahmins; below them, Kshatriyas or warriors, ...