Religion, the concept of Fundamentalism, and the sui-generis Hindu way
In order to understand what religion is and deepen one’s insights into what I term ‘the faith process’, it would...
The Dying Princess
The scene depicted in the ‘Dying Princess’ takes place after Buddha’s arrival at Kapilavastu. The Buddha had, by the time...
God, Para Brahman and Hindu Henotheism
The word ‘Hindu’ stems from the Persian equivalent for ‘Sindhu’, meaning Indus, making a somewhat direct reference to inhabitants who...
Bhakti ideals, the Nirguna movement and rise of Sikhism
At a time when north India had immersed itself into the fathomless waters of practising orthodox evils in the likes...
Worshipping Bhoota: the Deccani Ritualistic Dances of India
Indian primitive traditions (that can usually, on an average, be traced back to hundreds, if not, thousands of years) are,...
When the Tagores painted
Amongst the very influential families that led at the forefront of reformist movement were the Tagores. Indubitably the most illustrious...
The towering ‘God-Kings’ of Persian empire
Historian Amélie Kuhrt upheaves the ancient Babylonian text Nabonidus Chronicle to be ‘the most reliable account of the fall of...
A Diversified Urbanisation: mini-European Bengal
Amongst myriad imperialists, the Portuguese were the first to eye the profitable region of Bengal, in as early as the...
Development of the Sultanate Architecture in Hindustan
With the advent of Islam in Hindustan, came the voguish Arcuate style of architecture which was notably first observed in...
The Adolescent Maharaja: Nau Nihal Singh of Sikh Empire
Nau Nihal Singh was the third Maharaja of the Sikh empire whose reign began with the dethronement of his father,...
Jainism and the role of its 24 Tirthankaras
While Mahavira is regarded as the most popular proponent of Jainism, it was only in the Digambara tradition that his...
Vajrayana: The saga of buddhist and Hindu Ideals
Vajrayana is so called because of the tantric cults associated with it. David B. Gray and Thomas Yarnall in their...
Amb Sharif: The Effaced Cardinal Remnants of the Hindu Shahis
Sadly, there exists no established view till date with regard to who originally built the temples. The Hindu Shahis stood...
The wall that speaks and a pavilion that declaims
Lahore Fort, the grandest of all the Mughal citadels ever built in Pakistan, isn’t just about another incredibly opulent fortification...
Rebel princess: Zeb-un-Nissa of the Mughal ménage
Aurangzeb’s eldest daughter, Zeb-un-Nissa, had mastered subjects like philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, history, theology and literature. Also, she was identified to...
The Nautch Atrophy: Decline of Medieval India’s most famed Performing Arts
Analysing broadly, what the British referred to as nautch was a dance form that was specifically prevalent only in the...
Nangeli and the first documented ‘Pati Sahagamanam’
The tale of Nangeli is symbolic of a woman’s lone resistance against an authority, bringing about an entire change in...
Megasthenes, Heracles and the Graeco-Indian Classical Antiquity
Although Megasthenes’ deification of Hercules and Dionysus in India, along with several other fictionalised historical facts were ambivalent, he did...
Nagara: An ancient Indo-Dionysiac Metropolis
The earliest details of Nagara are to be found in Ptolemy’s ‘Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis’, locating it to be in ‘India intra...
