Notes on Culture

An essay tracing the origins of the ubiquitous Indian dish, Idly. It narrates the story of how idly gained worldwide prominence over the last century.

Several famous and popular episodes and stories in the Ramayana are actually interpolations added to the epic over time. This essay unravels some major such episodes using evidence-backed scholarship. ...

This essay narrates the evocative story of a forgotten sect of Hindu monks known as the Jai Sitaram Gosais

Arjun Bharadwaj provides a rather profound and objective analysis of the much-debated episode of Sita Devi's abandonment by Sri Rama

A Sanatana education in its truest sense is primarily a course of training and discipline, and only secondarily a course of teaching. Western religious instruction has only tended to produce fanatici ...

Maha Vaidyanatha Sivan was a child prodigy whose compositions match the quality of the Trinity of Carnatic Classical Music.

A highly inspiring and evocative account of the early student life of Sadguru Sri Sridhara Swami of Varadapura near Shivamogga.

A brief introduction to the Devala-Smriti, a very ancient Dharmasastra treatise. In the 10th century, a chapter titled Mlēccita-Śud'dhih was added to it, dealing with the reconversion of Hindus back t ...