Devdutt Pattanaik: Myths, Mythology, Management & Society https://devdutt.com/ Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist Mon, 13 Jul 2026 15:56:29 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://i0.wp.com/devdutt.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/dppsitesig.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Devdutt Pattanaik https://devdutt.com/ 32 32 215836993 The Selective Sanctity of the Ganga https://devdutt.com/the-selective-sanctity-of-the-ganga/ Mon, 20 Jul 2026 03:30:00 +0000 https://devdutt.com/?p=89693 In Ayodhya Kanda, verse 52.89, Sita stands before the Ganga before crossing into exile and makes a vow. The Sanskrit is unambiguous. “Sura-ghata-sahasrena”: a thousand pots of wine. “Mamsa-bhuta-odanena”: cooked rice mixed with meat (the original Vedic biryani?). ...

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]]> 89693 How the Bhagavad Gita Invented Sattvic Food https://devdutt.com/how-the-bhagavad-gita-invented-sattvic-food/ Sat, 18 Jul 2026 03:30:00 +0000 https://devdutt.com/?p=89687 The Vedas gave us Purusha. Tantra and Yoga gave us Prakriti and the gunas. Only the Bhagavad Gita welded these to food and caste, creating the “sattvic” framework popularly invoked today...

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]]> 89687 Did Proto-Naxals fight the East India Company? https://devdutt.com/did-proto-naxals-fight-the-east-india-company/ Thu, 16 Jul 2026 03:30:00 +0000 https://devdutt.com/?p=89684 Today, the word Naxal is used casually by politicians and businessmen to demonise anyone protesting against exploitation as anti-national. This does not bode well for a country where a large proportion of the youth are unemployed and risk a bleak future with the rise of AI...

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]]> 89684 The Chandala in the Vedas https://devdutt.com/the-chandala-in-the-vedas/ Tue, 14 Jul 2026 03:30:00 +0000 https://devdutt.com/?p=89670 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 later strata of the corpus — the later Samhitas, Brahmanas, and Upanishads. ...

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]]> 89670 Who Is Baal? https://devdutt.com/who-is-baal/ Sun, 12 Jul 2026 03:30:00 +0000 https://devdutt.com/?p=89667 The name Baal has been appearing a lot lately, especially in Western media, in the context of war between Iran and Israel. Known as a false god in the Bible, his images are being burnt in public. Western capitalists are being accused of worshipping him secretly as part of a demon cult. Conspiracy theories aside, who is Baal in mythology? ...

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]]> 89667 The Convenient Politics of “Later Additions” in the Ramayana https://devdutt.com/the-convenient-politics-of-later-additions-in-the-ramayana/ Fri, 10 Jul 2026 03:30:00 +0000 https://devdutt.com/?p=89620 When Sita is banished to the forest while pregnant, on the basis of nothing more than public gossip, modern readers recoil. Many quickly reach for a comforting explanation: this episode, they say, is a ‘later addition’, an interpolation, not really part of the original Ramayana...

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]]> 89620 Secrets of Bihar’s Mirrored Caves https://devdutt.com/secrets-of-bihars-mirrored-caves/ Wed, 08 Jul 2026 03:30:00 +0000 https://devdutt.com/?p=89617 One of the most striking experiences near Rajgir in Bihar lies inside the Barabar Caves. The walls are polished to such perfection that they are like mirrors. These surfaces were carved and finished over 2,300 years ago, yet they still reflect light with startling clarity, as if time has barely touched them. This sheen, often described as Mauryan polish, hints at how the pillars of Maurya kings once looked — smooth, luminous, and authoritative...

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]]> 89617 How Vagdevi Merged Into Saraswati https://devdutt.com/how-vagdevi-merged-into-saraswati/ Mon, 06 Jul 2026 03:30:00 +0000 https://devdutt.com/?p=89612 The goddess we call Saraswati today begins as Vagdevi, the Goddess of Speech, identified primarily with the Vedic deity Vac. Her earliest stories foreground the immense power, and sometimes the deceptive nature, of the spoken word. These are found in ritual Vedic texts known as the Brahmanas...

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]]> 89612 Historical Reality of Pre-colonial Learning in India https://devdutt.com/historical-reality-of-pre-colonial-learning-in-india/ Sat, 04 Jul 2026 03:30:00 +0000 https://devdutt.com/?p=89598 Dharampal’s book, The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century (1983), is a groundbreaking historical work that used official British colonial archives to challenge the narrative that pre-colonial India was uneducated. ...

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