Hindu Mythology Research Articles

UNDERSTANDING TRANSGENDERISM THROUGH AYURVEDA – A PARADIGM SHIFT

Transgender can refer to any individual whose gender identity differs in some way from their birth or biological sex. A significant step in the modern conception of transgenderism was the separation of gender as a social construct from biological sex as a given at birth. Despite India showing progress in various medical, economic, and social fronts, the care of the transgender individual is still encumbered by the various biases and taboos that people hold. But this was not true in antiquity. Unlike the present era, Hindu mythology has always shown us many examples of transgender individuals thereby proving that they were also a part of our society. It is only in recent times that they have been at least given the necessary social security and an ability to integrate into the community. Furthermore, these individuals are subjected to stigma and biases that make them prone to both medical, as well as mental health issues. Ayurvedic science has a detailed explanation regarding the third gender called Napumsaka. Having learnt about the causes of Napumsaka in our science, it is our duty to ensure the production of healthy Beeja for developing a healthy upcoming generation. Keywords: Transgenderism, transgender, Ayurveda, Napumsaka.

The King with the Vina Flag – Perspectives of Ravana in Film

Rāvaṇa, the ten-headed Rākṣasa (‘demon’) king of the epic the Rāmāyaṇa, is the most fascinating of all the antagonists in films based on Hindu mythology, so powerful that even the Sun cannot rise without his orders, and celebrated as an unparalleled musician-scholar and great devotee of the god Śiva. His passion for the vīṇā, a string instrument with divine associations, is so great that this instrument adorns his royal flag as its emblem. His consciousness of his supreme powers and great knowledge soon gives way to ahaṅkāra (hubris) and lust, which leads to his eventual downfall and death at the hands of Rāma, a human avatar of the god Viṣṇu.

Cultures of Fermentation

Cultures of Fermentation

The Prisoner of Gender: Panopticon, Persuasion, and Surveillance of Women in Kavita Kané’s Menaka’s Choice

In the mythology-inspired novel Menaka’s Choice (2016), Kavita Kané discovers that the female body is continuously perceived both as an object of sexual desire and as an individual being by disrupting the conventional understanding of Apsara Menaka. Using Foucault’s concept of docile bodies and organic individuality the paper studies how power, in the form of ‘system’, imposes docility on women’s bodies. The paper weaves the potential for feminist thought as the novel rediscovers the recondite experiences that have been shrouded for centuries by giving central position to silent agents of Hindu mythology. Eventually, it attempts to analyse the act of seduction from the context of gender and how the individual tries to resist that disciplinary system.

Frontispiece: Catalytic Gold Chemistry: From Simple Salts to Complexes for Regioselective C−H Bond Functionalization

Sculptures showing Lord Vishnu of Hindu mythology performing the celestial wedding of Goddess Meenakshi with Lord Sundareswarar. These three Gods have been related in that order to gold catalysis, C−H activation and regioselectivity, the three underlying themes of this Review. An update about different types of gold catalysts, from simple to sophisticated ones, on C−H bond reactions and their regiochemical outcome together with catalytic applications of Au(I)- and Au(III)-species for the regio- and site-selective activation of challenging C−H bonds and potential applications in selective C−H bond activation is given in the Review article by C. Praveen, A. Dupeux and V. Michelet on page10495 ff.

RĀVAṆAṈIṈ ĀṬCIYUM ILAṄKAIYIṈ MĀṬCIYUM - ŌR ĀYVU [THE ROYAL RULE OF RAVANA AND THE MAJESTY OF ILANGGAI - A RESEARCH

A person who embodied with 64 Celestial Degrees; Lord Shiva's devotee, King of Ilanggai; and he is widely remembered as a demon king with ten heads. According to Hindu mythology, Ravana was introduced by Kambar in his mythological novel Ramayana. In Ramayana, Ravana was widely considered to be a symbol of evil and described as an antagonist of the novel as he abducted Rama's wife Sita. Meanwhile, as Ravana is widely depicted as an evil incarnate, what's not so well known by many is that he was also endowed with several positive qualities. Hence, this journal/article is aimed to describe Ravan's good qualities that he showed throughout his legacy.

Mystical Kinship of Creation: A Foundation of Ecospirituality for Interreligious Ecological Movements

This article explores the intersection between Bhumi Devi in Hindu Mythology and the Canticle of Creation of Saint Francis of Assisi. This intersection discovers the concept of the mystical kinship of creation as a foundation of ecospirituality. The exploration which is rooted in two different traditions, Hinduism and Christianity, enlightens interreligious ecological movements that they need not only action but also a spiritual foundation.

Cosmogonic myth through the eyes of a child in the story “Purusha” by Ilya Odegov

This article examines Ilya Odegov’s short story “Purusha”. It compares the cosmogonic myths of proto-Turks and Hindus with the paradigms of monotheistic religions. As it happens in the genesis of man, it is in the nature of his psychology to be interested in the search for his origins and his creator. This same “quest” enables a different view of spiritual and artistic anthropology. The work masterfully portrays the perception of the world through the eyes of a child who believes in the fairy tale. From this perspective, the story represents the Hindu mythology of the cosmic prime mankind, which has been around since time immemorial in mountainous Nepal. This myth of Purusha is not applied in an illustrative way but in a profoundly functional way. The structure of the myth in the story makes it possible to expose the deep mental aspects of a holistic childhood worldview, spiritual in its core. This archetypal level is both nurtured and immanent. The child, rescuing Purusha (a giant-sized wounded man traumatized by a rockfall), displays a natural humanity. Such spontaneity hints that every child at this moral level is, in fact, Purusha. Another basis for theoretical constructions in the analysis was the history of systems thinking in biosphere theory and synergetic. By tracing the history of the emergence of different hypotheses, theories and ideas concerning systems of ecological thinking, the authors reveal the close ontological connection of these doctrines with this work of I. Odegov.

Micronutrient Status of the Selected Transgenders

According to Hindu mythology the supreme beings of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi join and emerge as the almighty Ammaiyappan, these divine beings combine to take the form "half male and half female”-Arthanaareeshwara. The present study flashes light upon the micronutrient status of the transgender individuals. The study was conducted in Coimbatore and Tiruppur picking up a sample size of 147 and was selected by convenience and purposive sampling method. Written questionnaire was the tool used to gather data from the participants. The participants were assessed for their micronutrient status, nutritional status and dietary habits, physical and mental health. The dietary habits found out on enquiry include their general eating habits, food allergies, likes and dislikes on food. It was discovered that they consumed non vegetarian food (100%), road side food (100%), junk food (75%) and an average of 2 meals, 2 snack and 1 beverage a day. The micronutrient status was found to be low (0-40) for nearly all participants as assessed with vitastiq. The deficiency symptoms noticed on clinical examination are sparse / thin hair (27.3%), inattentiveness (22.1%) and mild anaemia (12.9%). The BMI of the participants indicated that 42.2% were obese, 26.5% were overweight, 8.2% were under weight and 23.1% were normal. On a general note, participants had very poor physical health due to their sedentary life style neglecting exercise and yogic practices in their day to day life. They did not show mental fitness due to equal per cent of sexual and verbal harassment. Even on consumption on balanced meal they show low nutritional status which may be attributed to stress, poor hygiene and sanitation, lack of medical facilities and nutritional intervention programs. Hence the nutritional status of the transgender needs to be improved.

The stories behind the art-Malformations and Hindu mythology.

The stories behind the art-Malformations and Hindu mythology.

Misbeliefs of an Ideal World in Amish Tripathi’s Immortals of Meluha

Amish Tripathi, the bored banker-turned-happy-author of Indian writing in English, has written seven novels till in two series. His novels are famous for his recreation of Indian Hindu mythology and have been sold over seven million copies. The first series Shiva Trilogy deals with Shiva Puranas whereas the second series Ramchandra Series is a fantasy retelling The Ramayana. The concept of Ideal society has been represented by several authors starting from Plato’s Republic to Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed. But, Amish Tripathi is one of the few authors who has created an Ideal world only to show that there can never be an ideal world.

‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ in the shades of green: the genus Trichoderma in the spotlight

The ascomycetous filamentous fungal genus Trichoderma has at least two faces, like Agni, the God of fire in Hindu mythology. Or maybe even three? The ‘Good’, the ‘Bad’ and the ‘Ugly’? In fact, Trichoderma species can be considered: (1) ‘Good’—as plant-beneficial microorganisms in agriculture due to a plethora of antagonistic mechanisms acting against plant pathogens, e.g., inhibiting them through the production of antimicrobial metabolites or by direct parasitism, or indirectly, promoting the growth of crop plants and inducing their immune system; (2) ‘Bad’ —as devastating agents of green mould diseases in the cultivation of mushrooms viz. champignon, oyster mushroom, shiitake, etc., destroying crops and thereby causing serious economic damage world-wide; and (3) ‘Ugly’—as opportunistic pathogens of mainly immunocompromised humans. Do biocontrol Trichoderma strains represent a risk to mushroom production or human health? Is the agricultural application of Trichoderma strains safe or rather risky? The aim of this review is to address these important questions.

Seasonal Variations of Lead and Chromium Concentrations in the Water Samples From Yamuna River in Delhi, India

Background: According to Hindu mythology, Yamuna River plays an impotent role as a holy water resource in Delhi, India. The lead and chromium concentrations were determined from the water samples collected from five different locations around this river in Delhi area. The contaminated water from this river is mostly used for drinking, agriculture, aquaculture, and storage as a holy water. Methods: The seasonal variations of heavy metal concentrations in the water samples collected from Yamuna river were determined for the summer, monsoon and winter supplies, using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) and Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS). Results: In the summer water samples, we found greater concentrations of both heavy metals than those for the monsoon season. The concentrations of lead and chromium in the water samples were higher than the permissible limits recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). The water quality was not safe for drinking, cleaning and agriculture, nor for the aquatic animals, such as fish, amphibians and others. Conclusion: The condition of the water in Yamuna river is of great health concerns. Therefore, it is vital to take necessary actions to decontaminate the water from this river, and to draw effective strategies to minimize or prevent the current and future contaminations added to this important water resource in India.

Myiasis of Peristomal Sinuses Around Tracheostomy Wound: Case Report of 2 Cases.

"Myiasis" is considered in Hindu mythology as "God's punishment for sinners". Literature abounds with reports of myiasis affecting the nasal cavity, ear, non healing ulcers, exophytic malignant growth and cutaneous tissue. But case report of myiasis of the tracheostomy wound is relatively rare and that also peristomally is seen first time. We are reporting two cases whose tracheostomy was done, one for laryngeal cancer and other for laryngocoele. We are discussing the need for the proper care of tracheostomy wound myiasis because the site of such an infestation is close to vital organs in the neck and avoiding complications.

Mythical Women and Journey towards destined Roles -Comparison between the Contemporary Characters in the Novels: The thousand Faces of Night and the Vine of Desire

India is a land of culture and tradition. Indian mythology has carved its niche om the world of Mythology. Indian Mythology is rich in scriptures and Vedas. The Hindu mythology has its roots in the religion. The rituals and tradition area part of the Hindu Mythology. The present paper focuses on the Hindu Mythology with special reference to the Panchakanyas from the Vedic Scriptures. These Panchakanyas were revered in the scriptures and their names were chanted during the sermons and rituals as they are believed to be the Pativratas. This paper focus on the mythical figures from the fiction of Sudha Murthy “The Daughter from a wishing tree” these women carved their own destiny. This paper gives a comparative study of the characters ‘ Devi’, from “Thousand Faces Of Night” and ‘Sudha’ from “The vine Of Desire” with that of the mythical characters .These people from the novels carved their own destinies .Along with these mythical women the writer talks about many women and their tales were of importance to mention.

New in Translation: South Asian Literature in Translation: A Preview of Notable 2021 Titles

Notebook 9 new in translation South Asian Literature in Translation A Preview of Notable 2021 Titles by Jenny Bhatt SOUTH ASIA—which, per the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation definition, includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan , and the Maldives—is the most linguistically diverse region with more than 650 individual languages across six major language families: Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, AustroAsiatic , Tibeto-Burman, Tai-Kadai, and Great Andamanese. That figure does not include the many language isolates or dialects that are impossible to fully account for. Over the last decade or so, we’ve had a profusion of literary translations from many of these languages into English . While this has amply proved that some of the best literature from the subcontinent has been and continues to be written in non-English languages, there is a lack of global visibility and, indeed, demand for these works. Below is a small selection of notable 2021 books in English translation—as highlighted by their publishers—from Assamese, Gujarati, Marathi, and Tamil. While most will be initially released first in India, several will also be published in the US and the UK. Indira Goswami Five Novellas about Women Trans. Dibyajyoti Sarma Niyogi Books These impactful narratives, translated from the Assamese, depict the lives of the rural poor, the circumstances of widows, the plight of the urban underclass, and the various social constraints under which such people are forced to live. The deft use of language, striking imagery, and strong characters are hallmarks of Indira Goswami’s writing. Manada Devi An Educated Woman in Prostitution: A Memoir of Lust, Exploitation, Deceit Trans. Arunava Sinha Simon & Schuster India The 1920 Bengali classic Shikshita Patitar Atmacharit is Manada Devi’s life story. During her time, she became one of Bengal’s most powerful women. The book, translated from the Assamese, covers her upper-middle-class Calcutta roots, elopement with her lover at a young age, abandonment on getting pregnant, seeking refuge in a brothel, and more. 6 WLT SPRING 2021 Kaajal Oza Vaidya Krishnayan Trans. Subha Pande Amazon Westland (EKA Editions) Krishnayan is Gujarati literature’s biggest best-seller, having sold over two hundred thousand copies. The story starts when Krishna is injured by Jara’s arrow, per Hindu mythology, and chronicles Krishna’s last moments on earth. The most important women in his life—Radha, Rukmini, Satyabhama, and Draupadi—appear before him. The novel delves into their relationships with Krishna and what they meant to him. Sane Guruji Shyamchi Aai Trans. Shanta Gokhale Penguin Random House India (Puffin) Pandurang Sadashiv Sane, known as Sane Guruji to his students and followers , was a Marathi author, teacher, social activist, and freedom fighter. This seminal Marathi classic is a poignant account of a life of poverty, hard work, sacrifice, and love for one’s mother. Writer and translator Shanta Gokhale is a winner of the Tata Literature Live! Lifetime Achievement Award. Perumal Murugan Four Strokes of Luck Trans. Nandini Krishnan Juggernaut From one of India’s most acclaimed and beloved modern writers, this is a collection translated from the Tamil that will delight every admirer of Perumal Murugan and introduce new readers to his hallmark empathy, humanity, and humor. These stories of lives on the margins, of loners and outcasts seeking meaning and happiness, are tender, heartbreaking, and always surprising. Jenny Bhatt (jennybhattwriter.com) is a writer, literary translator, book critic, and the host of the Desi Books podcast. Her story collection, Each of Us Killers, was out in the US in September 2020, and her literary translation, Ratno Dholi: The Best Stories of Dhumketu, appeared in India in October 2020. She lives in the Dallas, Texas, area and teaches fiction at Writing Workshops Dallas. Visit worldlit.org to read a longer version of this piece, with more of Bhatt’s recommendations. WORLDLIT.ORG 7 ...

"Eros the Great Leveller": Edward Carpenter, Sexual Cosmotopianism and the Northern Working Man

"Eros the Great Leveller":Edward Carpenter, Sexual Cosmotopianism and the Northern Working Man Alison Twells This article focuses on the domestic and transnational dimensions of Edward Carpenter's writings on the naturalness and cultural significance of same-sex love. I explore the relationship between Carpenter's representations of "comradely love" between men in Ancient Greece, in Hindu mythology and culture, and in industrial communities in northern England, to contribute to recent scholarship on friendship and anti-imperial politics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The article draws on the concept of "aspirational cosmotopianism", defined by Clare Midgley as "a transnational and transcultural utopian space of interaction", which, in Carpenter's case, involved a homo-erotic imagining of a universal humanity and valorisation of cross-class same-sex desire.2 I argue that bringing Carpenter's interest in transnational and cross-class desire into the same frame enables exploration of his "cosmotopian" aspirations and his ultimate inability to escape the structures of late nineteenth/early twentieth century imperial Britain. The article brings together the transnational dimensions of Carpenter's "comradely-love" with his writing about northern working-class men, amongst whom he lived following his move to Sheffield in 1877. As Sheila Rowbotham has noted, historians have long tended to "do" Edward Carpenter "in bits," emphasising his socialism or his interest in the East or advocacy of sex reform.3 More recent scholarship focusing on the transnational dimensions of his writing on same-sex love similarly separates into distinct strands of scholarship, examining the influences of Ancient Greece and Walt Whitman on his concept of "comrade-love,"4 and the "erotic and philosophical culture of the East" as a source of inspiration throughout his work.5 A related strand of scholarship considers issues of "sexual colonialism" and "homosexual orientalism" in Carpenter's accounts of his travels in India and Ceylon in 1890-91 as part of a problematic search for, and identification of, same-sex sexual practices among colonised and "primitive" peoples.6 Most recently, Leela Gandhi has inverted the relationship to explore Carpenter as representative of a small group of Britons who were enabled by their own marginalised social status—in his case, as a gay man—to pursue cross-cultural friendships and so create spaces for anti-imperial politics.7 By bringing together Carpenter's writings on class and sexuality within a transnational and transcultural frame, I reveal and explore the co-existence of anti-imperial qualities in Carpenter's thought alongside hegemonic class and orientalist features of his writings that suggest limits to his aspirational cosmotopianism. In the first part of the paper, I argue that Carpenter's representation of northern working-class men derived not just from his personal encounters with men in South Yorkshire's industrial communities but was crucially shaped by his cosmopolitan and transnational friendships and interests. Most important here was Walt Whitman, with whose work Carpenter was deeply engaged, and who he twice visited in the United States. Building on William Pannapacker's insightful exploration of the hopes and limitations of Carpenter's democratic vision of "comrade-love," I argue that Carpenter's tendency to impose his own emergent sexological understandings of same-sex desire onto the lives of his working-class lovers and interlocutors potentially obscured their own worldviews and reinforced both his own position as an educated outsider with power to interpret and create meaning and hegemonic representations of northerness and northern working men. It was also a forerunner to Carpenter's writing about "primitive" peoples across the globe. The second part of the article places Carpenter's cross-class theorisation alongside his anthropological interests in Vedantic mysticism, male friendship in India and Ceylon and the homosocial culture of Ancient Greece. Spurred on by the Labouchere Amendment to the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885, with its prohibition as "gross indecency" of intimacy between men, and working alongside John Addington Symonds, Havelock Ellis and other sexologists, Carpenter sought evidence of cultures in which same-sex desire was accorded social value. His aim was to develop a more high-minded, pure-hearted, possibly heroic and certainly comradely and democratic articulation of sexual desire and same-sex relationships. His writings on...

New in Translation: South Asian Literature in Translation: A Preview of Notable 2021 Titles

Notebook 9 new in translation South Asian Literature in Translation A Preview of Notable 2021 Titles by Jenny Bhatt SOUTH ASIA—which, per the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation definition, includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan , and the Maldives—is the most linguistically diverse region with more than 650 individual languages across six major language families: Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, AustroAsiatic , Tibeto-Burman, Tai-Kadai, and Great Andamanese. That figure does not include the many language isolates or dialects that are impossible to fully account for. Over the last decade or so, we’ve had a profusion of literary translations from many of these languages into English . While this has amply proved that some of the best literature from the subcontinent has been and continues to be written in non-English languages, there is a lack of global visibility and, indeed, demand for these works. Below is a small selection of notable 2021 books in English translation—as highlighted by their publishers—from Assamese, Gujarati, Marathi, and Tamil. While most will be initially released first in India, several will also be published in the US and the UK. Indira Goswami Five Novellas about Women Trans. Dibyajyoti Sarma Niyogi Books These impactful narratives, translated from the Assamese, depict the lives of the rural poor, the circumstances of widows, the plight of the urban underclass, and the various social constraints under which such people are forced to live. The deft use of language, striking imagery, and strong characters are hallmarks of Indira Goswami’s writing. Manada Devi An Educated Woman in Prostitution: A Memoir of Lust, Exploitation, Deceit Trans. Arunava Sinha Simon & Schuster India The 1920 Bengali classic Shikshita Patitar Atmacharit is Manada Devi’s life story. During her time, she became one of Bengal’s most powerful women. The book, translated from the Assamese, covers her upper-middle-class Calcutta roots, elopement with her lover at a young age, abandonment on getting pregnant, seeking refuge in a brothel, and more. 6 WLT SPRING 2021 Kaajal Oza Vaidya Krishnayan Trans. Subha Pande Amazon Westland (EKA Editions) Krishnayan is Gujarati literature’s biggest best-seller, having sold over two hundred thousand copies. The story starts when Krishna is injured by Jara’s arrow, per Hindu mythology, and chronicles Krishna’s last moments on earth. The most important women in his life—Radha, Rukmini, Satyabhama, and Draupadi—appear before him. The novel delves into their relationships with Krishna and what they meant to him. Sane Guruji Shyamchi Aai Trans. Shanta Gokhale Penguin Random House India (Puffin) Pandurang Sadashiv Sane, known as Sane Guruji to his students and followers , was a Marathi author, teacher, social activist, and freedom fighter. This seminal Marathi classic is a poignant account of a life of poverty, hard work, sacrifice, and love for one’s mother. Writer and translator Shanta Gokhale is a winner of the Tata Literature Live! Lifetime Achievement Award. Perumal Murugan Four Strokes of Luck Trans. Nandini Krishnan Juggernaut From one of India’s most acclaimed and beloved modern writers, this is a collection translated from the Tamil that will delight every admirer of Perumal Murugan and introduce new readers to his hallmark empathy, humanity, and humor. These stories of lives on the margins, of loners and outcasts seeking meaning and happiness, are tender, heartbreaking, and always surprising. Jenny Bhatt (jennybhattwriter.com) is a writer, literary translator, book critic, and the host of the Desi Books podcast. Her story collection, Each of Us Killers, was out in the US in September 2020, and her literary translation, Ratno Dholi: The Best Stories of Dhumketu, appeared in India in October 2020. She lives in the Dallas, Texas, area and teaches fiction at Writing Workshops Dallas. Visit worldlit.org to read a longer version of this piece, with more of Bhatt’s recommendations. WORLDLIT.ORG 7 ...

The Palace of Illusions-Voice of a Disillusioned Woman

Diaspora writing is a recent trend in literature. Many writers especially women writers excel in this field. These diasporic writers though they live in a foreign land always hold their love in their writings. India is a land of myth and legends and hence many Indian writers borrow their plot from Hindu mythology which is used as a literary device. Many writers of the independence and post-independence era used mythology to spread nationalism and to guide humanity in the right path. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is a diasporic writer who always holds a piece of her love for motherland in her writings. She extensively uses Hindu mythology in her works. She uses these myths to instill courage in her woman protagonists. She tries to prove how myths guide the immigrant women to overcome their conflicts in life. Her novels explain how myths instruct the humanity to lead a righteous life.

Godly practices of the kani clique

The religion of Kanikkar is largely grounded on animism, naturalism, Totemistic beliefs and taboos, magic polytheism. The supernatural powers largely guided their life. The Kanikkar believe that it is the spirit of their ancestors who protect them from the diseases, wild animals and furious of nature. In recent times, Hindu mythology also has found some places on their belief. They observe various rituals and ceremonies and offer worship and prayers to propitiate them. They gave more importance to religion in their life. They still believe in their forest deities and make offering to please the Gods and Goddesses. Thus, despite the spread of modernization, most of the Kanikkars adhere themselves to the age-old traditional customs and practices.