Ayurveda: Hoax or Science? "'Western science identifies these systems as folklore. They don’t see it as an organised system of knowledge—this is an alien epistemology to them because their medical traditions only go as far back as the medieval times and renaissance.' There is also the very real problem of complexity in natural-product research. It is harder to develop a drug from Ayurveda than it is to build a synthetic molecule, because of the large number of compounds in each Ayurvedic herb. All these factors are responsible for the state of Ayurvedic medicine today."
posted by dhruva
on Mar 7, 2013 -
89 comments
The Desi Cow – Almost Extinct "The idea of the cow, of course, is also emotively charged because of its mythical place in Hindu iconography, religion and culture: it is quite literally worshipped as goddess
Kamdhenu:
the cow of plenty... Again, this veneration is founded in hard pragmatics. Traditionally, India has been home to some of the most varied stock of cows in the world: the red-skinned Sahiwal that milks through droughts, the mighty Amrit Mahal with swords for horns or the tiny Vechur that stands no taller than a dog."
posted by dhruva
on Jan 27, 2013 -
46 comments
The Indian Memory Project "is an online, curated, visual and oral-history based archive that traces a personal history of the Indian Subcontinent, its people, cultures, professions, cities, development, traditions, circumstances and their consequences." See for example,
Sarees, or
Migration.
posted by dhruva
on Jun 1, 2012 -
4 comments
Samosapedia "The definitive guide to South Asian lingo". Eg.,
Enthu Cutlet: An enthu cutlet is an earnest eager beaver who is able to muster up inordinate amounts of energy, inspiration and enthusiasm towards a variety of things. (
via)
posted by dhruva
on Aug 9, 2011 -
14 comments
Take Back Yoga : A group of Indian-Americans have ignited a surprisingly fierce
debate in the gentle world of yoga by mounting a campaign to acquaint Westerners with the faith that it says underlies every single yoga style followed in gyms, ashrams and spas: Hinduism. The campaign, labeled “
Take Back Yoga,” does not ask yoga devotees to become Hindu, or instructors to teach more about Hinduism ... but only that people become more aware of
yoga’s debt to the faith’s ancient traditions.
posted by dhruva
on Nov 28, 2010 -
66 comments
Chai Why? The Triumph of Tea in India : "But whereas I initially supposed tea-drinking to be as Indian, and perhaps as old, as the Vedas, I have come to know that it is, in the
longue durée of Indian history, a very recent development; one that (in many parts of the country) did not much precede my first visit, or that even followed it."
posted by dhruva
on Apr 19, 2010 -
18 comments
Eviction Slip :"In the spring of 2003 about 8,000 tribal people and low-caste farmers living in the Kuno area of Madhya Pradesh, India, were summarily uprooted from the rich farmlands they had cultivated for generations and moved to 24 villages on scrub land outside the borders of a sanctuary created for a pride of six imported Asiatic lions."[
via]
posted by dhruva
on Apr 16, 2008 -
4 comments
The Mexican kitchen's Islamic connection :"When Mexico’s leading writer, Nobel Prize laureate Octavio Paz, arrived in New Delhi in 1962 to take up his post as ambassador to India, he quickly ran across a culinary puzzle. Although Mexico and India were on opposite sides of the globe, the brown, spicy, aromatic curries that he was offered in India sparked memories of Mexico’s national dish, mole (pronounced MO-lay). Is mole, he wondered, “an ingenious Mexican version of curry, or is curry a Hindu adaptation of a Mexican sauce ?” How could this seeming coincidence of “gastronomic geography” be explained ?"
posted by dhruva
on Apr 9, 2008 -
53 comments
The Idol Thief "Vaman Ghiya operated one of the most extensive and sophisticated clandestine antiquities rings in history, and he had grown rich in the past three decades by smuggling thousands of Indian antiques to auction houses and private collectors in the West."
posted by dhruva
on May 14, 2007 -
15 comments
Ganjifa cards have a
history of more than 300 years. A pack of ganjifa cards consists of ninety-six cards; they are
generally circular and made of ivory, tortoise shell, thin wood or hard board material. Dancing, hunting, worshipping, and processions are some of the
subjects painted on the cards. Some more patterns:
1,
2,
3,
4,
5. However, Ganjifa today is a
craft in a
crisis.
posted by dhruva
on Jun 2, 2006 -
10 comments
The Omkara Project "..the word Omkara meaning - ' the
vehicle to cross the ocean of life ' Crossing this ocean is the
journey that the mortal being must undertake in a lifetime and henceforth encounter the three basic elements of mortality - creation, preservation and destruction."
posted by dhruva
on Jul 17, 2005 -
8 comments
Chutney Music :"For these people, Chutney was more than just
music (
.asf files), it was their life, it was their culture. For a people twice removed from their native land, Chutney was their connection to the traditions they might have otherwise never known." [
via]
posted by dhruva
on May 29, 2005 -
6 comments
The invention of the Hindu : "Hinduism is largely a fiction, formulated in the 18th and 19th centuries out of a multiplicity of sub-continental religions, and enthusiastically endorsed by Indian modernisers."
posted by dhruva
on Apr 2, 2005 -
72 comments
Theyyam , a corrupt form of daivum (god), is a popular ritual dance of North Kerala, India. As a living cult with centuries old traditions,
ritual and custom, it embraces almost all castes and classes of the Hindu religion in this region. A
performance (mpg) of a particular deity continues for 12 to 24 hours with intervals. The costumes differ based on the
character (mpg) of the theyyam.
posted by dhruva
on Dec 23, 2004 -
13 comments
