Aide and abet: From Manthara to Shakuni

'Manthara wants Kaikeyi to make her son Bharat king of Ayodhya, instead of Rama.''She fuels hate and mistrust in her queen, much like what many modern-day viziers are doing, whipping up venom and......

What the Ramayana, Mahabharata tell us

'We often assume that Ayodhya is Ram's property and Hastinapur is Yudhishthira's property when, in fact, it is their responsibility.''A king exists, as per Hindu philosophy, only to ensure that......

Fake news has been around from Mahabharat times

The ultimate was surely Yudhishthira's immortal "Aswathama hatha...", followed by a whispered "iti narova kunjarova..."," says Sunanda K Datta-Ray.Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com  ......

Anger is the enemy within us

'Fear of the Other stalks our lives as it did in ancient times and the mobs are just as easy to incite as it was then,' says Arundhuti Dasgupta.Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com Murderous mobs......

The curious case of Nilgiris, Ooty and Coonoor

A holiday allows you to get away from routine and invigorate yourself in as many ways as possible. Well, yes and no, if you have decided to go, for a change, on a conventional holiday to that......

Relax, capitalism is not the problem

The choice for policy-makers is not between free markets and central planning but in getting the right mix of regulation, says Gurcharan Das. The epic, Mahabharata, thinks that human beings are......