Watch novelist Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni explain Sita's story.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday held protests outside temples in various cities in Maharashtra demanding reopening of places of worship, which have been shut since March in view of the coronavirus-induced lockdown.
'Evidently, something has gone terribly wrong in the state of the Indian Union.' 'The rulers seem nervous that the pandemic is spinning out of control,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Journeys from the mountains to the temples.
The mesmerising hill station located in West Bengal is a must visit place for every travel enthusiast, says Hitesh Harisinghani.
The meeting came days after Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli telephoned his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to greet him on India's 74th Independence Day, in the first high-level contact after bilateral ties came under severe strain following issuance of a new political map by Nepal in May.
'Gods of different religions haven't warred, so we shouldn't either.'
The spectator size too has been reduced to 25,000, officials said.
In comments that could kick up a row, Union minister Nitin Gadkari has said the government at the Centre is of 'Ram bhakts' (devotees) and those who shout 'Jai Shri Ram' slogans.
The apex court said Janma Sakhies, which have been brought on record, contains a description of visit of Guru Nanak Devji to Ayodhya, where he had a darshan of the birthplace of Lord Ram.
'There is enough proof of science-driven research in the India of early centuries,' argues Kumar Abhishek.
Besides being awarded Padma bhushan in 2011, Madavoor had also received the Sangeet Nataka akademi award in 1997, Kerala Kalamandalam award among others and had performed the world over.
Referring to the nose chopping of 'Surpanakha' in the epic Ramayana, Karni Sena leader Mahipal Singh Makrana said that while Kshatriyas respected women, if the film was not banned and Padukone does not stop inciting sentiments with her provocative language, the Rajputs will not lag behind in acting.
He said Google failed before the epic Ramayana, which was written by sage Valmiki, and he asserted that the knowledge of the spiritual books was correct instead of what the search engine said.
There is much to learn from the life of Ravana says Anand Neelakantan, author of Asura, tale of the vanquished, the story of Ravana and his people.
Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma has triggered a row by saying that late president A P J Abdul Kalam was a great nationalist "despite" being a Muslim.
The 2 countries signed 15 agreements including one on defence cooperation after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held 'productive discussions' with President Joko Widodo.
The last time a prime minister attended an event at AMU was Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1964. Before him, then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had visited the AMU four times.
The relative ranking of castes can vary across regions and localities and depends on a number of factors including control over land, wealth, and political power. Castes have often tried to 'upgrade' themselves (a process sociologists refer to as Sanskritization), and sometimes get 'downgraded'. A revealing excerpt from Upinder Singh's Ancient India: Culture Of Contradictions.
'Even among scientists and technology mavens -- typically communities that tend to view the world through the lens of logos or reason and not mythos, there is a shiny-eyed enthusiasm for the mythical world,' says Arundhuti Dasgupta.
VHP national working president Alok Kumar also rejected questions about the muhurta of the event, saying the 'best advice' has been taken including from the Head of the Jyotish Department of the Banaras Hindu University on timing of the ceremony.
'In the 30 years since the Ayodhya movement began, the RSS has created a generation of Hindus who are the mirror image of those fanatic Muslims who take to the streets at the slightest, even imagined, 'insult to Islam,' argues Jyoti Punwani.
Kumari, a lion-hearted 15-year-old, cycled all the way from Gurugram in Haryana to Bihar's Darbhanga district with her incapacitated father Mohan Paswan seated on the carrier. Now the father-daughter duo is at a quarantine centre near their village Sirhulli under Singhwara block of the district.
Terming the agitation for Ram temple the biggest since India's freedom movement, he said it was aimed at the outcome which the verdict has made possible.
Five stories of rape and sexual assault from the epics are particularly useful in offering an insight into the way rape works in India, says Nilanjana S Roy
Director Sanjay Gupta talks about his latest release.
Declaring that the right of reputation cannot be protected at the cost of right of life and dignity, a Delhi court on Wednesday threw out former Union minister and editor M J Akbar's criminal defamation suit against journalist Priya Ramani who has accused him of sexual harassment.
On Sunday, a swayamvaram of the kind we have only heard of in ancient India took place at a college hall in Tamil Nadu. The participants choosing their own spouses were an unusual group of people. A Ganesh Nadar was present at the heart-warming occasion.
He also washed the feet of sanitation workers at the 'Swachh Kumbh, Swachh Aabhaar' programme in Prayagraj.
Since 2015, Odisha has been embroiled in a bitter battle over the origin of the delicacy with West Bengal, which had in 2017 secured the GI tag for 'Banglar Rasogolla'.
President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi greeted people on the occasion of Dussehra and Eid-ul-Zuha.
Congress is the only other horse in the race for national power, never mind how distant. Narendra Modi and Amit Shah know better than to take the Congress lightly, observes Shekhar Gupta.
In an embarrassment to the Bharatiya Janata Party which has spearheaded the Ram Temple movement and Hindutva agenda, the party's Rajya Sabha member Ram Jethmalani today termed Ram, the protagonist of Ramayana, as a 'bad husband'.
It further said that the epic Valmiki's Ramayana, whose composition dated back to the period Before Christ (BC), was the main source of knowledge of Lord Ram and his deeds.
Bharatiya Janata Party member of Parliament Maneka Gandhi on Saturday took out a leaf from Ramayana to support Team Anna's entry into electoral politics, saying a confident Ravana had dismissed Lord Rama's army as "monkeys and bears" but ended up vanquished.
For the idea called Arvind Kejriwal to succeed, it is important that he has a Rahul Dravid approach to the game. A Yusuf Pathan like pinch-hitter innings won't do, says TS Sudhir
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances