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Kishkinda to Vijayanagara: Sacred Geography, Imperial Brilliance, and a Breach of Sanctity
This essay situates Hampi within the Ramayana’s sacred geography and the Vijayanagara Empire’s statecraft, tracing how Kishkinda’s mythic landscape informed an imperial capital of dazzling scale. Drawing on Valmiki’s lyrical account of Pampa, historical records of Vijayanagara’s global magnetism, and the catastrophe of Talikota, it examines why the material loss was matched by an erosion…
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The Myth that Mohandas Gandhi Alone Delivered Freedom to India
A hundred and fifty-four years after his birth, the legacy of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi remains contested in India. Much of this uncertainty stems from extensive propaganda that has obscured vital truths about Gandhi as an activist, leader, politician, demagogue, and unlikely saint. One of the most enduring myths is encapsulated in the single word: Mahatma.…