Notes that did not fit in the book.
A small collection of essays drawn from the work that produced Why Indians Have Not Invented Anything. Each one stands on its own, and is published when it is ready. Slow, sourced, never in a hurry.
Why Ayurveda is called Brahma Smritvaand not Brahma's invention.
The Sanskrit grammar of one word reveals an entire epistemology — and corrects a centuries-old translation error that has shaped how the world reads India.
The difference between Mahalakshmi and Dravya Lakshmi
Two kinds of prosperity, only one of which the modern world has been counting. A close reading of what the goddess has been telling Indian households.
The cow and the universe
The most misunderstood animal in modern India is, in the older texts, a complete cosmological model. A careful look at what was lost in translation.
Was the Samudra Manthan a literal event or a metaphor for invention?
A churning, a poison, a nectar. The oldest story India tells about invention, read carefully.
The kitchen is the oldest laboratory in the world
Six tastes, three doshas, six seasons. Every grandmother in India is running an experiment that has been peer-reviewed for three thousand years.
Why a newborn already knows everything
If we read the first weeks of a human life as a literal philosophical demonstration rather than a metaphor — what follows?
Equality without sameness — the Upanishadic claim
The claim that two opposites can both be true, and the kind of society that grows on top of that claim.
The tulsi at the threshold
Why a single plant, at a specific position, in every traditional Indian home, has been doing work the modern world is now hiring engineers to do.
Write to Rajendra.
There is no mailing list yet. If you want the Preface and Chapter One, or want to say something about an essay, email him — he answers by hand.
Send an emailWrites to namaste@whyindians.com. Replied to by hand — there is no mailing list yet.