India

absentbodied

The Lady Twilight – Part III

Time to feed the skulls.

eroticpanel

The Lady Twilight – Part II

Tantra isn’t about sex but feeding insatiable goddesses the sexual emissions they crave.

skull

The Lady Twilight – Part I

Welcome to the burning grounds of Bengal, an open-air lunatic asylum for the divinely mad.

Killing the Buddha

A Crisis for the Faithful

KtB senior editor Meera Subramanian has a thing for birds and they take her to the most interesting of places. In Mumbai, following an evaporating trail of vultures, she found…

hindugods

The Moon is Elsewhere

The presence—or absence—of the gods can make a Hindu out of even the most secular.

surrogate

The Virgin Birth

By an act of God—or a Petri dish and a bit of cash.

Mumbai Terrorist

Explosions in Mumbai

A year ago today ten men in jeans and black t-shirts took ten minutes to hijack Mumbai, a cosmopolitan city that everyone here in India compares to New York. With…

180px-ravi_varma-ravana_sita_jathayu

When Gods Disappear

The brothers were racing for the sun. What brothers don’t create such fantastic games of competition and daring, even when they are gods? Especially if they are gods. Jatayu and…

Killing the Buddha

Indian Pelagianism: Learn to Overpower Death

Among the opponents of Augustine of Hippo in the 4th and 5th centuries were the Pelagians—monks, mostly, who believed that salvation and eternal life could be accomplished by a finely-chiseled…

All photos by Munir Virani of the Peregrine Fund

The Bright Half of Bhadra

In the forests of Rajasthan resides the god of invisible things.

godly

Getting Godly in Mysore

We’ve  come to the hilltop where the Chamundeshwari Temple overlooks the city of Mysore, India, but we can’t pass up the free admission to the Godly Museum across the parking lot.…

women

A Hundred Unspoken Rules

Bloodlines bridge the divide between belief and disbelief.

Young Lovers

Where’s the Love?

Indian canoodling couples face the wrath of the Sri Ram Sene.

indiatank

Military Mahabharata

This, from the February 2nd issue of India Today: “In a final showdown between two contenders for the title of Tank No. 1 this June, the Indian Army will conduct…

Mango

When Hunger Can’t Be Fed

Remembering to eat, and live, when the stuff of life becomes unpalatable.

"So what if you can't pin down the exact history of yoga..."

Yoga for Skeptics

Desperate for enlightenment, Westerners flock to India. But the modern yogis’ link to a mystical ancient lineage may be mere hocus pocus.

Get your Durga Puja greeting cards

Rain from the Ganges

Fear and enlightenment at a Hindu goddess festival.