USA, October 8, 2021 (hinduamerican.org): Diwali is known as the “Festival of Lights” and is a Hindu holiday widely celebrated in India and across the Hindu Diaspora. The word Diwali derives from Sanskrit meaning “a row of lights” and clay lamps or diyas are lit to signify the destruction, through knowledge, of all negative qualities. In other words, Diwali celebrates…
UNITED STATES, October 6, 2021 (History News Network): For decades, Douglas Latchford cut a romantic figure: The genial Englishman was an explorer of jungle temples, a scholar and a connoisseur seduced by the exquisite details of ancient sculpture. Beginning in the 1970s, he amassed one of the world’s largest private collections of Khmer treasures, mostly Hindu and Buddhist sculpture, the…
KERALA, INDIA, October 3, 2021 (Aljazeera): Deftly parrying her son with a bamboo cane, Meenakshi Amma’s prowess at Kalari – thought to be India’s oldest martial art – belies her 78 years. The great-grandmother in Kerala, southern India, has been a driving force in the revival of Kalarippayattu – as the ancient practice is also known – and in encouraging…
UNITED STATES, April 13, 2015 (Outlook India, by Tony Joseph): If you have been following Indian mass media or social media in the last few months, you couldn’t have escaped the narrative being spun by some. It goes something like this: “Christianity is posing a growing and serious demographic threat to Hinduism by converting large numbers of Hindus through aggressive…
KAUAI, HAWAII, OCTOBER 2, 2021 (HPI): Hinduism Today’s latest issue has gone to press and is now available online free of charge at https://www.hinduismtoday.com/category/magazine/oct-nov-dec-2021/. You can also download our free Hinduism Today app and get the entire magazine in a mobile-friendly format for your device at https://www.bit.ly/HT-APP. Our publisher, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, takes us on an ascent through consciousness, climbing…
BENGALURU, INDIA, September 29, 2021 (The Hindu): The High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday rejected a petition against anointment of a minor boy as the 31st seer of Udupi Shiroor Mutt while holding that there is no statutory or constitutional bar on a person aged below 18 being initiated into sanyasa. “The petition has not been able to make out…
CHENNAI, INDIA, September 30, 2021 (Times Now News): Tamil Nadu’s Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment Department has retrieved temple property in Chennai worth about $40.5 million, it was announced on Wednesday. The property, situated on Poonamalle high road, belongs to the Kancheepuram Ekambareswaram Temple, and is over an acre in extent. “We have recovered temple land worth $40.5 million from…
UNITED STATES, September 24, 2021 (RNS): When Vineet Chander accepted his job as the Hindu chaplain at Princeton University in 2008, his Hindu community was baffled by his profession. Their puzzlement was understandable: Chander, a former prosecutor, was not just the only full-time Hindu chaplain at any place of higher learning at the time; he was the first Hindu in…
UNITED KINGDOM, September 28, 2021 (Daily News Catch): In a first from the British Royal Mint ingots, a range of bars featuring Goddess Lakshmi to celebrate Diwali went on sale Tuesday. The “Lakshmi” bar, a 20 gram gold bar with the Hindu Goddess of Wealth intricately etched into the precious metal, was designed by Royal Mint designer Emma Noble and…
NEW DELHI, INDIA, September 26, 2021 (Indian Express): As many as 157 artifacts and antiquities were handed over by the United States during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the country. The list has a diverse set of items — a 4.9 foot bas-relief panel of Revanta in sandstone made in the 10th century, a 3.4 inch tall bronze Nataraj…