When Footnotes Pretend to Be History
Hindu philosophical traditions did not develop in a climate of uninterrupted harmony. Advaitins, Viśiṣṭādvaitins, Dvaitins, Buddhists, Jains, Śaivas, and Mīmāṃsakas often engaged in fierce—and sometimes deeply personal—polemics.
But a sectarian insult is not the whole history of a philosopher. A hostile hagiography is not a neutral biography. And a provocative footnote should not be presented as though it were a major chapter in the history of Indian thought.
From Śaṅkara and Rāmānuja to Vedānta Deśika and Madhva, the record reveals both acrimonious conflict and extraordinary intellectual creativity.
The real danger today is not that these old polemics are discussed. It is that social media detaches them from context, magnifies them, and turns historical trivia into historical truth.
When does a footnote become a distortion of history?
Tag Archives: Devdutt Pattnaik
“Brahmins as secret Muslims”: Devdutt Pattnaik’s hodge-podge he tries selling as exotic delicacy
Devdutt Pattanaik’s recent framing of “Brahmins as secret Muslims” and his analogy between Brahminical and Islamic ways of life rests on several contestable historical, textual, and sociological assumptions that can be systematically challenged. The “secret Muslims” thesis collapses very different histories and concepts into a single polemical frame. A counter‑narrative can be built by takingContinue reading ““Brahmins as secret Muslims”: Devdutt Pattnaik’s hodge-podge he tries selling as exotic delicacy”
Devdutt Patnaik ( À la Vairamuthu) unable to discern the Esotericism in Mystic Eroticism – Part- 3.2 (Concluded)
To truly understand Eroticism in Hindu mythology — explained earlier in Part 3.2 above with reference to the Brihadaaranyka Upanishad — one has to got open up one’s mind to the fact that it is the Esotericism of the Vedic motif of Universal Creation that has been woven into the human microsom of Procreation. Therefore,Continue reading “Devdutt Patnaik ( À la Vairamuthu) unable to discern the Esotericism in Mystic Eroticism – Part- 3.2 (Concluded)”
Devdutt Patnaik ( À la Vairamuthu) unable to discern the Esotericism in Mystic Eroticism – Part-2 of 3
In his article, “The Parrot’s (Andal’s) Erotic Secret”, published in THE HINDU dt. 19 January 2025, Devdutt Pattnaik, in my view, erred on two principal counts. He failed to fully understand what the word Eroticism means. And secondly, he erred in conflating Andal’s religious feelings of Bhakthi towards her beloved deity with feelings of Eroticism.Continue reading “Devdutt Patnaik ( À la Vairamuthu) unable to discern the Esotericism in Mystic Eroticism – Part-2 of 3”