Section

Itihasa & Faith

The Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which Indian tradition counts as itihasa, history as it happened, and the figures hundreds of millions revere.

Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri Drew About 51 Lakh Pilgrims in 2025, and the 900 km Road to Them Has Been Shaped by Two Supreme Court Orders on Width

Four temples at 3,000 to 3,600 metres, one compulsory registration portal and a road argued over in court. What devotees hold about the shrines, how the crowds are counted, and what the 2013 flood and the slope cutting have left on record.

Prayagraj's 2025 Maha Kumbh Logged 66 Crore Bathers in 45 Days, a Total Officials Tie to Camera Counts and Independent Outlets Question

A tent city on 4,000 hectares and more than 16,000 trains stood behind a 66 crore headline. What is documented about the count, the city and the night of 29 January, and what is still disputed.

Hanuman Could Not Work Out Which Herb Was Which, So He Carried Off the Entire Mountain

Lakshmana was dying, the right herb grew on a Himalayan peak, and Hanuman could not tell one plant from another. What he did next says a great deal about why so many prayers in India are addressed to him.

The Bhagavad Gita Is 700 Verses in 18 Chapters Inside the Mahabharata, and Eight Major Commentators, From Shankara to Radhakrishnan, Have Read Its Three Paths in Different Ways

Shankara stressed knowledge, Ramanuja and Madhva devotion, Tilak action, and Gandhi action without hunger for its reward. A map of the Gita's chapters and of the teachers who have argued over them since the eighth century.

Puri Rebuilds Three Chariots of 16, 14 and 12 Wheels Every Year, and the 2026 Rath Yatra Began on 16 July in Heavy Rain

Three wooden chariots go up from April and come down after the festival, every year. What the state and the temple administration have recorded about the rites, the carpenters, the crowds and the temple's disputed builder.

Valmiki Gives Rama's Army Five Days to Build Ram Setu, and Surveys Have Spent Decades Measuring the Limestone Shoals Where Devotees Place It

The epic counts the building of the bridge day by day. The shoals keep a different record, in survey borings, satellite lasers, a withdrawn 2007 affidavit and a court file that is still open.

Tulsidas Began the Ramcharitmanas in Awadhi on Ram Navami 1574, and Gita Press Has Printed Over 108 Million Copies of His Works

He said he first heard the story as a small child from his teacher, then set it down in the speech of the street. More than four centuries on, Ramnagar still stages it over 31 nights, and Gandhi ranked it first among devotional books.

Karna: The Warrior Who Fought His Own Brothers and Never Knew

Born to a queen, raised by a charioteer, cursed twice, and tricked out of the armour that kept him alive. In the Mahabharata, Karna fought his own brothers, and learned the truth too late.

Krishna: The Many Faces of a God

He is the mischievous child who steals butter, the flute-player who enchants the gopis, the strategist of the Mahabharata, and the god who speaks the Bhagavad Gita. How does one figure hold so many faces at once?

The Mahabharata: The Poem That Claims to Contain the World

Two sets of cousins, a rigged game of dice, and a war that eighteen days could not contain. An introduction to the Mahabharata, the longest epic ever composed and the poem that claims to hold the whole of human life.

The Villain of the Ramayana Was Also a Scholar, a Musician, and a King

In the epic he abducts Sita and is destroyed by Rama. The same epic makes him a master of the four Vedas, a devotee of Shiva, and a mighty king. This is the fuller Ravana, and why a few towns honor him.

Rama and the Price of Being the Ideal Man

He surrendered a throne on a day's notice, fought a war to recover his abducted wife, and then faced choices readers have wrestled with ever since. The story of the man held up as perfect.

The Ramayana: The Story a Civilisation Has Never Stopped Telling

By tradition it began with a cry of grief at a riverbank. Two thousand years on, the story of Rama, Sita, and Ravana is still recited, danced, carved in stone, and lit up in a hundred million doorways. An introduction to the Ramayana.

Adi Shankara Wrote the Earliest Complete Commentaries That Survive on the Brahma Sutras, the Gita and Ten Upanishads, and Four Monasteries Tradition Credits to Him Teach His Advaita Today

From Kalady on the Poorna river to the Sharada seat in Kashmir and the samadhi at Kedarnath: his texts, his teaching of non-duality, the monasteries in four directions, and what the sources say about his dates.

Kabir, the Fifteenth-Century Weaver of Banaras, Has Verses in the Guru Granth Sahib, a Sacred Book of His Own in the Bijak, and a Hindu Samadhi and a Muslim Mazar Side by Side at Maghar

A weaver's couplets are sung in gurdwaras, in Kabir Panth monasteries and on Rajasthan's Kabir Yatra. Here is what the manuscripts show, where scholars disagree on his dates, and what stands at Maghar.

Mirabai of Merta Left a Mewar Court to Sing to Krishna, and the Bhaktamal Had Named Her Among the Great Devotees by About 1600

A Rathor princess married into the Sisodia court at Chittorgarh and kept her devotion to Giridhar. The songs that carry his name travelled with ascetics and singers for generations before most were written down.

Guru Nanak, Born in 1469, Founded the First Sikh Community at Kartarpur and Left 974 Hymns in a 1,430-Page Scripture

A village revenue official's son who worked in a governor's granary became the founder of a faith of 2.08 crore people in India. Here is what each early source says about him, and where they part ways.