Home

Featured Articles

Jul 23, 2026
Ramaharitha Pusarla

From Gods to the God: Christianisation of the Roman Empire

Secularism in India, broadly borrowed from the West, embodies the concept of “Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava". Ironically, there is no Western equivalent of Dharma. Again, to fit India’s principled approach to the Western secularism template, Dharma is loosely equated with religion and, by extension, the philosophy of the Indian state is rooted in “equal respect for all religions”. By interchangeably using Dharma and Religion, the sweeping magnitude of timeless traditions is contained within a limited, cyclical, and dogmatic religious framework; the vastness of the civilisational inheritance is distilled into one truth and a world of binaries. In the process, some of the beliefs and rituals associated with these timeless traditions are negated, labelled as pagan and branded as uncivilised. By tracing origins to a single biblical figure and adopting a linear approach to history, with a beginning and an end to creation, the narrow Western theological framework developed the concept of Religion’. The word religio, with its Latin roots, was historically referred to as a bond, an obligation or principled reverence to gods. An alternative explanation suggests that the word ‘religion’ is associated with the Latin word ‘religare’ meaning to rebind, reconnect or renew. The Roman philosophers described ‘Religion’ as a ‘dutiful obligation to divine matters’. However, with covenants forming the bedrock of these Western faiths, despite various interpretations, a reciprocal obligation remains their core doctrine. This foundational concept sets the Western faith apart from the age-old traditions of polytheism. Indian culture, rooted in a polytheistic tradition, has been syncretic and inclusive. But now, it is facing theological onslaughts from the monotheistic Western worldview that continues to shape the dominant global narratives. History bears sobering evidence of the decimation of the polytheistic traditions at the hands of imperialistic monotheistic faiths. Polytheism has been the default cultural way of living for millennia. Broken temples, silenced gods and dilapidated structures in Greece, Syria and Anatolia are a poignant reminder of fallen faiths. With Sanatana Dharma facing a two-pronged attack from the proselytising monotheistic religions, it is important to study their origins and doctrinal values and examine their suitability for modern societies. Tracing the origins of monotheistic religions from a historical perspective, Dr Rama Seshan C, in his debut book, “From Gods to the God: Christianisation of the Roman Empire”, offers a comprehensive overview of the theological foundations of Western civilisation. The book, believed to be the first part of the series, explores the origins of Christianity deeply embedded in Judaism. Structured into seventeen chapters, the 532 page provides a comprehensive view of monotheism beginning from the biblical figure Abraham. Besides a primary introduction to Judaism, Christianity, Islam and polytheistic culture, the pedagogical approach to the subject makes it very interesting. Be mused to find sections named Abrahamic Religions 101, Geography 101, and The Hebrew Bible 101. True to their titles, all of them lay a solid foundation to understand the concepts of monotheism and polytheism. Akin to a course plan at the beginning of the academic curriculum which enlists the different aspects that would be dealt with during the course of study, the introductory chapter clearly lists out all the aspects of the book in an orderly manner. The initial chapters of the book exude a rare pedagogical style of narration. A few pages into the book, the reader would get the feeling of having enrolled on a Theology course. The unique didactic approach adopted by the author would convince the reader that the author must have been an excellent teacher. What makes this historical treatise an interesting read is the metrics plotted in a graph for the predicted proportional rise of the Christian population in the Roman Empire and in India (factoring that for every 100 Christians, one Hindu is converted every year). The book takes you on a time travel starting from biblical Abraham, the migration of his grandson Jacob (Israel) from Canaan (present-day Southern Levant) and his clan to Egypt to escape severe famine along with his son Joseph. Enslaved by the Egyptians for generations, freed during the Exodus and led by Moses, they eventually conquer and settle down in the promised land led by Joshua. The clan unite under King Saul, King David and King Solomon. But after Solomon, under his son Rehoboam, 10 Northern tribes and two southern states separate. The Southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin, loyal to the line of King David and Solomon, establish the Kingdom of Judah with Jerusalem as capital and inherit the temple built by Solomon. While the Northern tribes, which subscribe to inclusive worship of Baal, Asherah and Yahweh, make Samaria their capital. Around the 6th century BCE, the Babylonians destroy the First Temple and force Judah’s residents to Babylon. By around 539 BCE, the Achaemenid Empire based in Persia under Cyrus allows the exiles in Babylon to go back to their homeland and helps them build the Second Temple in 516 BCE. Indeed, all the events related to Jewish people are marked by specific covenants or reciprocal promises between God and people, where God offers protection and direction while people agree to uphold the principles enunciated by him. The book specifically refers to the Abrahamic Covenant, which establishes Abraham as the father of many nations; the Mosaic Covenant, where God promises to make Israel a treasured possession and, in return, people must obey his commandments and Torah; Davidic Covenant, where God promises David that one of his descendants will reign over Israel forever. All these covenants are detailed in the Hebrew Bible. The covenants form the bedrock of Christianity, which draws its doctrinal principles from the Hebrew Bible. Effortlessly segueing the story from the Promised Land to the times of Roman Occupation of Israel to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the author incrementally introduces the reader to the foundational framework of Christianity. Alongside, the book takes a deep dive into the connection between Ancient Rome, Greece, and the Hellenistic Age, providing a brief glimpse of the intellectual and cultural vibrancy of Greek society. After the death of Alexander in 323 BCE, his vast empire was divided among his four generals, forming Hellenistic Kingdoms. After intense battles, Israel became part of the Seleucid kingdom by around 200BCE. Till 178BCE, Jews were ruled by a council of priests, the ‘Gerusia’, on behalf of the Hellenistic Kingdom, and they were allowed to practice their faith as long as they paid taxes. But Seleucid Monarch Antiochus IV Epiphanes attempted to impose Hellenic Law. The Hasmoneans, the orthodox Jews, rebelled, triggering the Maccabean Revolt, following which they were allowed to return to their old practices. The temple was also rededicated, celebrated as Hanukkah, leading to the eventual establishment of the Hasmonean Jewish Kingdom with King Simon as their first ruler. The polytheistic Greek culture introduced Greek culture and Gods but allowed the worship of old gods. As a result, a syncretic society with two sets of gods and culture prevailed. But the Monotheistic Judaism does not allow the worship of any other gods. For the first time, the Hasmonean King John Hyrcanus, after conquering the neighbouring kingdoms, attempted to convert non-Jews in response to Hellenisation. After 80 years of Hasmonean Rule, due to bitter rivalry between Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, the Kingdom of Judah fell into the hands of the Romans in 63 BCE. Since then, Jews were under foreign rule until 1948. Romans ruled Judah through a puppet King, Herod the Great, who belonged to the Edomite Dynasty whose ancestors were converted to Judaism. Though he lavishly expanded the Second Temple, Jews disliked him as he was a convert and not an ethnic Jew. It was during his reign that Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. While Jesus was crucified by the Romans, Jews were held responsible. The gospels of Christ, which appeared 40 years after his death, were predominantly anti-Semitic. The epistles, especially those of the apostle Paul, who was a Pharisaic Jew, steered such rhetoric and accused them of deicide (p187). The first generation of Christians increasingly believed that they were living at the end of human history and that God would lead the world through judgement after resurrection. The apocalyptic fervour is part of the discourse of both Christianity and Islam. While this was toned down with “good news” in later texts, this is still a dominant theme in Islam. “In the Abrahamic worldview, god is apart from nature and not to be found in nature, and there is nothing divine about nature”. In Hinduism, everything is gods. In Islam, everything is God’s. The apostrophe makes all the difference. (p203) The stark fundamental differences between the Abrahamic and Pagan faith systems became a point of intense friction as the Christian population began to increase. Pagans didn’t care what you believed as long as you didn’t insult their beliefs. All they demanded was appropriate action and sacrifice. They believed anything about the gods or the world, and hence philosophy and science blossomed, and society flourished without any religious opposition. The Greco-Roman world before the onset of Christianity was pagan. Pagans valued ancestral and cultural continuity. For Christians and Muslims, “what is of supreme importance is one’s personal relation with God and a seat in future heaven”. The focus on individual future progress without regard to the collective values and ancestral traditions is reflected in the apocalyptic verses of the New Testament (p216). Another glaring and notable difference between the Pagan and Abrahamic religions is the absence of a supreme feminine goddess. Ancient Romans and Greeks had a Mother goddess, a deity of fertility. There is no divinity associated with Abrahamic religions, especially Judaism and Islam, since the Virgin Mary was elevated to a worshipable entity by Christians. The Edict of Milan of 313, issued by Emperors Constantine and Licinius, propelled the rise of Christianity as a marginalised group into a dominant and powerful entity. Pagans, though a majority in terms of numbers, were caught unaware by the slow and systemic rise of Christians under the Emperors, feigned tolerance and never openly divulged their faith for fear of losing the support of Pagans who were influential and majoritarian. Rulers, decidedly anti-pagan, slowly began to admonish religious practices and rituals. They imposed restrictions on their festivals, except those that generated money and stripped off their rituals were allowed. Deeming divination and animal practices as superstitions, people were warned from continuing such practices. Special favours and tax waivers were bestowed on Christian majority areas. Announcing capital punishment for idolatry and animal sacrifices, Pagans were forced to abdicate their ancestral practices. Over a period of time, temple valuables were looted, idols destroyed, sacrificial places desecrated and vandalised, forcing pagans to abandon them. Idols and books were burnt. The City of Constantinople was raised and adorned with the spoils of temples in Greece. With the notable exception of Emperor Julian, who returned to Paganism for a brief period, the Christian rulers passed decrees and legislation targeting the priestly class, forcing the closure of temples. Soon, pagans were denied government jobs and removed from imperial jobs. Labelling them as heretics, they were not allowed to construct any temples and imposed the strictest punishments for apostates or people who relapsed into paganism from Christianity. Evangelisation, which began in the countryside, spread like a storm engulfing various sections of society. The upper class were quick to convert to escape the wrath of the rulers. By 600 CE, there weren’t any pagans left in the Roman Empire. In two centuries, even all traces of paganism were wiped out. Christianity appropriated the Jewish Bible as the Old Testament. Claiming that its laws no longer applied to Christians, they nevertheless used selected Old Testament verses, misinterpreting them as prophecies of Christ's coming. Similarly, they removed myths from Greco-Roman texts and retained verses of Pagan authors to make it appear to predict the coming of Christ. Cultural appropriation is ingrained in the DNA of Christianity- else what explains the practices of ghee lamps, Dwaja Stambha and hymns of Yesu Suprabhatam in Catholic and Protestant Churches of South India? The methodical erasure of the pagan faith system in the Roman Empire is no different from the threats the majority in India, the Hindus, are facing. Ironically, Christians who were once a minority pleaded with the pagans to practice their faith. But once their numbers began to grow, their overpowering caused the extermination of pagans. The last chapter of the book, ‘Christianity in the Present Secular World’, brilliantly dissects the various aspects of Christianity-particularly its glorification of weakness and weaponisation of suffering. The cardinal principle of favouring weakness and meekness finds contemporary expression in the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) rhetoric and the reservation policies. Christianity, as the bedrock of Western Civilisation, has profoundly shaped many concepts and values like secularism, communism, social justice and Islamic theology, making an understanding of its psyche, motivations, origins and end goal indispensable. Busting some well-guarded myths through his meticulously researched work, the author has daringly exposed the perfidy of the religion of love where the use of force for conversion receives a religious sanction. According to Paul, “conversion is not a betrayal of faith but homecoming, as only one true god existed since the dawn of creation; demons corrupted it” (p528). The book is an essential read and highly recommended for researchers keen on rational analysis of faiths based on a theological framework and for enthusiasts who want to understand global religious history. I would like to commend the author for his painstaking scholarship in producing this work, which offers a bold, balanced and dispassionate articulation of Abrahamic faiths in general and Christianity in particular. The work also issues a stark warning to the world's only surviving major polytheistic faith, urging it to critically reflect and assess the challenges posed by the exclusivist Abrahamic traditions. Printed Pages: 576 Publishers: BLUONEINK Pvt LtdTop of FormBottom of Form

Jul 23, 2026
Narayanan Komerath

Ayurveda-Led Diagnostic Telemedicine: The Price of Procrastination

I write this in the grief of losing my very dear friend “A”, a buddy since about 6th grade and cricket grounds. In 44 years of my absence from India, he never forgot me. During the COVID19 pandemic, I called on him from the USA to help guide some local undergrads in our hometown in India to build an Adaptive Ventilator. Their faculty gave up – we felt like Messi, fighting our way to the penalty box and passing across the goalmouth to Mbappe who only had to tap it in, but instead sits down on the ball and starts painting his nails. But another buddy re-did the design and A actually built it in his shop, got it working, and we got a Peer-Reviewed Publication [1] at the IEEE Conference in lovely Mauritius at the height of the pandemic. I presented from my kitchen table a.k.a. Galactic HQ as I did all over the Globe in those 2 years of Lockdown. The paper as on a concept called Ayurveda-Led Diagnostic Telemedicine (ALDT). It was born at the last Panel at the 1st Abdul Kalam Conference at IITM, Chennai in July 2019 on “Sustainable Growth at Sustainable Cost” [2]. This idea argues that an Ayurvedic Clinic (I have no idea about the YUSH of AYUSH, sorry) should ideally serve as the First Point of Contact for 99% of Indians. For both routine Wellness guidance and healthcare when needed. But backed by no-compromise Diagnostics, and Telemedicine, all tied to the best experts anywhere. Seems naïve? Ridiculous? It was proved beyond all doubt within a year! It worked heroically during the Pandemic. India’s little-known eSanjeevini.gov Telemedicine Portal [3] was staffed 24-7, both AYUSH and Allopathy doctors taking turns along with those brave ASHA people, to guide patients over the phone, in their own language, and convey written prescriptions. Proved our point about the Telemedicine part. But after the Pandemic, India’s medical establishment, despite the excellent AYUSH ministry and PM medical stores [4], appears to be slow in resuming the gains and lessons from the Pandemic. Petty stuff still obstructs. Which is why I keep plodding rather than racing forward. In 2022 we presented a Concept Study for a Pilot project, centred on Uttar Pradesh [5]. This year I am presenting this [6] at the upcoming WAVES conference in the USA. I hope they don’t mind that I give this 10-minute preview of our full paper. The official one will come in due course. You see, those few days’ lead time may save lives. And I am tired of procrastinating. And angry. I am kicking myself. I wrote papers and wasted time talking to people who did not want to listen, had no interest, would not read on WhatsApp, would not click on a YouTube link, let alone actually read a research paper and think. But I did not ACT myself. I could have got my buddy to start using the Diagnostics for which we argued in our papers, if nothing else. Maybe, maybe not, but I did not try while I had the time – and that was all the time he had. I have no stock in this company called AliveCor, but since 2021, I have their little gizmo called KardiaMobile 6L [7]. Since we got old enough for Medicare, my employer’s insurance in the USA happily dumped us on Medicare – who would not approve our annual electrocardiogram (ECG) checkups. I guess they like the idea of fewer people on Medicare. What this gizmo does is that in 1 minute, I can get (what they say is) the equivalent of a 6-Lead ECG. On my phone. One gizmo can serve any number of people, each with their phone. It is the first useful example of “AI” I have seen, predating “AI” on my browser. It compares those six 30-second traces with a database of Good, Bad and Ugly. I suppose only if one’s trace looks Ugly will it alert as Abnormal. They say clearly that it does not “check for Heart Attack”. If you think you are getting one, don’t mess around looking for devices; get emergency medical help! But it also provides a record. And a competent doc (Ayurvaidyas are competent for this, or they can get help from expert colleagues) can easily compare a new record with an old one and see if something has changed. And blow the whistle for serious care. Look around you. Given the attrition rate of my dear friends, I think massive cardiac arrest, as “nice” a way as it is of making one’s exit, is shockingly common, across a wide spectrum of ages. I have now lost at least FIVE people dear to me to this, only one older than me. Which is why I am writing this. The gizmo is too expensive for everyone to buy in India. But surely, a couple of devices at every Ayurvedic Clinic, along with a way to store and compare traces with a competent physician, is so easy! Or a family, or group of friends, or a club at a workplace, can get a few of these. If that saves ONE life by getting swift medical attention, I will have won, in my buddy’s memory. Please think about it. If there are good alternatives, more power to them too. But sincere thanks to the Kardia (AliveCor) people – somewhere I heard that some of them are desis too. Always the best. So again, for my dear Attention-Challenged Go-Getters who scan this article, what is my point? Simple. That millions of lives can be at least extended very easily, given the growing cardiac problems, with a little bit of attention. Perhaps yours. Or of those closest to you. This is just ONE of many things that you could potentially get with an occasional stroll to a local Ayurveda Clinic, no need for expensive all-day waits at Mega Hospitals. Things have changed; opportunities have grown. We CAN bring top-quality wellness and healthcare to everyone where they live – and let them live longer and happier. Is that worth a few minutes of attention? A call to a lawmaker? A Tweet to an Hon. Mantri? A Vote-seeker? Administrator? Read my papers. The life you extend and improve may be your own, or better yet, of someone dear to you. That is my tribute to my friend who always looked out for others. Vande Mataram References N. Komerath, A. G. Kamath, D. P. Kottarathil, R. Deepak and A. Deepak, "Open Architecture for Ayurveda-Led Diagnostic Telemedicine," 2021 International Conference on Electrical, Computer, Communications and Mechatronics Engineering (ICECCME), Mauritius, Mauritius, 2021, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/ICECCME52200.2021.9590953. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9590953 Telemedicine Portal eSanjeevani OPD https://esanjeevani.mohfw.gov.in/#/ IIT Madras hosts first Abdul Kalam conference on 'Sustainable Development at Sustainable Cost'. India Today, July 11, 2019. https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/news/story/iit-madras-hosts-first-abdul-kalam-conference-on-sustainable-development-at-sustainable-cost-1566783-2019-07-11 4. “JanaAushadhi”. Pradhan Mantri Bharatiya Jana Aushadhi Pariyojana. Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers, Department of Pharmaceuticals. https://janaushadhi.gov.in Komerath, Narayanan. A Rural-Centered Diagnostic Telemedicine Architecture. World Journal for Vedic Studies. Vol. 27(2) 2022. Narayanan M. Komerath and Padmavathy P. Komerath. Ayurveda-Led Diagnostic Telemedicine: Patient Perspective. https://www.stratcepts.net/advanced-concepts/ayurveda-led-diagnostic-telemedicine AliveCor KardiaMobile 6L. Available in India at Amazon.in