That is Shankara, who adores Uma, and Vishnu, who adores Lakshmi.

Illustration/Devdutt Pattanaik

A popular theme in Hindu mythology is the dance competition between Shiva and Shakti. In Tamil temple lore, we are told Shiva raised his foot above his head but Shakti refused to do so out of modesty, thus establishing Shiva as superior to Shakti. This leads to questions if Shiva and Shakti are equal halves or is she the inferior half? Are they talking about men and women, or about mind and body?

Puranas are called the fifth Veda. They communicate Vedic ideas through stories. But when ideas become stories, non-gendered concepts like mind and matter, nature and culture, become characters and characters need to have gender. This leads to confusion between the signifier and the signified. This is most evident in stories of gods........

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