Episode · The Joe Rogan Experience · 2026-07-01
Joe Rogan & Aravind Srinivas: books mentioned on The Joe Rogan Experience #2521
#2521 - Aravind Srinivas
Aravind Srinivas, PhD, is the co-founder and CEO of Perplexity AI, creator of the AI-powered search and answer engine Perplexity.
Aravind Srinivas discussed The Mahabharata, The Ramayana, and The Rigveda by Stephanie Jamison and others. Joe Rogan discussed The Yugas by Joseph Selbie and others and Fingerprints of the gods by Graham Hancock.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is a monumental ancient Indian epic detailing legendary conflicts, spiritual philosophy, and vast cosmological wisdom across extensive poetic and narrative texts.
Discussed“So um the brahmastra is part of the mahabarat. I mean you've talked about Mahabharat in a bunch and Yeah.”
Where to get it
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The Ramayana
The Ramayana by Valmiki is an ancient Indian epic poem that recounts the adventures and moral trials of Prince Rama.
Discussed“The other one is Ramayan. But Mahabarat's more interesting.”
Where to get it
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The Rigveda
The Rigveda, translated by Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton, is widely recognized as one of the oldest sacred texts in existence, containing ancient Indian hymns and ritualistic poetry.
Discussed“And um then you you wonder like, oh wait, the Rigveda is so old. It's as old as it's is the oldest sacred text out there.”
Where to get it
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The Yugas
Discussed“I'm reading a book about it right now. Yeah. Yeah. So uh there's like different yugas and yugas are like thousands of years and the concept is that the yugas keep cycling around and so like uh we are in the kal yuga right now and before that was a dwara yuga that's when most of mahabharat happened and before”
Where to get it
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Fingerprints of the gods
Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock is an alternative history bestseller that argues an advanced, forgotten global civilization was wiped out by a cataclysm at the end of the last ice age.
Discussed“I'd seen speeches and I'm like, I want to know like what do you know? What do you think's going on? And uh he's another guy incredibly curious and absolutely fascinated with his his takes on ancient history.”
Where to get it
