Article/Essay
 24 Jun 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
Winning mutual respect
By A.N.D. Haksar
Telegraph - October 2003

Not many know about two old Indian texts, one translated from Persian into Sanskrit, and the other from Sanskrit into Arabic and Persian. Both are examples of interaction between Hindu and Muslim thought, and of some relev... Read More
 23 Jun 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
Under the Spell of Yoga
By William Dalrymple
The New York Review of Books - March 2014

Around 1600, a dramatic shift took place in Mughal art. The Mughal emperors of India were the most powerful monarchs of their day—at the beginning of the seventeenth century, they ruled over a hundred... Read More
 21 Jun 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
Regulate the mind field
By Sheela Rani Chunkath
The Hindu - June 21, 2015

It is the month of the year to make new resolutions. I know it is not the beginning of the New Year but the United Nations General Assembly has declared June 21 the International Day of Yoga. What better time then... Read More
 20 Jun 2015 Article/Essay
Essay:
Yoga in the Indian Imagination, 16th–19th Century
By Debra Diamond

Yogis were a cherished theme of painting, in which they were an intriguing foil to the art’s materialism. In illustrated ragamala paintings, each of which depicts a scene associated with a musical mode, images of holy men ... Read More
 18 Jun 2015 Article/Essay
Essay:
The Path of Yoga
By Debra Diamond

Extract from the book -
Yoga: The Art of Transformation
By Debra Diamond and Others
Published by the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington - 2013

Like yoga or indeed any aspect of India’s Hindu traditions, the identities of y... Read More
 16 Jun 2015 Article/Essay
Essay:
From Guru to God: Yogic prowess and places of practice
in Early-Medieval India
By Tamara I. Sears

One of the best known depictions of yoga’s power is found in a relief sculpted across the vast façade of an unfinished rock-cut temple in the southern Indian village of Mamallapuram, not far ... Read More
 3 Jun 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
Why Muslims and Christians are safer in India than most places on earth
By Minhaz Merchant
daily O - 2nd June 2015

Our country, the birthplace of nearly half the world's nine major religions, has long been a haven for the other half.

When the Narendra Modi government took office last M... Read More
 31 May 2015 Article/Essay
Interview:
What I am inheriting will need to be a force contributing to the state: King of Mysore
By Karuna John
Saddahaq

Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar talks about how a UMass Amherst grad became King.

Q: How does it feel going from student to King? Who initiated the formal adoption t... Read More
 25 May 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
Move over, Mughals
By William Dalrymple
Times of India - May 17, 2015

Just as the Mughals dominated early modern India politically, controlling all the rich lands from Kandahar down to the Vindhyas, so until recently they have also dominated the work of both modern historians and schola... Read More
 23 May 2015 Article/Essay
Essay:
Short Chronologies at Arm's Length: Ajanta & Beyond
By Sara Weisblat Schastok
as published in the ARS ORIENTALIS SUPPLEMENT

THIS ESSAY, originally offered during the 1990 Association for Asian Studies meeting at the invitation of Robert Brown, posits that Walter Spink's short chronologie... Read More
 22 May 2015 Article/Essay
Ghulam Yazdani - The first man to photograph Ajanta.

Ghulam Yazdani, OBE (22 March 1885 - 13 November 1962) was an Indian archaeologist who was one of the founders of the Archaeological Department of His Exalted Highness The Nizam's Dominions (Hyderabad State). He also edited the Arabic and Pers... Read More
 20 May 2015 Article/Essay
Essay:
Some Grey Areas in Fixing the Date of the Vakataka Phase of Ajanta Caves
By Rajesh K.Singh

Introduction:
This essay is a kind of historiography, which attempts to investigate afresh some of the vital points in dating the Ajanta caves of the Mahayana or Vakataka period. The need for the ta... Read More
 20 May 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
The Ajanta cave murals: 'nothing less than the birth of Indian art'.
By William Dalrymple
The Guardian

The paintings are possibly the finest surviving picture galleries from the ancient world. Now, the oldest in two of the caves – hidden for decades – have been painstakingly restored to... Read More
 17 May 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
Unseen Ajanta
By William Dalrymple
Outlook Magazine - November 24, 2014

The oldest classical Indian paintings, retrieved from time, and decay.

..."More exciting still, this earliest phase of work is not just very old, but very fine indeed and painted in a quite different style, and usi... Read More
 15 May 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
How the Ajanta murals were created
By Aishwarya Pramod
The Magic Tours of India Blog

The Ajanta cave paintings (from around 200 BCE to 500 CE) represent India's art at a great height of sophistication and skill. These scenes of the life of Buddha and the bodhisattvas, natural beauty and... Read More
 10 May 2015 Article/Essay
Essay - The story of Watson's Hotel, Bombay

Like a huge birdcage exhaled from the earth: Watson’s Esplanade Hotel, Bombay (1867-71) and its place in structural history.
By Jonathan Clarke
Published in Construction History, Volume 18 - 2002

“A traveller familiar with Bombay passed through it in ... Read More
 10 May 2015 Article/Essay
Rare Book Guide:

Your Old Books

This guide addresses some frequently asked questions about rare and older books and their values. The answers are meant only as general responses to these questions, and many possible exceptions are not described.

1. What makes a book rare?

Millions of books, ... Read More
 10 May 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
Operation Hidden Idol: The Struggle To Bring Back Indian Antiquities
By S. Vijay Kumar
Swarajya

After the first part on how artefacts worth millions are smuggled from India because of the indifference of the authorities, the sequel looks at what happens to these lost Gods in an unendin... Read More
 9 May 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
India Has Abandoned Its Gods
By S.Vijay Kumar
Swarajya

How artefacts worth millions are smuggled from India, and the authorities don’t seem to care.

A few days ago a US official revealed the full extent of “Operation Hidden Idol” which had recovered approximately 2,600 items worth an e... Read More
 9 May 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
The Audacity of Sanskrit
By Shashikant Joshi
Swarajya

Why we need to study the mother of all languages.

Language carries its culture with it. English books will have Shakespeare, Wordsworth and others whom I have not read. I am yet to finish many great Indian authors. Chinese books wi... Read More