Article/Essay
 14 Jul 2019 Article/Essay
Essay:
What Did J.D. Salinger, Leo Tolstoy, and Sarah Bernhardt Have in Common?
By A.L.Bardach
Published in Wall Street Journal - March 30, 2012

The surprising—and continuing—influence of Swami Vivekananda, the pied piper of the global yoga movement

By the late 1960s, the most famous writer in ... Read More
 13 Jul 2019 Article/Essay
Essay:
Remembering Vivekananda’s Chicago Address: A Speech That Transformed Western View Of India
By Sudarshan Ramabadran
Published in Swarajya - September 11, 2017

What was most astounding about Swami Vivekananda was that he was proud to be a Hindu, yet at the same time, he had a universal appe... Read More
 10 Jul 2019 Article/Essay
Essay:
Pratapgad Fort, Mahabaleshwar
Published in Atlas Obscura

This fortress played a key role in the battle that would ultimately give rise to the Maratha Empire.

The fortress of Pratapgad was completed in 1656 under the orders of the Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji. The construction of the ... Read More
 9 Jul 2019 Article/Essay
Essay:
Remembering the Jewish refugee who composed the All India Radio caller tune
By Naresh Fernandes
Published in scroll.in - Oct 24, 2014

Walter Kaufmann composed several early works that encouraged the interplay of East and West.

Listen here: http://bit.ly/2YzyWdY

All India Radio’s caller ... Read More
 7 Jul 2019 Article/Essay
Essay:
From Mahatma Gandhi to Nehru, everyone was an MS Subbulakshmi fan
By Vikram Sampath
Published in The Print - 6 July, 2019

In 1926, a shy girl dressed in a traditional Tamilian attire of silk paavadai and davani, her thick curls pressed down with copious oil and a generous vermillion dot m... Read More
 5 Jul 2019 Article/Essay
Essay:
Legacy Of Kashmir, The Forgotten Land Of Beauty And Knowledge — Part I
By Professor Subhash Kak
Published in Swarajya - August 06, 2016

This is the first essay in a four-part series about the important contributions of Kashmir to Indian culture. It throws light on the early history of the... Read More
 4 Jul 2019 Article/Essay
Essay:
Difference between North Indian music and South Indian music
By Pratik Kashallu
Published in swarmanttra.com

Is that ‘Much Ado About Nothing?’ No certainly not…as both the basic types of Indian Classical Music, i.e. North Indian classical music and Carnatic Classical Music have some funda... Read More
 1 Jul 2019 Article/Essay
Essay:
Kesarbai Kerkar, the Indian voice that made it to NASA’s Voyager mission
By Vikram Sampath
Published in The Print - 29 June, 2019

Kesarbai Kerkar insisted on removing microphones, loudspeakers from the stage. If something annoyed her, she would cancel the recital midway.

What’s the India... Read More
 29 Jun 2019 Article/Essay
Essay:
Carnatic music - Centred upon centuries
By T. M. Krishna
Published in The Hindu - 22 January 2011

From the 15th century many treatises have documented and explained various aspects of music that give us a perspective of changes and developments. Below are some of them. Svaramela Kalanidhi... Read More
 29 Jun 2019 Article/Essay
Essay:
Sundarabai, the versatile singer-actor who helped women musicians herself died unsung & poor
By Vikram Sampath
Published in The Print - 16 June 2019

Sundarabai was witness to many changes in the world of music and entertainment, and helped several performers adapt to modern technology.

T... Read More
 28 Jun 2019 Article/Essay
Personality:
Ekla Chalo Re: This ‘One-Man Army’ is Saving India’s Pre-Radio Gramophone Recordings!
By Gopi Karelia
Published in June 3, 2019

15,000 gramophone records are a part of Archive of Indian Music (AIM) that aims to digitise and preserve some of the rare recordings from the pre-radio e... Read More
 27 Jun 2019 Article/Essay
Essay:
Gauhar Jaan, India’s first record artist, took Rs 3,000 a session & threw parties for her cat
By Vikram Sampath
Published in The Print - 5 May, 2019

Gramophone’s search for ‘native’ voices in 1900s brought it to India’s Gauhar Jaan, who would go on to have 600 records to her name.

It was... Read More
 26 Jun 2019 Article/Essay
Essay:
Hindustani vocalist Abdul Karim Khan’s music has special relevance in these communal times
By Vikram Sampath
Published in The Print - 19 May, 2019

Listening to Abdul Karim Khan at the age of 11, Bhimsen Joshi is said to have made up his mind that this was how real music ought to be.

An e... Read More
 25 Jun 2019 Article/Essay
Essay:
Bangalore Nagarathnamma, the singer who took to Sanskrit and feminism in 19th Century India
By Vikram Sampath
Published in The Print - 26 May, 2019

European record companies participated with artists like Nagarathnamma, a devadasi, at a time Indian society hounded them in name of morality... Read More
 24 Jun 2019 Article/Essay
Essay:
Coimbatore Thayi, the Carnatic singer who struck a chord in Paris but is unknown in India
By Vikram Sampath
Published in The Print - 18 June, 2019

Gramophone records were usually colour‐coded based on the artiste’s popularity. Thayi’s was coded violet, indicating she was among the most po... Read More
 23 Jun 2019 Article/Essay
Essay:
Ariyakkudi, maestro who woke up snoring crowds at concerts & made modern-day Carnatic music
By Vikram Sampath
Published in The Print - 23 June, 2019

Ariyakkudi Ramanuja put together styles of various musicians across centuries to create the ‘golden mean’ for Carnatic music.

The foundatio... Read More
 17 Jun 2019 Article/Essay
Essay:
When it comes to antique books, how old is “old”?
Published by Regency Antique Books - 2015

In the world of antique books, “old” means OLD. To the surprise of many antique book collectors who are just getting started, 19th century books and post Victorian (circa 1901) books are generally ... Read More
 11 Jun 2019 Article/Essay
Essay:
Kanhoji Angre, the Maratha Admiral Who Defended Konkan from the Europeans!
by Tanvi Patel
Published in Better India - August 2, 2018

In the late 17th and early 18th century, when the British, the Portuguese and the Mughal Navy base of Siddis were using India’s vast coastline to enter the... Read More
 10 Jun 2019 Article/Essay
Essay:
The Secret of the Veda
By Professor Subhash Kak
Published in Medium - Apr 14,2019

Most people are perplexed about the Vedas. Very few have read them, and those who have find them difficult to understand. They can’t make sense of its many divinities, sacrifices, rituals, riddles and parado... Read More
 2 Jul 2017 Article/Essay
Essay:
The Lost Indika
By Sumedha Verma Ojha
Swarajya - Aug 05, 2016

With a long history of invasion and colonialism, Indians are used to looking at themselves with the gaze of the ?other?, especially if we live in an English language- centred universe. 400 years of Eurocentrism has given us a ... Read More