In the midst of millenarian chaos, the charismatic presence of Akbar – the perfect ruler

Looking at pages from the Tarikh-i-Alfi, the first grand, illustrated historical manuscript made in the emperor’s kitabkhana.

Kavita Singh

· Aug 07, 2021 · 11:30 am

As Jahangir contemplates a portrait of his father, a reversal of our ideas about dreams and reality

Why does the deceased Akbar look more real than the living king?

Kavita Singh

· Jul 18, 2021 · 08:30 am

In a miniature of Humayun and Akbar, time crumples to depict an entire world of learning

This meta-painting uses a paradox to provoke meditations on the relationship between image and illusion, representation and life.

Kavita Singh

· Jun 27, 2021 · 11:30 am

In a resplendent portrait of a Mughal emperor, subtle clues about a dark fall

A meteorological drama reprises the brief flare of glory and the shocking extinction that marked the last weeks of Azim-us-Shan’s life.

Kavita Singh

· Jun 12, 2021 · 11:30 am

In an 18th-century Pahari painting of Dasratha’s funeral, vast vistas of echoing emptiness

Many instances in the history of Indian art deal empathetically with grief but nothing quite equals the elegiac quality of this Ramayana.

Kavita Singh

· May 30, 2021 · 08:30 am

Moving the National Museum: What the opacity about the government’s relocation plan actually reveals

The lack of transparency about the process shows that India’s current rulers don’t care about the museum’s relationship with the general public it should serve.

Kavita Singh

· May 18, 2021 · 09:00 am

The Art of Resistance: In ‘The Siege of Kandhar’, a Mughal-era artist dares to question the emperor

Mughal artists found ways to slip in their own commentary and puncture the grandiose narratives they were obliged to construct.

Kavita Singh

· Jan 01, 2020 · 10:30 am

Krishna wasn’t pointing at Eid moon. He was pointing at a solar eclipse

[Article updated after publication] Paintings are being made today that deliberately adopt archaisms to appear as though they come from the past.

Kavita Singh

· Jun 20, 2018 · 07:30 am

Dalmia-Red Fort debate: These are the questions we really should be asking about the deal

Rather than looking at the money to be made, we should be considering the quality of the work to be undertaken.

Kavita Singh

· May 04, 2018 · 08:00 am

Opinion: By replacing JNU deans, administration ensures unilateral decisions will go unchallenged

Expect the imposition of rules and conditions that cannot even be imagined today.

Kavita Singh

· Mar 19, 2018 · 01:07 pm

‘It is illegal’: JNU has made marking attendance mandatory. Here’s why we are refusing to do so

Many have mistaken it as our refusal to attend classes. This is not the case at all.

Kavita Singh

· Feb 15, 2018 · 12:30 pm

'Dancing Girl' as Parvati is just one of many bizarre claims in ICHR paper on Harappan civilisation

A reading of the essay shows that almost the entire piece is filled with wild conjectures to show that the Indus and Vedic civilisations were linked.

Kavita Singh

· Jan 06, 2017 · 09:00 am