The journey of Pallava script from Tamil Nadu to South East Asia

The scripts of Java, Sumatra, Bali, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia were all derived from the Pallava writing system.

Ajay Kamalakaran

· 13 hours ago

From love songs to kurta ads, Urdu is popular with Indians. Why do Hindutva backers hate it so much?

How long will the nineteenth-century politics of Hindi versus Urdu continue?

Shoaib Daniyal

· Oct 24, 2021 · 09:00 am

After an unbroken run of 87 years, India’s oldest classical music magazine is facing a bleak future

Published out of Hathras, ‘Sangeet’ has been a cheerful chronicler of an esoteric world. But with just 650 subscribers left, how long can it last?

Malini Nair

· Oct 23, 2021 · 11:30 am

Vamona Navelcar (1929-2021): A canvas across three continents

The artist lived and worked in India, Portugal and Mozambique, died on October 18.

R Benedito Ferrão

 & 

Vishvesh Prabhakar Kandolkar

· Oct 19, 2021 · 11:30 am

When Maldives was ruled by Catholic kings living all the way in Goa

If history had taken a different turn in the 16th century, the Maldives may have ended up becoming a part of modern India.

Ajay Kamalakaran

· Oct 16, 2021 · 11:30 am

How can Indian cities shield vulnerable migrants from climate change? With better affordable housing

Climate change is stalking migrants from villages to cities. More open spaces can help.

Aaran Patel

· Oct 13, 2021 · 11:30 am

In the 19th century, groups of American women rose up in support of an Indian activist

Pandita Ramabai’s reputation as a pioneering educationist, feminist and Sanskrit scholar had preceded her to the US.

Anu Kumar

· Oct 12, 2021 · 11:30 am

Why khayal, with all its majesty, is content to sing of saas-bahu strife

To the outsider, the words may seem banal. But to the khayaliya, the poetics are not for literary flash – they are pegs to pin the sweep of the raga’s canvas.

Malini Nair

· Oct 09, 2021 · 11:30 am

This comic illustrates the upheavals in the life of a young Indian woman in the pandemic

Shubha, a native of Raigad, had found her dream job at a cinema hall in Mumbai. But the pandemic and the sudden lockdown in 2020 took it all away.

Saya Arima

· Oct 07, 2021 · 11:30 am

Mariamman in Saigon: The story of Vietnam’s most famous Hindu temple

Built in the 19th century for Tamil immigrants, the Mariamman temple now counts ethnic Chinese, Khmer and Vietnamese people among its worshippers.

Ajay Kamalakaran

· Oct 05, 2021 · 11:30 am

How Urdu domestic manuals in the 1900s taught Indian women to be fair and lovely

Many mythologies around food and skin tone can be found in late colonial-era domestic literature, such as ‘Hifz-i-Sihhat’ and ‘Tabib al-Nisa’.

Mobeen Hussain

· Oct 03, 2021 · 11:30 am

Prosecco or prošek? A battle over wine branding is bubbling up between Italy and Croatia

Croatia is seeking EU protection for its ancient dessert wine prošek. Prosecco makers in Italy are having none of it.

Enrico Bonadio, The Conversation

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Magali Contardi, The Conversation

· Sep 29, 2021 · 11:30 pm