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Terrace Tales: A Liminal Space Where Stories, Memory, and Dharma Transcend Language
Terrace Tales is examined as a book where the everyday South Asian terrace becomes a liminal space that enables stories to transcend language through gesture, sound, memory, and ritual. The analysis emphasizes how multimodal narrative strategiesvisual cues, translanguaging, and soundscapessupport comprehension across linguistic communities. It highlights Dharmic unity by drawing ethical through-lines from Hinduism, Buddhism,…
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Betageri Krishna Sharma (Anandakanda): Editor, Educator, and Architect of Kannada Sahitya’s Legacy
Betageri Krishna Sharma (1900–1982), known as Anandakanda, bridged classroom and newsroom to help shape twentieth-century Kannada Sahitya. As editor of Matru Bhumi and Svadharma and founder of Jayanti, he advanced a rigorous yet accessible print culture that nurtured new writers and informed readers. The analysis situates his biography in the context of Kannada’s Navodaya-era transformation,…
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Before Surdas: Periyalvar’s South Indian Bhakti that First Envisioned Child Krishna’s Play
This long-form study maps how Tamil Āḻvar poetryespecially Periyāḻvār’s Tiruppallāṇḍu and Periyāḻvār Tirumoḻipioneered an intimate, vernacular devotion to Krishna as a child centuries before Surdas. It explains the theological innovation of blessing the Lord, the poetic craft that domesticates the divine, and the temple-liturgy networks that diffused these moods northward. The analysis situates Periyāḻvār within…
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Mian Muhammad Bakhsh (1830–1907): The Soul-Stirring Sufi Voice Behind Saif-ul-Malook
Mian Muhammad Bakhsh (1830–1907), the renowned Punjabi Sufi poet of Khari Sharif in Azad Kashmir, shaped 19th-century literature through Saif-ul-Malook and a broader vernacular corpus that fused classical learning with oral tradition. His allegorical narrative of Prince Saif maps a universal journey from longing to spiritual realization, making profound insights accessible to everyday audiences. The…
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A 19th Century Murder that Excavated a Second-Century Sanskrit Manuscript: Episode One
How the brutal murder of a 19th century British trader led to the unlikely discovery of a valuable 2nd century Sanskrit Manuscript. The story begins with the British explorer, tea-planter and diplomat Robert Barkley Shaw who established the Central Asian Trading Company in 1873 to trade primarily in Indian tea.