“Through this illustrated talk we will cover the reasons for the deleterious decline of hand-block printing traditions in the 18th Century and their revival and regeneration in the India of today.” – Dr. Ritu Sethi for Sarmaya Talks. Dr Ritu Sethi is the editor of Global InCH, the online international journal of intangible cultural heritage,… Read more »
How albumen, a sticky substance found in egg whites, took the elite European hobby of photography and turned into a global phenomenon
Test your knowledge about the earliest days of Indian railways and some milestone train journeys
For this special edition of Sarmaya Talks, our founder Paul Abraham was in conversation with two of the three authors of A New History of India – From Its Origins To The Twenty-First Century, Prof. Rudrangshu Mukherjee and conservationist Toby Sinclair. Art historian Dr Shobita Punja lent her brilliant insights to A New History…:… Read more »
Let’s tackle some FAQs to better appreciate this fascinating, historical mode of travel and the people who made it possible.
By ship, by yacht, by elephant and by camel. We follow the heir to Queen Victoria on an elaborate tour of India in 1875
Thomas Herbert’s best-selling 17th-century travelogue details an enchanting encounter with a dodo, only years before the bird went extinct
Painted on cotton cloths, Shatrunjaya patas map the physical and divine characteristics of the sacred hill in Palitana, Gujarat
Painted on cotton and imbued with piety, Shatrunjaya patas map the physical and divine characteristics of the sacred hill in Palitana, Gujarat
In ancient India, cave complexes sheltered travellers and traders too besides priests and monks. Take our quiz to learn about these rock-cut rest-stops
Over six years spent travelling around India, Louis Rousselet learned photography and captured some of the most beautiful scenes of the Subcontinent, from the Himalayas to the Nilgiris and from coast to coast
Odisha’s Pattachitra paintings are rooted in the culture of the seaside town of Puri and, more specifically, in its legendary Jagannath temple
The Ganga is one of the largest contributors to plastic pollution in the world’s oceans. But this wasn’t always the case
In conversation with professional geographer Dr Manosi Lahiri about the ways in which travellers have helped to draw the map of India
Conversations on the repatriation of museum objects continue to evolve and encounter new complexities
Fanny Parkes’s richly illustrated journals give us a sense of the freedom that the author experienced as a woman traveller in 19th-century India
Five books that showcase how the world once saw India
“I found myself going back to the different ways in which Ashoka was remembered and trying to understand how memories of him had been accumulating and eroding like the slabs of rocks on which he had left his words. I then decided to combine this with the fun and feel of his forms in Thailand,… Read more »
For our 36th edition of Sarmaya Spotlight, we bring you the most picturesque destinations, thrilling travel stories and colourful souvenirs from across the Subcontinent
Pichwai paintings were born in the temple town of Nathdwara in Rajasthan and centre the 8-year-old deity, Shrinathji