Stories

Opium and the Orient: An Intoxicant Made by Indian Labour
Chandrica BaruaChandrica Barua
The Travelling Gates: A Misadventure with Restoration
Karishma KoshalKarishma Koshal
A Sticky Reputation: South Asia Through Mangoes Then and Now
Karishma KoshalKarishma Koshal
An Indian Dancer Through an American Lens: Ram Gopal Visits Carl van Vechten
Krishna P UnnyKrishna P Unny
The Palais Indiens: Early Architectural Studies of Monuments in India
Aswathy GopinathAswathy Gopinath
Documenting Trauma: The Colonial Gaze and the Ethics of Photography in 19th Century India and Myanmar
Rachna ShettyRachna Shetty
In Perpetual Bloom: Pietra Dura Ornamentation at the Taj Mahal
Arundhati ChauhanArundhati Chauhan
Kalila wa Dimna: Arabic Fables Inspired by the Panchatantra
Chandrica BaruaChandrica Barua
Jain Monks, Scythian Princes and Persianate Influences: A 15th-century Folio
Simran Agarwal Simran Agarwal
When Queen Victoria Tried to “Place Her Authority on the Mughal Throne”
Niyati Dave, Pallavi SuranaNiyati Dave, Pallavi Surana
The Courtesan Who Commanded an Army: Begum Samru
Chandrica BaruaChandrica Barua
Staining Lips Red for Centuries: The Heart-Shaped Betel Leaf
Niyati DaveNiyati Dave
Seeing Yourself in the Divine: The Sacred Mirrors of Kerala
Diya ShahDiya Shah
How South Asian Art Reached the World’s Museums
Niyati DaveNiyati Dave
What One of the Earliest Mughal Paintings Says about Power and Ancestry
Diya Shah Diya Shah
A Fifth-Century Sanskrit Play, Illustrated in Paris
Aswathy GopinathAswathy Gopinath
‘Heads’ for the Queen: Rudolf Swoboda’s Indian Portraits
Chandrica BaruaChandrica Barua
Art Meets Science: An 18th-Century Album Recording the Natural World
Chandrica BaruaChandrica Barua
How Kodak Ads Captured the Changing Indian Family
Khushmi MehtaKhushmi Mehta
Many Forms, Many Lives: Lajja Gauri in Indian Art
Simran AgarwalSimran Agarwal
How a Victorian Magazine Paved the Way for Satirical Writing in India
Aswathy GopinathAswathy Gopinath
The Unicorn Seals: An Indus Valley Mystery
Rachna ShettyRachna Shetty
From ‘Joy-Giver’ to Antidote: Cannabis Consumption in India
Khushmi MehtaKhushmi Mehta
European Cherubs and Hindu Gods: A Portrait of Emperor Jahangir
Niyati Dave, Anirudh KanisettiNiyati Dave, Anirudh Kanisetti
What a Sixteenth-century Manuscript Says about Syncretism, Mysticism and Kingship in Bijapur
Rachna Shetty Rachna Shetty
Visions of an Unusual Utopia: Nek Chand’s Rock Garden
Arundhati ChauhanArundhati Chauhan
What Hero Stones Say about Death, Glory and Religion in Medieval India
Anirudh KanisettiAnirudh Kanisetti
Collecting Chinese Porcelains in the Persianate World
Anirudh KanisettiAnirudh Kanisetti
Caricaturing the West: Mewar’s ‘European Concoctions’
Chandrica BaruaChandrica Barua
Spiritual Transformations: Devī to Kami, India to Japan
Chandrica BaruaChandrica Barua
Distilling Rain in Three Acts: Paint, Dance, Bottle
Chandrica BaruaChandrica Barua
Amrita and Boris: A Romance in Images
Khushmi MehtaKhushmi Mehta
An Immortal Imaginary: The Legacy of Amar Chitra Katha
Chandrica BaruaChandrica Barua
Tarikh-i-Alfi: Creating the Image of an Ideal King
Anirudh KanisettiAnirudh Kanisetti
Collaboration amidst Contention: A Crossborder Art Exchange
Khushmi MehtaKhushmi Mehta
Adverts, Prints, Identity: The Unexpected Story of Tea Consumption in India
Aswathy GopinathAswathy Gopinath
Vishnu as Varaha: The Divine Boar From the Medieval to Modern
Anirudh KanisettiAnirudh Kanisetti
Worship, Beauty and Fragrance: The Many Lives of the Jasmine Flower
Chandrica BaruaChandrica Barua
Taxidermy, Beyond the Narrative of Trophy-Hunting
Rachna ShettyRachna Shetty
Performing Art, Displaying Culture: Artisan Exhibits in Colonial Exhibitions
Arundhati Chauhan, Chandrica BaruaArundhati Chauhan, Chandrica Barua
Tales of Power and Prowess: Hanuman Bearing a Mountaintop with Medicinal Herbs
Khushmi MehtaKhushmi Mehta
Lakshmi or Lakmé?: 19th Century Fashionable Orientalism
Chandrica BaruaChandrica Barua
Finding the Dangling Man Across History
Varun NayarVarun Nayar
Hunting the Tiger: A Symbol of Imperial Power
Khushmi Mehta, Chandrica BaruaKhushmi Mehta, Chandrica Barua
How Did Rajput Women Resist Patriarchal Portraiture?
Khushmi MehtaKhushmi Mehta
Spies, the City of Tawariq and the Hamzanama
Pooja SavansukhaPooja Savansukha
Kundan: Its History, Patronage and Making
Shrey MauryaShrey Maurya
The Peculiar Phenomenon of the Ajanta Cave Paintings
Shrey MauryaShrey Maurya
Street-theatre as a Form of Protest: Safdar Hashmi and JANAM
Khushmi MehtaKhushmi Mehta
The Waq-Waq Tree and How it Fuelled the Mughal Imagination
Pooja SavansukhaPooja Savansukha
Parodying the Dubious Morality of the Bengali Middle-Class
Shivani KasumraShivani Kasumra
Quilting as a Form of Assimilation: Siddi Quilts and Quilt-makers
Shrey MauryaShrey Maurya
Is Renaldi’s Muslim Lady Reclining a Subject to Voyeurism?
Pooja SavansukhaPooja Savansukha
What’s an Ideal Response to Falling in Love?
Khushmi MehtaKhushmi Mehta
Painting or a Diagram?: Looking at the Ayurvedic Man
Shivani KasumraShivani Kasumra
Tracing Early Globalisation Through the Pineapple
Anirudh KanisettiAnirudh Kanisetti
How Talismanic Shirts Combined War and Literature
Shivani KasumraShivani Kasumra
Karma, Rebirth and Naraka According to Jain Cosmology
Shrey MauryaShrey Maurya
What Makes a Tortoise Representative of the Earth in Bhagavata Purana?
Chandrica BaruaChandrica Barua
The Orientalisation of Victoria Gouramma
Chandrica BaruaChandrica Barua
Karaikkal Ammaiyar: The Shaiva Poet-Saint
Shrey MauryaShrey Maurya
Traversing Linear Perspective: Awadh through Faizallah’s Eyes
Arundhati ChauhanArundhati Chauhan
How did an Indian Game on Cosmic Philosophy Transfix Victorian England?
Arundhati ChauhanArundhati Chauhan
The Emperor and his Wine Cups
Shrey MauryaShrey Maurya
The Dutch East India Company’s “Imitation” of the Indian Patola
Pooja SavansukhaPooja Savansukha
What Does the Legacy of Malik Ambar Tell us About the African-origin Diaspora in India?
Pooja SavansukhaPooja Savansukha
What Rembrandt Learned from Mughal Miniatures
Shrey MauryaShrey Maurya
Otherworldly Labyrinthes: The Purposes Forged by Stepwells
Pooja SavansukhaPooja Savansukha
A Clandestine Meeting of Lovers: Chokha’s “Escapade at Night”
Shrey MauryaShrey Maurya
Jewels and Horses: How the Horsehead Hilts combined two royal interests of the Mughals
Shrey MauryaShrey Maurya
From Monasteries to Community Theatre
Shrey MauryaShrey Maurya
How Taj Mahal Inspired Dilras Banu Begum’s Tomb
Pooja SavansukhaPooja Savansukha
A Zoophyte Fantasy?
Pooja SavansukhaPooja Savansukha
Does “Krishna’s Longing for Radha” Echo the Lyricism of Jayadeva’s Gita Govinda?
Pooja SavansukhaPooja Savansukha
Offering Empathy: The Abhaya Mudra
Shrey MauryaShrey Maurya
Of Shiva or Ravana?: The Origins of Rudra Veena
Shrey MauryaShrey Maurya
Murder and Art: The Kalighat Paintings of the Tarakeshwar Murder Trial
Pallavi SuranaPallavi Surana
Mapping the History of Ladakh’s Looms Through Murals
Shrey MauryaShrey Maurya
What Can the Construction of Gardens Reveal to us About Imperial Motives?
Pooja SavansukhaPooja Savansukha

Stories