Friday, August 1, 2014

Listening to Nayanjot Lahiri

Thanks to infosys prize in social sciences, got to hear Archeological Historian Nayanjot LAhiri at MIDS and IIT Madras.

At MIDS she spoke abt Ashok.

Prof. Lahiri
1. Prof A.R.V introduced her and talked of being fascinated by the style n substance of her book 'Finding Forgotten cities' and her essay on Kosambi, which probably occured in epw.

2. she started off the lec with a pic of the yerragudi rock inscription.

3. impreesed upon us the expanse of the edicts their NEWS extremeties. KAndahar to rajauli dhauli.

4. she refuted charles allen's take that Ashoka had been forgotten by Indians and it was the British who discovered him. later in response to a question frm the audience she cited how ashoka was mentioned in kalhana's rajatarangini, and in the accounts of Fahien and Hieuntsang.

5. an ajeevika had foretold of Ashok's exploits b4 his birth ( he was not the eldest). This would explain Ashok's soft corner for Ajivika's. His donation and exquisitely polished and worked cave for them in Barabar hlls, near Gaya.

6. a stupa in Kanipura near Ujjain had been layered with bricks by Vaishyaputri Devi ( d/o a business man and hence named so)w/o ashoka, and m/o MAhinda and Sangamitra, with a sapling of the Bodhi would go to Srilanka, ruled by Devanampiya Tissa, to spread Budhism there.

7. at this point the way she would relate ashoka's marriage to devi was not very convincing.
sculpture by Meera mukherjee at Kalinga

8. kalinga is on the banks of Daya river

9. bramagiri, sidapur, and jatinga rameshwar within 5 kms all in one line of sight.

10. boria stupa in mt.girnar

11.the very skilful breaching of a stupa to reach for the relic in Vaishali

at IIT, on the next day, 31/7/14, she talked abt Indus valley civilisation:

1. shell ladles from nageshwar, and chert from Rohri in Sindh found at differnt sites suggest the kind of trade involved.

2. the small sivaling at Kalibangana
3. daya ram sahni, rakhaldas banerjee, Madho sarup vats
4. ' First light on a long forgotten civilisation'- the article by John Marshall declaring the ingenuity of the civilisation.
5. consequent inc in the funding for ASI from 24000 rs to 2 lacs
6. Amalananda Gosh and his role in discovering Kalibangan in Bikaner
7. K.M. Panikar, founder of HT,the then diwan of Bikaner and his role
8. the cruel n tragic way in which the Indus artefacts were divided btwn India and Pak and wished we could emulate the precedence set by NG and the Louvre in the case of bronze sculpture of st christopher carrying Child Jesus.
Saint Christopher Carrying the Christ Child with the Globe of the World (c. 1500/1509) by Severo Calzetta da Ravenna

More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/6086/Saint-Christopher-Carrying-the-Christ-Child-at-NG#.U9vdSUA7hy8[/url]
Copyright © artdaily.org
Saint Christopher Carrying the Christ Child with the Globe of the World (c. 1500/1509) by Severo Calzetta da Ravenna

More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/6086/Saint-Christopher-Carrying-the-Christ-Child-at-NG#.U9vdSUA7hy8[/url]
Copyright © artdaily.org
Saint Christopher Carrying the Christ Child with the Globe of the World (c. 1500/1509) by Severo Calzetta da Ravenna

More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/6086/Saint-Christopher-Carrying-the-Christ-Child-at-NG#.U9vdSUA7hy8[/url]
Copyright © artdaily.org
Saint Christopher Carrying the Christ Child with the Globe of the World (c. 1500/1509) by Severo Calzetta da Ravenna

More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/6086/Saint-Christopher-Carrying-the-Christ-Child-at-NG#.U9vdSUA7hy8[/url]
Copyright © artdaily.org
Saint Christopher Carrying the Christ Child with the Globe of the World (c. 1500/1509) by Severo Calzetta da Ravenna

More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/6086/Saint-Christopher-Carrying-the-Christ-Child-at-NG#.U9vdSUA7hy8[/url]
Copyright © artdaily.org
8. Luis Testitori, the italian and his role in Jain vernacular and archeology, in response to a q.



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