'Dabhoi Deity'; Mahudi Gate at Dabhoi in Gujarat. The gate was decorated c.

Over the centuries, the Dasamahavidyas and the Shakta Tantra systems have been assimilated and integrated into temple rituals and yogic practices that see the human body and the cosmos having similar structures and intersecting points of energy. The ‘yantra’ of intersecting triangles known as Sri Chakra has come to epitomise all the 10 forms of the goddess (The banner image is a colour lithograph of the 10 aspects of Devi, the divine mother.

Eminently placed in Indian oral tradition, linked tales are precursors to the modern genre of the novel, but they can elastically expand in every retelling. The famous tale of Vikram and Vetal is one such example. However, when they do end, they indicate how cultures provide closures to meaning-making endeavours and reflective listening experiences.

The Sanskritist, novelist, translator and teacher’s brilliant exposition of the multiple connections between aesthetic, religious and erotic rapture in Indian literature narrated with relish and the author’s renowned straddling of academic acumen and intimate tone, the folk tale and the epic.  

Distinguished filmmaker Kumar Shahani and eminent poet Udayan Vajpeyi present a remarkable paper that is equally discourse and dialogue on their idea of the development of rasa.  Both nuanced and penetrating, this essay at once unfolds and foregrounds a hoary aesthetic practice as interpreted by the art filmmaker and his scholar-poet collaborator. This text has its roots in Taittiriya Upanishad that was shown by Shyam Goswami of Vallabhacharya Sampradaya.