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India’s Southern Story
Malabar, Monuments and Museums
Ages 10+
Speakers
Make your way across south India, exploring its kaleidoscopic past and dazzling heritage, right from its first inhabitants up to the Vijayanagara Empire through Pradeep Chakravarthy’s book, A History of South India for Children
Separated from the north by the Vindhya mountains and surrounded on three sides by water, southern India developed its own unique features – with outstanding rulers, incredible literature, spellbinding architecture, stunning dance forms and delicious food.
Meet its royalty and courtiers, builders and sculptors, poets and authors, traders and merchants, spiritual leaders and devotees, and all the other people who went to make it a top destination of the time.
Written in an easy style, by theme, and peppered with illustrations, photographs and tips for museum or monument visits, the book tells the thrilling and eventful story of the region’s proud past.
In this session, Pradeep Chakravarthy is in conversation with Vikram Sampath. A Q&A with the audience will follow.
Speakers
Pradeep Chakravarthy
Dr. Pradeep Chakravarthy is a graduate of the London School of Economics and JNU. He has a PhD in history on the role of temples in the socio- economic and political life of medieval Tamil Nadu. He has more than 2 decades of experience, especially in learning and development. Pradeep’s corporate experience (TVS, Cognizant, Infosys and McKinsey) aids his consulting on helping individuals and organisations change behaviour based on history. His mission is to help people understand present and future behaviour by understanding the past.
Pradeep has authored 10 books with a focus on the culture of Tamil Nadu and how history can help us improve performance at work. He has more than 200 articles in magazines/newspapers mostly on history and its relevance to our lives today. He has also appeared on Netflix (Raja Rasoi), History TV, Discovery channel and TEDx as an expert in this subject. He has recently opened “Anantya in The Village” a heritage hotel in Alwar Tirunagari. He does heritage immersion tours here for children.
Vikram Sampath
Dr. Vikram Sampath is a historian based in Bangalore. He is the author of nine acclaimed books, including Splendours of Royal Mysore: The Untold Story of the Wodeyars, Voice of the Veena: S. Balachander, Women of the Records and Indian Classical Music and the Gramophone. His two-volume biography Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past and Savarkar: A Contested Legacy, and his latest books, Bravehearts of Bharat: Vignettes from Indian History & Waiting for Shiva: Unearthing the Truth of Kashi’s Gyan Vapi have all gone on to become national bestsellers. In 2021, Vikram was elected a fellow of the prestigious Royal Historical Society. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi’s first Yuva Puraskar in English literature and the ARSC International Award for excellence in historical research in New York for his book My Name Is Gauhar Jaan: The Life and Times of a Musician. The book has even been adapted for a play, Gauhar, by Lillette Dubey.
He was among four writers and artists selected as writers-in-residence at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in 2015. Vikram has a doctorate in history and music from the University of Queensland, Australia, and was a senior research fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. He was also a fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, Eisenhower Global Fellow and a visiting fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin. Currently, he is an adjunct senior fellow at Monash University, Australia. He is the Founder of the Archive of Indian Music and the Foundation for Indian Historical and Cultural Research (FIHCR) that fosters new scholarship in Indian history, and curates ARTH: A Culture Fest.
