Justice for Animals (and more) from Sanskrit Epics

Ruth Vanita’s many books include Love’s Rite: Same-Sex Marriages in Modern India (Penguin, 2005; updated editions 2021; 2023); Dancing with the Nation: Courtesans in Bombay Cinema; Gender, Sex and the City: Urdu Rekhti Poetry, 1780-1870; and, most recently, The Dharma of Justice in the Sanskrit Epics: Debates on Gender, Varna and Species (Oxford University Press, 2022). She co-edited the path-breaking Same-Sex Love in India: A Literary History (2000). She is the author of over 70 articles on English and Indian literatures, and has translated several works of fiction and poetry from Hindi to English, most recently Mahadevi Varma’s My Family [Mera Parivar] (Penguin, 2021). Her first novel, Memory of Light, appeared from Penguin in 2020, and her second novel will appear from Penguin next year. Her book, The Broken Rainbow: Poems and Translations appeared from Copper Coin in 2023. She is now working on a book on Shakespeare. She taught for many years at Delhi University and the University of Montana. She divides her time between Missoula and Gurgaon.

Megh Kalyanasundaram is an Indian citizen with close to nine years of lived experience in China, an alumnus of ISB and is currently Director Special Projects at INDICA. His post-graduate specialization in Strategy, Leadership and Marketing included a study of research methods. His professional experience includes stints as a Market Leader at a Global Fortune 50 firm, as Head of Business Development at a leading Indian talent development multinational and he has served a term on the Board of a Shanghai-based not-for-profit. His academic research interests and 20+ papers span some aspects of ancient Indian chronology, Indian Knowledge Systems, Landscape in Indic texts, Ancient Indian Jurisprudence, Ideas of India and Philosophy. For his creative contribution to the first edition of the International Day of Yoga, he was invited by the Permanent Mission of India in the United Nations to attend the inaugural event at the UN. Other professional and pro-bono pursuits have included building differentiated digital platforms for Indic texts targeted at specific learning and research needs and music. His research-based compositional Sanskrit album 'Bhārata and her Kāśmīra' has been listed by the Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts (IGNCA) while his subsequent album 'Indian Knowledge Systems and Yāskācārya's Nirukta' has recently been accepted for listing by the Vedic Heritage Portal. In 2022, Megh was invited by the National Museum Institute (NMI) to contribute content for multiple projects currently underway at NMI, including ones on Jammu Kashmir & Ladakh and Kedarnath.