Symposium on Jaati Puranas

Dr Nagaraj Paturi trained in Sanskrit and Advaita Vedanta by his hyper-polyglot, polymath and spiritually accomplished sakala-shaastra-paarangata father, late Sri Paturi Sitaramanjaneyulu garu, he is seriously committed to the transmission of Vedic sciences to the present generation. He designed a very big number of courses of contemporary applications of Vedic Sciences and has been successfully teaching them and getting them taught. Presently he is Presently he is Director, Indic Academy And Distinguished Professor, Curriculum Designer, Executive Committee Member and Member, Board of Studies, MIT School of Vedic Sciences, Pune. Member, Board of Studies for Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Kavikulaguru Kalidasa Sanskrit University, Veda Vijnana Gurukula. Formerly Senior Professor of Cultural Studies FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of Liberal Education Former Visiting Professor, University of Chicago, US) In his PhD (1998, UoH) Developed Indic Model of Myth Criticism of Literature. MPhil (1987, UoH) Brought out Vakyapadiyam as theoretical foundation of Ashtaadhyaayee Around 50 publications, around 60 conference /seminar/ workshop papers. Consultancy to numerous culture research and theater and dance innovation projects. Scores of creative writing works for Classical Dance, Modern Theater and magazines. Several series of talks and other programs on Radio and Television channels.

Prof. P. Subbachary, Former Head, Department of Folklore and Tribal Studies, is currently a Visiting Professor CDAST, University of Hyderabad. He has a Ph.D from the Osmania University. Dr. P. Subbachary has numerous awards and recognitions to his credit. He has authored 28 books and 250 research papers in Telugu and English. Dr. P. Subbachary has successfully completed 4 research projects and is also part of an ongoing project.

Prof. M.N. Venkatesha is a Dean at the School of Human and Social Sciences. He is the Head of the Department of Folklore & Tribal studies. Dr. M.N. Venkatesha has been involved in various research projects studying the folk & tribal cultures. He has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Karnataka Sahithya Academy Award in 2021. The Professor has organized and also taken part in various conferences and seminars. Dr. M.N. Venkatesha has authored more than 10 books and published more than 100 papers in various national & international journals.

Halley Kalyan is an inquisitive Hindu trying to understand Sanatana Dharma. He has a B.Tech in Computer Science and also holds an MBA degree from an IIM. He works as a product manager in the IT industry for livelihood. When not busy with work he is busy reading and engaging with the world on the following areas: Modernity-Tradition-Continuity; Religion-Ecology-Economics; Technology-Society. Jati/Kula Puranas are a topic of particular interest given their pivotal role in nurturing and transmitting cultural memory on this land. Jati Puranas are a very unique cultural inheritance of Hindus (and Indians) in that they are living cultural formations that not only sacralised work but also provided meaning and sense of identity to a vast plethora of Jatis over the ages. In this presentation an attempt will be made to present Jati Puranas and the complex web of inter relationships between various Jatis involved in this eco system using a Dharmic lens as opposed to an oft-used exploiter-exploited lens.

M S Chaitra, currently Associate professor, School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Chanakya University Bengaluru. His work involves reconceptualizing Indian intellectual traditions. Most of his research is an attempt to access and reconstruct the extraordinary understanding of the experiential world that the Indian intellectual traditions have offered to humanity. This endeavour involves comparing the western and Indian cultures using the framework called Comparative Science of Cultures. He started his professional life as a biologist who specialized in molecular genetics, ecology, and evolutionary biology. Before starting his work in social sciences, he worked with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) Dehradun, and the Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. He is one of the founders of the initiative called Aarohi Research Foundation and he served as Senior fellow at India Studies Unit at CESS, Bengaluru.

Sumanaspati Reddy is an ethnographer, writer, translator, culture- critic, photographer, radio broadcaster and documentary filmmaker. After serving All India Radio as producer for 30 years, he is now completing many of his unfinished projects including books and films on the cultures of the adivasi communities of Adilabad. During his tenure at All India Radio, he has done significant work in creating audio archives of the fast disappearing folklore, songs and mythologies of rural and adivasi communities of Telangana. His Telugu short story Nissabdam figured in Katha-90, an anthology of the best Telugu short stories published in the year 1990. He has edited two books which feature Telugu translations of important research papers of the celebrated anthropologist Christopher von Furer Haimendorf and his student Michael Yorke on the fortunes and culture of the Raj Gonds of Adilabad.