Doha

A form of Indian poetry, it is a self-contained rhyming couplet consisting of two lines and formed of twenty-four syllables divided into unequal parts of thirteen and eleven syllables. Popular poets of this form include Kabir, Mirabai, Rahim and Surdas.

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Rigveda

Earliest extant text from the Vedic corpus, dated roughly between 1700 and 1200 BCE. Like the other Vedas, the Rigveda…

Agamic Texts

Meaning “tradition” or “received knowledge” in Sanskrit, the term refers to a set of scriptures within Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.…

Shringara

One of the nine rasas within Indian performing arts, it may be understood as the feeling of love, or as…

Samarangana Sutradhara

A treatise on Indian architecture dating to the eleventh century CE and attributed to King Bhoja of Dhar, Madhya Pradesh.…

Heer-Ranjha

An epic love story popular in the Punjab region across present-day Pakistan and India, it narrates the story of lovers…

Sahitya Akademi

Established in 1952 and inaugurated in 1954, it is India’s National Academy of Letters, created for the promotion and preservation…

Kanjur

A sacred text of the Tibetan Buddhist canon that outlines the principles of vinaya (rules governing monastic communities), monastic discipline,…

Shaivite Upanishads

A body of fourteen Upanishadic texts dedicated to Shaiva traditions and practice, which expound on the worship of the Hindu…