Art Indica with Alka Pande and Nidheesh
Art Indica brings you intimate, insightful conversations between Dr. Alka Pande, revered art historian and curator with over three decades of scholarship, and Nidheesh, founder of Abir Pothi, India's only daily digital art newspaper. Together, they explore the rich art and visual culture of the Indian subcontinent with depth, curiosity, and genuine love for the subject. Season 1: 500 Years of Mughal Arts takes you on a journey through half a millennium of artistic brilliance. You'll discover the stories behind Mughal architecture, miniature painting, and the inner workings of the empire.
Episodes
In Episode 20 of Art Indica with Dr Alka Pande and Nidheesh, we bring Season 2 to a close with a wide-ranging reflection on Indian art, erotica, desire, pleasure, love and spirituality.
Across this season, the series explored one of the most celebrated yet frequently misunderstood aspects of India’s artistic heritage: the erotic in Indian art. From Vatsyayana’s Kama Sutra and the sculptural traditions of Khajuraho to Rad...
What happens when love is experienced through absence?
In Episode 19 of Art Indica with Dr Alka Pande and Nidheesh, we move beyond eroticism to explore the quieter, more emotional dimensions of love in Indian art and culture: tenderness, loyalty, sacrifice, separation, waiting and longing.
The episode introduces the idea of Viraha—the pain and beauty of separation from one’s beloved. From Kalidasa’s Meghaduta and Sa...
"If they see breast and long hair coming, they call it woman. If beard and whiskers, they call it man. But look, the self that hovers in between is neither man nor woman." (Devara Dasimayya, 10th-century Vachana poet)
Is gender fluidity a modern Western idea? Indian art, myth and culture say otherwise. In Episode 18 of Art Indica (Season 2: Indian Erotic Art), host Nidheesh and art historian and curator Dr Alka Pande explore how Ind...
In Episode 17 of Art Indica with Dr Alka Pande and Nidheesh, we explore the profound symbolism of Ardhanarishvara—the composite form of Shiva and Shakti, in which the masculine and feminine exist as one complete and inseparable being.
Represented as half Shiva and half Parvati, Ardhanarishvara is one of the most powerful images in Indian art, mythology, philosophy and visual culture. The form expresses the unity of opposites: ...
In Episode 16 of Art Indica with Alka Pande and Nidheesh, we look closely at the history, cultural significance and complicated legacy of the Devadasis—women who were dedicated to temples and served as dancers, musicians, singers, performers and custodians of artistic traditions.
The Devadasi tradition was rooted in temple rituals, where music and dance were offered as forms of worship. Across different regions of India, templ...
Episode 14 | Season 2 | Indian Art & EroticaIn this episode of Art Indica, Dr. Alka Pande and Nidheesh explore the divine love story of Radha and Krishna, one of Indian art's most pervasive and inspirational themes. From Jayadeva's 12th-century Gita Govinda to Kangra and Kishangarh miniature paintings, discover how this sacred romance shaped Indian aesthetics across poetry, dance, music, and visual arts.What You'll Learn:The ev...
In this episode of Art Indica (Season 2, Episode 13), we delve into one of the most potent and often misunderstood symbols in human culture: the phallus.Joining Nidheesh Tyagi is renowned art historian and curator Dr. Alka Pande, editor and contributor to the book Pha(bu)llus: A Cultural History which explores phallic imagery across India and the world.In This Episode, We Discuss:The Shiva Linga as both sacred emblem and phallic sy...
Who gets to speak about desire in the Kama Sutra? For centuries, the conversation has centred on men. In Episode 12 of Art Indica, Dr Alka Pande shifts the focus to women, drawing on her books A New Age Kama Sutra for Women and Naika and Kama: She Takes Her Pleasure.
This episode explores how women appear in Indian erotic art, literature and visual culture—from the Ashta Nayikas of poetry to the Padmini, Shankhini, Hastini and...
How did the Kama Sutra move from an oral tradition and Sanskrit text into poetry, temple sculpture, miniature painting and private pleasure albums?
In Episode 11 of Art Indica, Dr. Alka Pande and Nidheesh explore the visualisation of the Kama Sutra and the evolution of erotic art in India. The conversation examines how Vatsyayana’s treatise became the foundation of the broader Kama Shastra tradition, inspiring artistic express...
This episode of Art Indica with Dr. Alka Pande and Nidheesh traces the extraordinary journey of the Kama Sutra from ancient India to the modern world. Starting with Vatsyayana’s 3rd–5th century treatise and moving to Richard Francis Burton’s 1883 English translation, published via the clandestine Kama Shastra Society to dodge Victorian obscenity laws, we explore how the text was exoticised, commodified, and misund...
In this episode of Art Indica, Dr. Alka Pande and Nidheesh dive into the misunderstood legacy of the Kama Sutra—beyond sex, beyond scandal.
Discover how Vatsyayana compiled centuries of Indic wisdom to create a guide for the Nagaraka, the cultured urban man of pre-modern India. This episode explores the balance of Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha, the role of women and courtesans, the aesthetics of desire, and how erotic art sh...
In Episode 8 of Art Indica Season 2, we explore Indian erotic art through the cultural, philosophical, and artistic worlds of Kama Sutra, Khajuraho, Konark, and the broader visual traditions of India. In conversation with Dr. Alka Pande and Abir Pothi founder Nidheesh Tyagi, this episode traces how desire, love, rasa, and spirituality intersect in Indian art, architecture, literature, and temple sculpture.
Presented by Abir Pothi
Fro...
For centuries, Lahore stood alongside Delhi and Agra as one of the most important cities of the Mughal Empire. In this special bonus episode of Art Indica, Dr. Alka Pande and Nidheesh explore the rich artistic and cultural legacy of the Mughals in present-day Pakistan.
Discover how Lahore became a center of Mughal architecture, miniature paintings, illuminated manuscripts, gardens, textiles, jewellery, calligraphy, blue pottery, and...
In Episode 6 of Art Indica, we explore the fragile afterlife of Mughal heritage in India through the haunting case of Zeenat Mahal Haveli in Old Delhi — now a girls' school, but once the residence of the youngest wife of the last Mughal emperor.
In conversation with Dr. Alka Pande and Nidheesh, we unpack why historic structures fall into disuse and decay despite their immense cultural value. From the failures of urban planning...
In this episode of Art Indica, Dr. Alka Pande and Nidheesh explore how Mughal aesthetics continue to live on long after the empire itself. Framed as the “afterlife of beauty,” the conversation traces the journey of Mughal design—from pietra dura in the Taj Mahal to floral motifs, paisley forms, carpets, and brocades that remain embedded in contemporary culture.
The episode highlights how Mughal art emerged through ...
In Episode 4 of Art Indica, Dr. Alka Pande and Nidheesh trace the evolving journey of Mughal art and aesthetics across centuries—beginning with its Persian influences and moving through its encounters with European and British visual cultures.
This episode reflects on how Mughal art was never static, but shaped by exchange, adaptation, and shifting political contexts. From miniature painting traditions to architectural forms, ...
Do you want to learn more about some of the greatest visual stories ever told? Join Dr. Alka Pande and Nidheesh in Episode 3 of Art Indica, as they dive into the world of Mughal public spaces: gardens, cities, bazaars, and monuments that still shape how we move, gather, and experience space in India today.
In this 40-minute conversation, they explore:
How Babur hated Delhi’s dust and heat,...
This episode of Art Indica explores the layered world of Mughal art through conversation with Dr. Alka Pande and Nidheesh. We unpack how patronage shaped artistic production, how Hindu themes entered Mughal courts, and how projects like the Razmnama reveal art as a tool of statecraft.
What does it mean to experience empire through the senses?
In Episode 1 of Art Indica, hosts Alka Pande and Nidheesh Tyagi begin a journey through 500 Years of Mughal Arts. Titled Empire of the Senses, this episode explores how Mughal visual culture engaged sight, texture, material, and ornament as forms of power, identity, and aesthetic experience.
Dr. Alka Pande and Nidheesh Tyagi discuss the major art, architecture,...
Do you want to learn more about some of the greatest visual stories ever told? Join Dr. Alka Pande and Nidheesh, co-hosts of Art Indica, as they delve into the world of Mughal art, architecture, and design in the first season.
Each episode, they look at a different facet of Mughal visual culture like paintings, gardens, stones, manuscripts, and objects, bringing the historical context behind these famous works to life. This is not y...
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