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The geometry of rangoli and what mathematicians missed
I want to argue that the Indian craft of rangoli encodes a vocabulary of symmetries that Western mathematics only formalised in the 20th century...
Why the gurukula failed in Bangalore
A field report from three failed attempts to revive traditional pedagogy in an urban setting, and what each told us about the assumptions...
On the politics of pronouncing Sanskrit "wrong"
There is a vigorous online subculture devoted to correcting other people's Sanskrit pronunciation. I argue this is not preservation but performance...
Tyāgarāja's English problem
How does one translate "Nidhi cālā sukhamā" into English? Every option betrays something. A meditation on what survives translation...
The math behind Bharatanatyam tāḷas
I have always wondered whether the seven tāḷas in Bharatanatyam are arbitrary or deduced from first principles. Here is an attempt at the second...
Why Andhra Pradesh stopped reading Tikkana
A small literary mystery: the decline of Tikkana studies in the state where he is from, traced through textbook revisions and language politics...
Pañcāṅga literacy and the smartphone generation
A teaching journal from 18 months trying to revive almanac literacy in college students. What worked, what did not, what surprised me...