The Society for Ethnobotany has honoured my first book, The Tropical Turn, with the Mary W. Klinger Book Award—so grateful for yet another book prize! ethnobotany.org/home/awards/...
The Society for Ethnobotany
ethnobotany.org
Suresh Kumar
@vicitracitta.bsky.social
Historian of ancient Afro-Eurasia | MSt (Oxon) PhD (Lond) | Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore | http://instagram.com/vicitracitta/ 📷's (©) are mostly mine.
My co-authored book in Nature's top 5 science picks! Quite appropriate, since the nature spirits of the Indian subcontinent—and their integration and reformulation by local religious traditions—are central to the book. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
What puzzles people, past and present: Books in brief
Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.
nature.com
A hot pink wall featuring my co-authored book, Ancient India: Living Traditions, at the British Museum's special exhibition store: www.britishmuseumshoponline.org/ancient-indi...
“Ancient India : Living Traditions” opens tomorrow at the British Museum! Here’s the fab review in this morning’s Times. Congrats Sushma Jansari and @vicitracitta.bsky.social !!! Ancient India: Living Traditions review — gods and rituals come to life www.thetimes.com/article/88d8...
Ancient India: Living Traditions review — gods and rituals come to life
The British Museum’s atmospheric show looks at the devotional art of the region’s main religious traditions
thetimes.com
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Your chance to stare down a god: inside the British Museum’s mesmerising look at Indian religions
A show full of deities, snakes and shrines puts three ancient faiths in the spotlight. Our writer seeks out its inspiration in the bustling metropolis of Mumbai
theguardian.com
Chapter preview of "Ancient India: Living Traditions," a book I co-authored with Sushma Jansari, the Tabor Foundation Curator of South Asia at the British Museum. The book accompanies a major exhibition of the same title at the British Museum (22 May - 19 Oct 2025).
The Musée Guimet’s ongoing exhibition on Cambodian bronzes includes this stunning digital restoration of the 11th-century West Mebon Viṣṇu. Source: www.lemonde.fr/culture/arti...
Reliefs from the Terrace of the Leper King, Angkor, early to mid-13th century
Much more on this in the book I co-authored with Sushma Jansari (British Museum) for this exhibition: www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/04/30/i...
In a new exhibition, the British Museum traces the shared roots of three ancient Indian religions
Devotional art reveals how Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism have more in common than is widely believed
theartnewspaper.com
Hoof-shaped Attic red-figure cup with a herding scene, c. 470-460 BCE, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Paintings from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale, Italy, c. 50-40 BCE, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Temple door socket from Marad with an Akkadian inscription of Narām-Sîn (late 23rd century BCE) documenting his battles and his son Lipit-ilī's construction of a temple for the tutelary deity of Marad, New York Public Library
Look what arrived! "Ancient India: Living Traditions," a book I co-authored with Sushma Jansari is now available for purchase at the British Museum's shops (wider release on 22/5). The book accompanies a major exhibition of the same title at the British Museum (22/5-12/10).
Lapis lazuli seal showing a worshipper before two altars with divine symbols, c. 626-539 BCE, Babylonia, Morgan Library, New York
Steatite seal showing a deity striding over a composite creature and taking aim at a lion-griffin, c. 1000-700 BCE, Mesopotamia, Morgan Library, New York
Carnelian seal depicting a winged hero/ deity contesting with a lion, c. 800-650 BCE, Mesopotamia, Morgan Library, New York. The seal is inscribed with a prayer to the god Nabû on behalf of its owner Nabû-nādin-šumi.
Hematite seal with suppliant deities and scorpions before a winged goddess with weapons, c. 1720-1650 BCE, Syria, Morgan Library, New York
Apkallū from Aššur-nāṣir-apli II's (883-859 BCE) palace at Kalḫu, Brooklyn Museum
Selections from 'Recasting the Past: The Art of Chinese Bronzes, 1100–1900', Metropolitan Museum of Art, Feb-Sept 2025
Fragment of a faience rhyton with a lion protome, 525-404 BCE, Achaemenid Egypt, Brooklyn Museum
The Egyptian official Ptahhotep wearing an Achaemenid Persian torque with ibex protomes, 525-404 BCE, Temple of Ptah, Memphis, Egypt, Brooklyn Museum
Artist's model or trial piece depicting two Amarna-era rulers, most likely Akhenaten and Nefertiti, third quarter of the 14th century BCE, Amarna (Akhetaten), Egypt, Brooklyn Museum
A few more from the Brooklyn Museum's Indian art collection
Jade vessel from Mughal India in the collection of the Qianlong Emperor (has a reign mark on its foot), mid-17th century, Brooklyn Museum
Female figure, 1st century CE, Sirkap or Charsadda, Pakistan, Brooklyn Museum
Avalokiteśvara, 10th century, Kurkihar, Bihar, India, Brooklyn Museum
Harpokrates, 1st/ 2nd century CE, Gandhāra, Brooklyn Museum
