The Voice of Vyāsa: Viewing the Mahābhārata as an itihāsa

Abstract

The Mahābhārata has been interpreted differently by various scholars. Some consider it as a text whose layers should be separated to find out an historical kernel, some view it as a synthetic whole. It has been variously seen as a history of the Kurus, as a literary creation based on the śānta rasa, as an extension of Indo-European mythology, or as a Brahmanical reaction against heterodox religions. However, a careful survey of the text, by analyzing its internal evidence and comparing it with other corroborative sources may be useful to historically locate the history of its text-creation in various stages by various authors.

In that history, a very significant factor seems to be its attributed author, Vyāsa. The paper tries to show the intricacies of that attribution which is crucial for the text’s assertion of a new philosophy of behavioural fitness and ability over the crystallizing Brahmanical notion of hereditary varṇa. The paper also discusses how this fresh and unusual voice makes the text an epoch-making one in tradition, representative of the end of an era, the juncture in history when ‘past’ ends and ‘future’ begins.

Speaker:  Kanad Sinha, Research Scholar, CHS, SSS, JNU

Venue:  Committee Room, JNU Central Library

Date and Time: 31st August 2013 (Saturday), 4:30 pm

Interdisciplinary Approach: How to get Yourself Involved

Aim: The goal of the seminar is to familiarize about the notion ‘necessity of interdisciplinary knowledge for smoothing, enriching learning experience with wider touch to domain specific knowledge and enhancing understanding of oneself as well as one's own subject through mutual learning'.

Objective: This seminar will provide a great opportunity to interact all of the students and faculties of JNU from various disciplines. It would help to enrich the knowledge and a greater understanding not only of its own discipline and the inter-linkages of different dimension of knowledge.

What shall we do in the seminar?

            We will have some lectures by eminent faculties and others to help to understand the relevance/importance of interdisciplinary approach through mutual learning in the world of academia.

What to achieve?

            Motivate people who can venture into learning and understanding of different subjects and eventually are more effective in making understanding of subject from different aspects and also may be able to deliver the same to the society in efficient manner.

            The forum may receive more attention, volunteers and can gain the momentum so that it can work more efficiently and prove more fruitful to the JNU community.

Date: 5th April 2013 

Time: 9.30 am - 5 pm

Venue: SSS-I Committee Room, School Of Social Sciences, 

Jawaharlal Nehru University

For the programme schedule click here

Celluloid Cinephilia: Film Society Cultures in India

Abstract

 This paper intends to narrate the unexplored history of the film society movement in India. It is an attempt to revisit a moment of organized cinephilia that was primarily centered on the appreciation of International and Indian art cinemas as well as the Indian New Wave movement. The period from the early 1960s through the 1970s is referred to as the high moment of such cultural activity marked by debates on the art and craft of cinema, institutional support from the government combined with increasing success in terms of screenings and memberships, which eventually waned out by the mid 1980s.  By examining the inception histories of significant film societies of the movement, specifically from Calcutta, Delhi, Bombay, Patna and Bangalore, this paper will map the collaborations and networks through which films were accessed, circulated and viewed as an alternative to the prevalent mainstream cinemas. Looking at stories and memories of film society members, this paper argues that the circulation of the celluloid film object and peoples’ experiences around it were as crucial to the momentum of the film society movement as the content of the alternative cinemas that was preferred. Therefore, this paper uses the prism of cinephilia to generate the variant film cultures engendered by film societies as they endeavored to make meaning of cinema and its relationship to modern society.

     Speaker:  

Abhija Ghosh, Research Scholar, Cinema Studies, SAA, JNU

Venue:  Committee Room, JNU Central Library

Date and Time: 22^nd March 2013 (Friday), 4:30 pm

Understanding the Union Budget 2013-14

Abstract

The Union Budget is the most important economic event of the year for the nation and sets the direction of the economy. As such, it is crucial to the life of every individual – whether a businessman or the poorest of the poor. While tax related proposals are important, expenditures are crucial to the well-being of the public. The Union budget is important for the States since resources are transferred to them. It impacts the health of the Public Sector Units and determines how well the Five year Plans work.

It is a complex document consisting of many parts which are not easily understandable by the lay public, especially because many technical terms are used. It impacts both the macro and the micro economic environment. At times, what may appear to be sound policy may turn out to be otherwise. It is not just an economic statement but also a political one.

Speaker:  

Prof. Arun Kumar, CESP/SSS, JNU 

and Prof. Abhijit Sen, CESP/SSS, JNU and Member, Planning Commission.

Venue:  Lecture Hall 1, Convention Centre, JNU

Date and Time: 4th March 2013 (Monday), 4:30 pm

Finding Geospatial Solution of Social Crime

Abstract

The presence of crime in society today is a multifaceted problem. It is the result of many factors and no attempt will be made here to explain all crime. Crime is the violation of the rules and regulations enforced by the society from time to time for which definite punishment is set by law. It is an inherent part of every society irrespective of their level of development, geographical location etc. But the magnitude and the nature of crime vary across time, space. Social crime is a deviated behaviour and to a large extent tradition, culture of the society has bearing on this. Such as the nature of crime against women is somehow determined by the patriarchy which put women as a subordinate to men like a weak, private commodity. In the present discussion we would like to focuses on the present nature of crime against women in Delhi and would like to explore the possibilities of reducing this by introducing the geospatial technology. Since the integration of geospatial and surveillance technologies has the capability of quick decision making, we’ll discuss here the opportunities of whether we can have any Geospatial solution of social crime or not?

Speaker:  Tarashanker Chaudhary & Prasenjit Acharya, Postgraduate Research Scholar, CSRD/SSS, JNU

Venue:  Committee Room, JNU Central Library

Date and Time: 23rd February 2013 (Saturday), 3:00 pm

Mathematicians and their problems...

Abstract

Mathematicians love problems. They love those whose resolution reveals new structures, new objects of the mathematical world that they build, but believe they discover.

    He will chat about problems, solved or not, that have been important these last years: geometrisation of three manifolds, geometry of random objects, quantum chaos, P=NP. Going beyond technicalities, he will try to explain the general framework of these results, as well as explain the complex relation of mathematics with other sciences.

Speaker

Francois Labourie

Topology and Dynamics Laboratory, Department of Mathematics d'Orsay, University PARIS-SUD, France, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Study (JNIAS) Fellow & Guest faculty, SPS, JNU

Chair: Prof. Riddhi Shah, SPS, JNU

Venue:  Auditorium, School of Life Sciences, JNU

Date and Time: 28th January 2013 (Monday), 3:00 pm

For Download Presenataion click here

Speech Technology for Sanskrit: Developing a Speech Synthesis System

Abstract:

 

Speech is the basic form of language and thus speech technology (a branch of language technology) lies in the intersection of linguistics and computer science. The language technology or Natural Language Processing (NLP) has its own place in artificial intelligence to enable machines interact with human intelligently. Speech technology involves three primary tasks namely, speech synthesis, speech recognition, and speaker recognition. Speech synthesis has its scope of use wherever there is a digital text and a need to read this. For Indian languages other than Sanskrit, there have many TTS developed and are being developed. The author is developing a speech synthesis system (also known as Text-to-Speech or TTS) for Sanskrit as a part of his PhD thesis. In this presentation, he will also give demo of ready components of the TTS system.

Speaker: Diwakar Mishra, PhD scholar, SCSS, JNU

Venue:  Committee Room, JNU Central Library

Date and Time: 12th January 2013 (Saturday), 3:00 pm

For PowerPoint Presentation click here