Jnanapravaha Mumbai

Jnanapravaha Mumbai think critical, think art. Jnanapravaha aims to provide a neutral yet stimulating space for the global exchange of creative Indian thought.

We at Jnanapravaha are motivated by the conviction that by nurturing critical thinking and intellectual rigour, we can contribute to sensitizing individuals from all walks of life in current as well as future generations. Our parent organisation, Jnana Pravaha, Varanasi, is devoted to the study of Indology, epigraphy and Sanskrit, while we at Jnanapravaha, Mumbai, are committed to Arts Education in the broadest sense of the term. As part of our activities, we organize regular talks by visiting scholars, some restricted to an evening or two, some of a longer duration affording a deeper investigation into the field. We invite all those interested in the arts to work with us in devising ways to make the arts more participatory and egalitarian. We invite every one of you to make Jnanapravaha your space. We invite you to think critical, think art.

Happy Independence Day!
15/08/2026

Happy Independence Day!

STARTS TOMORROW! | REGISTER NOW!ON BEAUTY: WESTERN THOUGHT FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE ENLIGHTENMENTImmanuel Kant defined aest...
09/08/2026

STARTS TOMORROW! | REGISTER NOW!

ON BEAUTY: WESTERN THOUGHT FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE ENLIGHTENMENT

Immanuel Kant defined aesthetic judgment as disinterested and universal—a subjective feeling yet demanding collective agreement—establishing taste as a crucial faculty.

This year, the ACT programme ultimately asks us to reconsider what we mean when we speak of beauty.

Is it a universal ideal grounded in proportion and harmony, an ethical force that shapes society, an emotional experience shared between artwork and audience, or a sign that points toward the divine?

By placing these traditions in dialogue, the programme seeks not only to challenge the dominance of a singular aesthetic framework, but to open up a richer, more plural understanding of beauty—one that acknowledges its diverse meanings across cultures while recognising its enduring power in shaping how we see, feel, and inhabit the world.

Registration link: https://www.jp-india.org/courses/aesthetics-criticism-and-theory-act-aug-2026-27

Duration: 10th Aug - 13th Oct, 2026 | Mainly Tuesdays
Time: 6:30 - 8:30 PM IST
Fee: INR 10,000/- (Attendance)
Online Platform: Zoom

08/08/2026

3 DAYS LEFT! | REGISTER NOW!

ON BEAUTY: WESTERN THOUGHT FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE ENLIGHTENMENT
_______________________________

Across two millennia of thought, beauty has taken many forms.

Plato asked beauty to lead us to truth, while Aristotle asked it to show us order.

The Stoics asked it to stay out of the way of virtue while the Neoplatonists and Renaissance painters asked it to reveal the divine. Kant asked it to explain taste itself.
And Hegel, Burke, and the Romantics asked whether beauty could still hold, once subjectivity and history entered the picture.

Join us to find out how the thread of beauty has woven western philosophy into being in our upcoming series: On Beauty: Western Thought from Antiquity to the Enlightenment.

Registration link: https://www.jp-india.org/courses/aesthetics-criticism-and-theory-act-aug-2026-27

Duration: 10th Aug - 13th Oct, 2026 | Mainly Tuesdays
Time: 6:30 - 8:30 PM IST
Fee: INR 10,000/- (Attendance)
Online Platform: Zoom

3 DAYS LEFT! | REGISTER NOW!ON BEAUTY: WESTERN THOUGHT FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE ENLIGHTENMENTThis year, the ACT programme u...
08/08/2026

3 DAYS LEFT! | REGISTER NOW!
ON BEAUTY: WESTERN THOUGHT FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE ENLIGHTENMENT

This year, the ACT programme ultimately asks us to reconsider what we mean when we speak of beauty.

Is it a universal ideal grounded in proportion and harmony, an ethical force that shapes society, an emotional experience shared between artwork and audience, or a sign that points toward the divine?

By placing these traditions in dialogue, the programme seeks not only to challenge the dominance of a singular aesthetic framework, but to open up a richer, more plural understanding of beauty—one that acknowledges its diverse meanings across cultures while recognising its enduring power in shaping how we see, feel, and inhabit the world.

Registration link: https://www.jp-india.org/courses/aesthetics-criticism-and-theory-act-aug-2026-27

Duration: 10th Aug - 13th Oct, 2026 | Mainly Tuesdays
Time: 6:30 - 8:30 PM IST
Fee: INR 10,000/- (Attendance)
Online Platform: Zoom

4 DAYS TO GO! | REGISTER NOW!ON BEAUTY: WESTERN THOUGHT FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE ENLIGHTENMENTThis year, the ACT programme ...
07/08/2026

4 DAYS TO GO! | REGISTER NOW!

ON BEAUTY: WESTERN THOUGHT FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE ENLIGHTENMENT

This year, the ACT programme ultimately asks us to reconsider what we mean when we speak of beauty.

Is it a universal ideal grounded in proportion and harmony, an ethical force that shapes society, an emotional experience shared between artwork and audience, or a sign that points toward the divine?

By placing these traditions in dialogue, the programme seeks not only to challenge the dominance of a singular aesthetic framework, but to open up a richer, more plural understanding of beauty—one that acknowledges its diverse meanings across cultures while recognising its enduring power in shaping how we see, feel, and inhabit the world.

Registration link: https://www.jp-india.org/courses/aesthetics-criticism-and-theory-act-aug-2026-27

Duration: 10th Aug - 13th Oct, 2026 | Mainly Tuesdays
Time: 6:30 - 8:30 PM IST
Fee: INR 10,000/- (Attendance)
Online Platform: Zoom

06/08/2026

Burke and the Terror of the Sublime
_______________________________

Edmund Burke split aesthetics in two.

For him beauty is small, smooth, delicate, and it makes us feel real affection.
The sublime is vast, dark, obscure, and it makes us feel something closer to terror. But a safe terror, felt from a distance.

So, a calm meadow is beautiful.
A storm at sea, a towering cliff, an erupting volcano, all of these are sublime.

Burke's insight was that our strongest aesthetic responses aren't always pleasant.
Sometimes they're closer to awe mixed with fear.

In our upcoming series: On Beauty: Western Thought from Antiquity to the Enlightenment, we unpack whether the sublime and the beautiful are really not two sides of the same coin.

Registration link: https://www.jp-india.org/courses/aesthetics-criticism-and-theory-act-aug-2026-27

Duration: 10th Aug - 13th Oct, 2026 | Mainly Tuesdays
Time: 6:30 - 8:30 PM IST
Fee: INR 10,000/- (Attendance)
Online Platform: Zoom

ON BEAUTY: WESTERN THOUGHT FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE ENLIGHTENMENTThis year, the ACT programme ultimately asks us to reconsi...
06/08/2026

ON BEAUTY: WESTERN THOUGHT FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE ENLIGHTENMENT

This year, the ACT programme ultimately asks us to reconsider what we mean when we speak of beauty.

Is it a universal ideal grounded in proportion and harmony, an ethical force that shapes society, an emotional experience shared between artwork and audience, or a sign that points toward the divine?

By placing these traditions in dialogue, the programme seeks not only to challenge the dominance of a singular aesthetic framework, but to open up a richer, more plural understanding of beauty—one that acknowledges its diverse meanings across cultures while recognising its enduring power in shaping how we see, feel, and inhabit the world.

Registration link: https://www.jp-india.org/courses/aesthetics-criticism-and-theory-act-aug-2026-27

Duration: 10th Aug - 13th Oct, 2026 | Mainly Tuesdays
Time: 6:30 - 8:30 PM IST
Fee: INR 10,000/- (Attendance)
Online Platform: Zoom

05/08/2026

ON BEAUTY: WESTERN THOUGHT FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE ENLIGHTENMENT | A Cross-Cultural Exploration of Aesthetic Thought

Hegel: Beauty as History Thinking Itself

Hegel did not think that beauty was timeless. He thought it had a history, and that History was the mind of the world working out its own freedom.

Art moves through stages: symbolic art of the ancient temples, classical art achieving perfect harmony in Greek sculpture, and romantic art, Christian and modern, where inner feeling outgrows what any physical form can hold.

For Hegel, tracing beauty meant tracing how the spirit comes to know itself.

Join us for our upcoming series: On Beauty: Western Thought from Antiquity to the Enlightenment, as we ask how the meaning of beauty changed through philosophical and linear time.

Registration link: https://www.jp-india.org/courses/aesthetics-criticism-and-theory-act-aug-2026-27

Duration: 10th Aug - 13th Oct, 2026 | Mainly Tuesdays
Time: 6:30 - 8:30 PM IST
Fee: INR 10,000/- (Attendance)
Online Platform: Zoom

REGISTER NOW | STARTS TOMORROW!UNPACKING THE “SHANGRI” RAMAYANAThrough the process of reuniting the pictorial series, th...
05/08/2026

REGISTER NOW | STARTS TOMORROW!

UNPACKING THE “SHANGRI” RAMAYANA

Through the process of reuniting the pictorial series, the curator found that the “Shangri” Ramayana reveals aspects about Pahari painting patronage and artistic practice that have not been emphasized in previous studies.

In two fully illustrated lectures, she presents the latest findings and conclusions pertaining to what appears to be the most extensive pictorial Ramayana known to date.

6th August:
The 'Shangri' Ramayana: Histories and Historiographies
7th August:
Individual or Collective? Locating Meaning and Value in a Pictorial Series

SONYA RHIE MACE
Sonya Rhie Mace, Ph.D. has been the George P. Bickford Curator of Indian and Southeast Asian Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art since 2012, following eight years as Curator of Asian Art at the San Diego Museum of Art. Her special exhibitions include Rhythms of India: The Art of Nandalal Bose (2007), Ta**ra in Buddhist Art (2013), Mughal India: Art and Stories (2016), Revealing Krishna: Journey to Cambodia’s Sacred Mountain (2021), and Epic of the Northwest Himalayas: Pahari Paintings from the “‘Shangri’ Ramayana” (2026). She continues to teach and publish her ongoing research on aspects of early Indian sculpture.

Registration link: https://www.jp-india.org/programmes/unpacking-the-shangri-ramayana

Duration: 6th & 7th August, 2026
Lecture: 6:30 - 8:45 pm IST
Fees: INR 2,000/- | Students*: INR 1,000/-
Online Public Seminar Series on ZOOM

*More details available on: www.jp-india.org

Address

3rd Floor, Queen's Mansion, G. Talwatkar Marg (Next To John Canon And Cathedral Middle School), Fort
Mumbai
400001

Telephone

+912222072974

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