Jnanapravaha Mumbai

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India is the only place outside of Africa where there were African rulers and African court elites.

The sultanates of Bijapur and Ahmednagar came under the domination of African strongmen. Africans were also prominent in other sultanates as well as Hindu ruled states like Kutch and Nawanagar. Until 1948, two small states on the west coast of India, Janjira and Sachin, were ruled by African dynasties.

Africans were not usually depicted as “the Other” or as members of a poorly regarded minority group in the Muslim and Hindu court miniature and gouache paintings of the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries. Most of the subjects are rulers, queens and concubines, strongmen, nobles, soldiers, eunuchs, maidservants, Sufis and Muslim scholars.

Paintings of poor Afro-South Asians are less common. In some paintings, it is difficult to distinguish Africans from other Indians with similar dark skins or physiognomy unless the subject is identified.

Registration link: https://www.jp-india.org/programmes/the-image-of-the-african-in-indian-paintings-and-photographs

Date: 19th Jan, 2026
Tea: 6:00 PM | Lecture: 6:30 - 8:30 pm IST
Free Public Lecture

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Until 1948, two small states on the west coast of India, Janjira and Sachin, were ruled by African dynasties. Africans were not usually depicted as “the Other” or as members of a poorly regarded minority group in the Muslim and Hindu court miniature and gouache paintings of the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries. Most of the subjects are rulers, queens and concubines, strongmen, nobles, soldiers, eunuchs, maidservants, Sufis and Muslim scholars. Paintings of poor Afro-South Asians are less common. In some paintings, it is difficult to distinguish Africans from other Indians with similar dark skins or physiognomy unless the subject is identified.

Kenneth X. Robbins is a collector-archivist specializing in South Asia and international crises in Asia, Africa, and the Ottoman empire.

Registration link: https://www.jp-india.org/programmes/the-image-of-the-african-in-indian-paintings-and-photographs

Date: 19th Jan, 2026
Tea: 6:00 PM | Lecture: 6:30 - 8:30 pm IST
Free Public Lecture

REGISTRATIONS OPEN

India is the only place outside of Africa where there were African rulers and African court elites. The sultanates of Bijapur and Ahmednagar came under the domination of African strongmen. Africans were also prominent in other sultanates as well as Hindu ruled states like Kutch and Nawanagar. Until 1948, two small states on the west coast of India, Janjira and Sachin, were ruled by African dynasties. Africans were not usually depicted as “the Other” or as members of a poorly regarded minority group in the Muslim and Hindu court miniature and gouache paintings of the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries. Most of the subjects are rulers, queens and concubines, strongmen, nobles, soldiers, eunuchs, maidservants, Sufis and Muslim scholars. Paintings of poor Afro-South Asians are less common. In some paintings, it is difficult to distinguish Africans from other Indians with similar dark skins or physiognomy unless the subject is identified.

Registration link: https://www.jp-india.org/programmes/the-image-of-the-african-in-indian-paintings-and-photographs

Date: 19th Jan, 2026
Tea: 6:00 PM | Lecture: 6:30 - 8:30 pm IST
Free Public Lecture

REGISTRATIONS OPEN

India is the only place outside of Africa where there were African rulers and African court elites. The sultanates of Bijapur and Ahmednagar came under the domination of African strongmen. Africans were also prominent in other sultanates as well as Hindu ruled states like Kutch and Nawanagar. Until 1948, two small states on the west coast of India, Janjira and Sachin, were ruled by African dynasties. Africans were not usually depicted as “the Other” or as members of a poorly regarded minority group in the Muslim and Hindu court miniature and gouache paintings of the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries. Most of the subjects are rulers, queens and concubines, strongmen, nobles, soldiers, eunuchs, maidservants, Sufis and Muslim scholars. Paintings of poor Afro-South Asians are less common. In some paintings, it is difficult to distinguish Africans from other Indians with similar dark skins or physiognomy unless the subject is identified.

Registration link: https://www.jp-india.org/programmes/the-image-of-the-african-in-indian-paintings-and-photographs

Date: 19th Jan, 2026
Tea: 6:00 PM | Lecture: 6:30 - 8:30 pm IST
Free Public Lecture

REGISTER NOW!

Prayer Winds and Profit: Indian Ocean Trade (1st–15th c) is a 17-lecture series exploring the Indian subcontinent’s pivotal role in shaping early global maritime exchange. It traces how South Asia’s strategic ports, vibrant merchant communities, and coveted commodities forged enduring economic and cultural networks across Asia, Africa, and Europe.

Registration link: https://www.jp-india.org/courses/aesthetics-criticism-and-theory-act-jan-2025-26

Date: 12th Jan – 22nd April, 2026 | Mainly Tuesdays
Lecture: 6:30 – 8:30 pm IST
Fee: INR 15,000
Online Platform: ZOOM

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Prayer Winds and Profit: Indian Ocean Trade (1st - 15th c) is an ambitious 17 lecture series that examines the Indian subcontinent's central role as the crucible of global maritime exchange from antiquity to the early modern era. We trace how South Asia’s strategic ports, dynamic merchant communities, and coveted commodities created enduring economic networks across continents. The series focuses on how religious traditions like Buddhism and Islam facilitated commercial systems, while the monsoon winds shaped seasonal patterns of exchange. Through fifteen centuries of transformation, we examine how Indian Ocean trade routes became the world's first truly global marketplace, with the Indian subcontinent serving as a nexus for the flow of goods, ideas, and cultural influences across Asia, Africa, and Europe.

Registration link: https://www.jp-india.org/courses/aesthetics-criticism-and-theory-act-jan-2025-26

Date: 12th Jan – 22nd April, 2026 | Mainly Tuesdays
Lecture: 6:30 – 8:30 pm IST
Fee: INR 15,000
Online Platform: ZOOM

1 WEEK TO GO | REGISTER NOW

Prayer Winds and Profit: Indian Ocean Trade (1st–15th c) is a 17-lecture series exploring the Indian subcontinent’s pivotal role in shaping early global maritime exchange. It traces how South Asia’s strategic ports, vibrant merchant communities, and coveted commodities forged enduring economic and cultural networks across Asia, Africa, and Europe. From the ancient map of the Periplus Maris Erythraei to the Chinese general Zheng He’s voyages in the 15th century, it follows ocean routes linking Roman Egypt, South East Asia, East Africa and Southern China to Indian ports in exchanges of pepper, gems, gold, textiles and more. The roles of Buddhist guilds in maritime trade and Hindu-Buddhist artistic exchange with Southeast Asia—receive special focus. The lectures also consider Jewish, Muslim, Swahili, and Arab merchant networks documented in the Cairo Geniza, concluding with Sino-Indian commercial ties, showcasing how artefacts anchored a vast premodern trading network sailing on monsoon winds.

Registration link: https://www.jp-india.org/courses/aesthetics-criticism-and-theory-act-jan-2025-26

Date: 12th Jan – 22nd April, 2026 | Mainly Tuesdays
Lecture: 6:30 – 8:30 pm IST
Fee: INR 15,000
Online Platform: ZOOM

Course starts in 2 WEEKS

Prayer Winds and Profit: Indian Ocean Trade (1st–15th c) is a 17-lecture series exploring the Indian subcontinent’s pivotal role in shaping early global maritime exchange.

The impact of the medieval monsoon trade via Jewish and Muslim merchants from across the Indian Ocean world is highlighted in the series through a close study of the Cairo Geniza documents and ports along western Indian coastline, where Arab, Persian, and Indian traders converged. We also examine pre-colonial trade between East Africa and the Gujarat and Malabar coast, including the exchange of ivory, gold, and Indian cloth, and the role of Swahili and Arab intermediaries in supporting these networks.

Registration link: https://www.jp-india.org/courses/aesthetics-criticism-and-theory-act-jan-2025-26

Date: 12th Jan – 22nd April, 2026 | Mainly Tuesdays
Lecture: 6:30 – 8:30 pm IST
Fee: INR 15,000
Online Platform: ZOOM

Prayer Winds and Profit: Indian Ocean Trade (1st–15th c) is a 17-lecture series exploring the Indian subcontinent’s pivotal role in shaping early global maritime exchange.

Registration link: https://www.jp-india.org/courses/aesthetics-criticism-and-theory-act-jan-2025-26

Date: 12th Jan – 22nd April, 2026 | Mainly Tuesdays
Lecture: 6:30 – 8:30 pm IST
Fee: INR 15,000
Online Platform: ZOOM

Wishing you a Merry Christmas filled with joy and love.

Prayer Winds and Profit: Indian Ocean Trade (1st - 15th c) is an ambitious 17 lecture series that examines the Indian subcontinent's central role as the crucible of global maritime exchange from antiquity to the early modern era.

Led by a global cohort of scholars at the forefront of their fields, the series blends archaeology, textual sources, and material culture.
Through this innovative framework, the series aims to investigate the relationships between religion and commerce, the critical role of environmental factors such as the monsoon, and the shifting fortunes of empires in fostering an interconnected premodern world with South Asia at its axis.

Registration link: https://www.jp-india.org/courses/aesthetics-criticism-and-theory-act-jan-2025-26

Date: 12th Jan – 22nd April, 2026 | Mainly Tuesdays
Lecture: 6:30 – 8:30 pm IST
Fee: INR 15,000
Online Platform: ZOOM

Led by a global cohort of scholars at the forefront of their fields, the series blends archaeology, textual sources, and material culture.

Through this innovative framework, the series aims to investigate the relationships between religion and commerce, the critical role of environmental factors such as the monsoon, and the shifting fortunes of empires in fostering an interconnected premodern world with South Asia at its axis.

Registration link: https://www.jp-india.org/courses/aesthetics-criticism-and-theory-act-jan-2025-26

Date: 12th Jan – 22nd April, 2026 | Mainly Tuesdays
Lecture: 6:30 – 8:30 pm IST
Fee: INR 15,000
Online Platform: ZOOM