In his Talk, "Ancient Games And What They Teach Us About Modern People", Raamesh Gowri Raghavan will use game boards and pieces unearthed in excavations, games etched on monument floors, heirlooms, depictions in literature, and ethnological reports, to present a a rich culture of games and the consequent opportunities to be had by historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and museologists in the study of games to complete the picture of historical societies.
About the Speaker:
Raamesh Gowri Raghavan is marketer by profession, scientist by training, epigraphist by choice and poet by night. He is a Director at Ioncure Tech Pvt Ltd, Editor of the literary e-journal Narrow Road; and a member of the editorial board of Café Haiku. His literary publications include poems, short stories, haiku and haibun in several magazines and anthologies; while his academic publications span the Ethnoarchaeology of the Bene Israel; Ancient Board Games, the Archaeology of Ballistic Weapons and Fortifications, Ancient Indian Trade and Shaiva Iconography. He has taught Buddhist archaeology, epigraphy, manuscriptology, linguistics, archaeozoology, palaeobotany, evolutionary biology and genetics, Dravidian linguistics and haikai at the University of Mumbai's Centre for Extra Mural Studies, KJ Somaiya Institute of Dharma Studies, Sathaye College, Wilson College, INSTUCEN Trust, Mumbai Research Centre of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai, Shri. M. D. Shah Mahila College of Arts & Commerce, and Speaking Archaeologically. He organized "Distilled Images", a national conference on haikai literature in India. With the INSTUCEN Trust, he organized the first National Conference on Ancient and Medieval Indian Games "Playing with the Past", sponsored by the Indian Council of Historical Research. He co-wrote a column in the Marathi weekly Lokprabha on ancient games in 2018-19. He has also helped organize the Explorations in Maharashtra Workshops and Archaeology of Maharashtra Conferences from 2015 to 2019 at the Centre for Extra-Mural Studies, including publishing their Proceedings. Currently, he is coordinating the Diploma in Buddhist Studies at the India Study Centre (INSTUCEN) trust. Mail: admin@tamilheritage.in Website: www.tamilheritage.in facebook: www.facebook.com/TamilHeritageTrust