Illustrated lecture by Dr. V. N. Prabhakar, Archaeological Survey of India

Chair:

Pithalkhora caves located in the Satamala range of the Western Ghats of Maharashtra is an early Buddhist site consisting of 14 rock-cut cave monuments which date back to the 3rd century BCE, making them one of the earliest examples of rock-cut architecture in India. Out of the 14, four are chaityas (one housing votive stupas, one apsidal and single-cell) and the rest are viharas. All the caves belong to the Hinayana period, but the paintings are of the Mahayana period

Presentation of awards to young crafts persons

Illustrated lecture by Sudha Mahalingam, veteran traveler and experienced rallyist who will present perspectives from this journey

Chair:

Land-locked Central Asia, rugged, remote and relatively inaccessible, has straddled the silk route between Asia and Europe for several centuries. The region, home to some of the loftiest mountain ranges on our planet - Hindukush, Himalaya, Altai, Tien Shan, Alau, Pamir - has allured traders and adventure-seekers alike. In the last millennium, geography and history conspired to give this region a shared destiny from which they have disentangled themselves after the break-up of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. What does the roof of the world look like today, twenty years after the countries of Central Asia got the opportunity to decide their own destiny?

Speaker: Pravarajika Vivekaprana, senior sanyasini of the Sri Sarada Math; and Head of the Retreat Centre at Pangot, Distt. Nainital

Chair: Dr. Kavita A. Sharma

A talk on the new book by Prof. Ashutosh Varshney, Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences, Director, Brown-India Initiative, Watson Institute of International Studies and Department of Political Science, Brown University

Chief Guest: Shri Shekhar Gupta

Speaker: Prof. Lynn Meskell, Director, Stanford Archaeological Center, Stanford University

Chair: Prof. Madhavan Palat, Trustee, Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund

The year 2012 marked the 40th anniversary of UNESCO's 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. It remains the only international instrument for safeguarding the world's heritage. This presentation takes UNESCO as its centerpiece and asks how are emergent rights to the past being presented, promoted and prevented by particular actors internationally