How Deccan’s Kalamkari textile-paintings gained pan-Indian appeal? Which are the famed Uttarakhand tribal foods and how are they prepared? Where exactly is Yamuna Biodiversity Park; what all does it house? What are the varieties of Chhau dance in the country’s east?
Reliable answers to these and more such questions are provided not just to the point, but nuanced. With public participation. India is set to get its first online interactive platform on Indian and broadly South Asian heritage, as an interdisciplinary portal celebrating the unseen or less-noticed connections of cultural expressions across various domains will be launched in the national capital next weekend.
Making full use of modern design and technology, ‘Sahapedia’ will enable the user to experience the subcontinent’s culture from ancient times till date in a comprehensive manner, the pioneering endeavor’s curators and editors revealed ahead of the portal’s inauguration on April 23.
“It is an interactive online encyclopedia encompassing the histories, arts and cultures,” said Sahapedia Executive Director Dr Sudha Gopalakrishnan in a statement. “We would serve as an ever-growing resource being enriched by a team of researchers in collaboration with experts and institutions.”
All the same, www.sahapedia.org will be a platform for the public at large to participate in the process with registered users from the world over enjoying the facility to contribute content on areas pertaining to their interests and expertise, added the author-researcher-artiste.
Sahapedia, as a not-for-profit society headed by former TCS chairman S Ramadorai who currently helms the National Skill Development Agency, throws lights on the varied layers of ten domains. The goal is to “inform, educate and act” on subjects such as knowledge traditions, visual and material arts, performing arts, literature and languages, practices and rituals, histories, institutions, people, built spaces and natural environment.
Sahapedia will be accessible across user groups such as scholars, practitioners, students, teachers, travellers and enthusiasts, while integrating activities and services including research, documentation, digitisation and conservation.
source:merinews