Ancient and Modern Aesthetics: A Dialogue with Dr. Bharat Gupt

Join Mukunda and Krishna as they speak with Dr. Bharat Gupt, a former Associate Professor in English at the University of Delhi, is an Indian classicist, theatre theorist, sitar and surbahar player, musicologist, cultural analyst, and newspaper columnist. In this episode, we discuss a host of topics including:

00:02:00 Introduction and Journey of Dr. Bharat Gupt to study Hindu Shastras, Music, and Art

00:19:40 Dr. Gupt speaks about Marshall McLuhan’s insights and theory of Media and how it influenced him; Technology changes the means and methods of preservation and transference of knowledge; Media is the massage

00:27:10 Dr. Gupt’s Study of Indian Classical Music and Musicology

00:31:40 Ancient Greek Theater and Ancient Indian Theater: how they are related to each other and how they differ from later Western or European Theater; Ancient Greek theater was effectively destroyed by Christianity

00:38:55 Conventional vs Naturalistic Theater; Greek and Indian Aesthetics as Conventional Theater 00:50:00 What was Ancient Indian theater like? How was it performed and where? How did it compare to Greek Theater? Why do the Greek amphitheaters survive and what happened to the Indian theater houses? The Impact of Islam on Hindu/Indian Theater and arts

00:59:50 Art as sacred vs secular; What is Rasa and how does it connect to the sacredness of art

01:11:30 What are Vedic and Homeric or Indo-European values; Humanity and Divinity are connected

01:14:00 How modern ideas of identity and society fail to understand and capture the ideals and values of the Ancient Hindu and Greek world; Discussing this idea using the Ramayana as a backdrop; What is the Agni Pariksha and how does it fit into the ancient world of jurisprudence.

01:26:00 Composition and compilation of Ancient Indian texts

01:31:20 Krishna sings a short part of Nama Ramayana and Dr. Gupt recites a shloka on Rama

01:36:40 Concluding Thoughts

You can find Dr. Bharat Gupt at:

https://bharatgupt.com/index.html

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqYFsZ24YZpV71RWKTptexQ

Twitter: @bharatgupt

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Mukunda

Mukunda Raghavan: Mukunda is a jack of all trades but master of none. His educational background is a mix of political science, criminology, psychological and philosophy. He received his Juris Doctorate in Law from Boston University and was simultaneously working on his Masters in Philosophy focusing on continental philosophy (not completed). He has practiced as a prosecutor in New York City, General Counsel and Operating Officer of a healthcare company in Southern California, Head of Business and Operations for a legal tech company in India and is now in Strategy and Development. Much like his career, Mukunda’s intellectual interests and knowledge is varied, he is interested in Indian and Western philosophy, world mythology, Quantum Physics, Consciousness Studies, Psychology and variety of other fields.

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