Activities

Release of ASM Journal Volume 91

We are happy to share with you that on 25^th November 2023, on the occasion of the Foundation Day of the Asiatic, the Society has released Volume 91 of the ASM Journal. It has come to the Society's notice that some unscrupulous elements are collecting money for publishing papers in the Society's Journal and offering bogus certificates. The Asiatic Society does not collect money for publishing in its journal, nor does it guarantee publication, and neither does it issue any certificate. Authors must verify with the Society before submitting any papers, and papers will be published only after rigorous peer review and editing. The Society does not take responsibility for any payments made to third parties claiming to represent the Society, or for their papers appearing in a cloned/spam journal. Ours is a print-only journal.

The Mumbai Research Centre of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai presents a specially curated bus tour of Udwada and Sanjan, led by Dr. Kurush Dalal.

Sanjan (Medieval Sanskrit Samyāna) emerges as an important medieval entrepôt after the decline and silting of Bharuch and Sopara. Documented as early as the 8th century CE in the Sanjan copper plates of the Rashtrakuta monarch Amoghavarsha, Sanjan (on the Maroli river) was a port that traded with Persia, Arabia, Africa and perhaps even China. Excavations at Sanjan Bunder by Dr. Dalal and team reveal a rich array of pottery and jewellery representing various cultures interacting at the port. The village of Palgam on the opposite bank might also have been a minor ancient port, perhaps the 'Poulipoula' of Ptolemy.

Sanjan and later Udwada also become important in the cultural history of the Parsis. The famous legend of their arrival, wherein they demonstrated to the local ruler that would assimilate into society as sugar does in milk, is set in Sanjan, now marked by a memorial pillar. The visit to Sanjan and Udwada will cover places important in the history of the Parsi community, as narrated in the Qissa-e-Sanjan. Breakfast (packed), lunch and dinner (packed) will be provided, in Parsi style.

Date: 18th September 2022

Time: 5 am to 9 pm

Assembly and pick-up/drop spots will be communicated in the dedicated WhatsApp group.

Registration links:

General public ₹5000 — https://rzp.io/l/SanGen

Members ₹4500 — https://rzp.io/l/SanMem

Please Note: Photographs are best taken with the residents' permission. The double vaccination certificate is mandatory.

the Society's Mumbai Research Centre's research methodology course comes to an end, a special valedictory lecture "The Historian's Craft Revisited" will be delivered by Prof. Arvind Ganachari at the Durbar Hall. All are invited.

Greetings from the Asiatic Society on the occasion of Independence Day
We wish you a happy 75th Independence Day!
We are pleased to share with you some pages from the Times of India and the Bombay Chronicle from 15 August 1947, marking 75 years of Independence. Flipbook: https://www.flipsnack.com/iambecomedeath_2/pages-of-freedom.html
PDF for download: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EcvKk_VJ4JoCFFjrKbT1BuCYDJEzdwUP/view?usp=sharing
How many of the headlines, news articles and advertisements do you find familiar? Do you know of others that could have been included? We would love to hear from you, so do write to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
With Regards and Best Wishes for Independence Day, and a bright future for our country.
- Prof. Mangala Sirdeshpande, Officiating Hon. Secretary Asiatic Society of Mumbai

The lateritic plateau of the southern Konkan (Sada) is home to potentially thousands of petroglyphs — drawings etched into stone. Representing humans, animals, plants and abstractions, these are silent sentinels of a culture that has long vanished. Yet their continuing sacredness to the residents talk of cultural continuity that has lasted millennia. Since 2018, the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Maharashtra has worked with amateur and professional rockart enthusiasts, archaeologists and local residents to document and conserve these petroglyphs and promote sustainabletourism around them. The efforts have culminated in UNESCO listing them in its tentative list of WorldHeritageSites.

In celebration of AzaadikaAmritMahotsav, the Mumbai Research Centre of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai presents a free public lecture by Dr. Tejas Garge Director of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Maharashtra on "Discovery of Rock Art in Konkan and it's potential as World Heritage" on 22nd August 2022 at the Durbar Hall of the Society. Prof Arvind P Jamkhedkar, former Director of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Maharashtra will preside.

All are welcome. This is a walk in lecture.

The Mumbai Research Centre of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai presents a free public lecture by Dr. Jehangir Sorabjee titled "Bombay @ 75 — A visual sweep through the lost and found" on 17th August 2022 at 5 pm in the Durbar Hall. All are invited.

75 years after Independence, the city of Bombay (now Mumbai) has undergone massive growth and transformation. In the process much of its heritage has been obliterated and many familiar views of the city have been lost to us. This talk aims to take us on a visual tour of the city from the air and from the ground highlighting the changes that have taken place as well as focusing on parts of the hidden heritage in familiar and unexplored regions of the city that slip by our notice.

Dr Jehangir Sorabjee (MBBS, MD, MRCP, DTM&H) is Head of the Department of Medicine at the Bombay Hospital Institute of Medical Sciences, specializing is Infectious Diseases with stints at Kasturba Infectious Diseases Hospital and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London and the Royal Free Hospital. He has numerous academic publications.

Dr Sorabjee has published a widely acclaimed book of aerial pictures of Mumbai – “Above Bombay”. His images have been exhibited at the VeniceBiennale in 2006, The TateModern in 2007, the CanaryIslandsBiennale in 2009, the KalaGhodaFestival in 2010 and at the JehangirArtGallery in February 2013. Some have been selected for permanent display at the Mumbai Airport. His street photography was featured in Art India Magazine. He is currently working on a second book of unknown spaces in Mumbai.

Itamar Toussia Cohen has a BA from the prestigious Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem with a focus on painting, sculpture, art history & theory and an MA in Middle Eastern History from Tel Aviv University with a focus on Indian Ocean History, the Global History of Labour, British Aden, and Islamic Studies. He also spent a semester as an Erasmus+ Scholar in the Department of Global History at the Freie Universität Berlin in Germany. Since completing his Master’s, he has worked as a research assistant for a faculty member at Tel Aviv University. He is fluent in English and German in addition to his native Hebrew and has an excellent working knowledge of Gujarati and Modern Standard Arabic. He is an artist, primarily of figurative and decorative painting inspired by Arabic calligraphy, and a musician who has written, recorded, and performed original music in Tel Aviv and abroad.

Itamar studies the network infrastructures which preceded British colonialism in the Western Indian Ocean and how trade in this area was structured around kinship and community, particularly the Parsi community during the British Raj. Beyond dominant Weberian and Marxist models for explaining mercantile capitalist development, he is interested in more inclusive approaches to history which look at cultural hybridity in contrast to the tradition of national historiography that dominate Israeli academia.