The Society for Ethnobotany has honoured my first book, The Tropical Turn, with the Mary W. Klinger Book Award—so grateful for yet another book prize! ethnobotany.org/home/awards/...

My co-authored book in Nature's top 5 science picks! Quite appropriate, since the nature spirits of the Indian subcontinent—and their integration and reformulation by local religious traditions—are central to the book. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

A hot pink wall featuring my co-authored book, Ancient India: Living Traditions, at the British Museum's special exhibition store: www.britishmuseumshoponline.org/ancient-indi...

“Ancient India : Living Traditions” opens tomorrow at the British Museum! Here’s the fab review in this morning’s Times. Congrats Sushma Jansari and @vicitracitta.bsky.social !!! Ancient India: Living Traditions review — gods and rituals come to life www.thetimes.com/article/88d8...

London Charterhouse

Chapter preview of "Ancient India: Living Traditions," a book I co-authored with Sushma Jansari, the Tabor Foundation Curator of South Asia at the British Museum. The book accompanies a major exhibition of the same title at the British Museum (22 May - 19 Oct 2025).

The Musée Guimet’s ongoing exhibition on Cambodian bronzes includes this stunning digital restoration of the 11th-century West Mebon Viṣṇu. Source: www.lemonde.fr/culture/arti...

Reliefs from the Terrace of the Leper King, Angkor, early to mid-13th century

Much more on this in the book I co-authored with Sushma Jansari (British Museum) for this exhibition: www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/04/30/i...

Ta Som, Angkor, 1180s-90s

Hoof-shaped Attic red-figure cup with a herding scene, c. 470-460 BCE, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Paintings from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale, Italy, c. 50-40 BCE, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Temple door socket from Marad with an Akkadian inscription of Narām-Sîn (late 23rd century BCE) documenting his battles and his son Lipit-ilī's construction of a temple for the tutelary deity of Marad, New York Public Library

Look what arrived! "Ancient India: Living Traditions," a book I co-authored with Sushma Jansari is now available for purchase at the British Museum's shops (wider release on 22/5). The book accompanies a major exhibition of the same title at the British Museum (22/5-12/10).

Lapis lazuli seal showing a worshipper before two altars with divine symbols, c. 626-539 BCE, Babylonia, Morgan Library, New York

Steatite seal showing a deity striding over a composite creature and taking aim at a lion-griffin, c. 1000-700 BCE, Mesopotamia, Morgan Library, New York

Carnelian seal depicting a winged hero/ deity contesting with a lion, c. 800-650 BCE, Mesopotamia, Morgan Library, New York. The seal is inscribed with a prayer to the god Nabû on behalf of its owner Nabû-nādin-šumi.

Hematite seal with suppliant deities and scorpions before a winged goddess with weapons, c. 1720-1650 BCE, Syria, Morgan Library, New York

Egypt at the Brooklyn Museum: Old Kingdom

Apkallū from Aššur-nāṣir-apli II's (883-859 BCE) palace at Kalḫu, Brooklyn Museum

Selections from 'Recasting the Past: The Art of Chinese Bronzes, 1100–1900', Metropolitan Museum of Art, Feb-Sept 2025

Fragment of a faience rhyton with a lion protome, 525-404 BCE, Achaemenid Egypt, Brooklyn Museum

The Egyptian official Ptahhotep wearing an Achaemenid Persian torque with ibex protomes, 525-404 BCE, Temple of Ptah, Memphis, Egypt, Brooklyn Museum

Artist's model or trial piece depicting two Amarna-era rulers, most likely Akhenaten and Nefertiti, third quarter of the 14th century BCE, Amarna (Akhetaten), Egypt, Brooklyn Museum

A few more from the Brooklyn Museum's Indian art collection

Jade vessel from Mughal India in the collection of the Qianlong Emperor (has a reign mark on its foot), mid-17th century, Brooklyn Museum

Female figure, 1st century CE, Sirkap or Charsadda, Pakistan, Brooklyn Museum

Avalokiteśvara, 10th century, Kurkihar, Bihar, India, Brooklyn Museum

Harpokrates, 1st/ 2nd century CE, Gandhāra, Brooklyn Museum

Tārā, 9th century, Bihar, India, Brooklyn Museum

Śivaliṅga flanked by Brahmā and Viṣṇu, early 8th century, Kashmir, Brooklyn Museum

Durgā, 8th century, Kannauj area, Uttar Pradesh (left); 10th century, Madhya Pradesh (right), Brooklyn Museum

Mathuran art of the first two centuries of the Common Era at the Brooklyn Museum

Gupta period (4th/5th century) art at the Brooklyn Museum

Himalayan art at the Newark Museum (sculpture):

Himalayan art at the Newark Museum (painting):

Ratnasambhava, 12th/early 13th century, Tangut (Xixia) kingdom, Newark Museum of Art

Dharmacakra, 7th/8th century CE, probably from Si Thep, Phetchabun province, Thailand, Newark Museum of Art

Architectural fragment from a doorway featuring Gaṇeśa, 8th century CE, central India, Newark Museum of Art

South India at the Newark Museum of Art

We are beyond excited to share the cover of ‘Ancient India: Living Traditions’, a book co-authored by Sushma Jansari and myself. The book accompanies an exhibition of the same name, curated by Sushma Jansari at the British Museum (22/5/25-19/10/25).

Listen to our interview with Sureshkumar Muthukumaran about his award-winning book "The Tropical Turn: Agricultural Innovation in the Ancient Middle East and the Mediterranean" (UC Press, 2023) @vicitracitta.bsky.social @ucpress.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

I'll be speaking at NYU's Ranieri Colloquium on Ancient Studies next Friday (4 April). The conference theme is 'Reimagining Ancient Worlds: New Stories of the Distant Past'. Register here: as.nyu.edu/departments/...

We are beyond excited to share the cover of ‘Ancient India: Living Traditions’, a book co-authored by Sushma Jansari and myself. The book accompanies an exhibition of the same name, curated by Sushma Jansari at the British Museum (22/5/25-19/10/25).

To coincide with the exhibition, a vibrantly illustrated catalogue, Ancient India: living traditions, written by Sushma Jansari and Sureshkumar Muthukumaran, will be published by the British Museum Press in May 2025. www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/pre...

Reaching back more than 2,000 years, this new exhibition explores the origins of Hindu, Jain and Buddhist sacred art in the ancient and powerful nature spirits of India, and the spread of this art beyond the subcontinent. www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/...

Buddhist goddesses, possibly forms of Prajñāpāramitā, on a stela, c. 1050-1200 CE, Banteay Meanchey province, northwestern Cambodia, Battambang Museum (see Chemburkar 2022)

Lintel with an unidentified deity, 11th century, Battambang Province, Battambang Museum

Nāga-enthroned Buddha, 11th century, Phnom Sampov, Battambang Province, Battambang Museum