The Mahabharata is not history to be mapped on a calendar — it is upasana, a living text that requires a guru, initiation, and inner preparation. Scholar and IISc researcher T.R. Shankar Raman traces how an encounter with Narayanacharya completely transformed his understanding of India’s epic tradition.
The conversation explores the Bharatiya way of looking at the past — not as a chronological record of deaths and dynasties, but as a repository of living solutions to recurring human problems. Stories from Mahabharata continue to be invoked in India’s Parliament, demonstrating an unbroken continuity between civilisational memory and contemporary governance.
Growing up in a village “flooded” with Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Puranas regardless of jati, the speaker argues that the epics function as a shared civilisational substrate — one that academic history has failed to account for and that modern education has dangerously severed.

About the Speakers:
Prof. M.S. Chaitra is Director & Senior Fellow at FSIC, Bengaluru, engaged in academic research and institutional leadership in education and culture.
Pranav Vashishtha is engaged in public discourse and intellectual work, with interests spanning education, culture, and contemporary knowledge systems.
Veeranarayana N. K. Pandurangi is a Sanskrit scholar and Principal at Karnataka Sanskrit University, known for his contributions to Sanskrit studies and traditional Indian knowledge systems.
Manjunath Beliraya(Moderator) is a teacher and co-founder of Udhbhavaha, known for promoting holistic, values-based learning and thoughtful discussion facilitation.