Vitasta: Uniting Culture

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Vitasta: Uniting Cultures is a collection of papers presented at the three literary programmes organized by the Ministry of Culture & Sahitya Akademi in Chennai, Pune and Srinagar with the theme of Vitasta & Kashmir under the "Vitasta Kashmir Festival" series. Indian cultural traditions are interconnected with each other despite the outward differences and it is these commonalities that give rise to Indian Culture. Unless one is able to perceive the unity & commonalities, it would not be possible for one to even understand the age-old Hindu dictum of "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam." It is this interconnectedness & unity that is at the foundation of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat, a visionary scheme of Shri Narendra Modi, Honourable Prime Minister of India. Kashmiri Culture is very much connected with the culture of various regions of India such as Tamil Nadu. Divided minds cannot comprehend such interconnectedness, and the papers in this volume highlight the brilliance of Kashmiri literature and cultural heritage. Individual papers highlight specific perspective of a particular cultural component and together they promote shining Kashmiri traditions including languages, religions and literature.

K. Sreenivasarao is a thinker, scholar, literary expert, administrator with the experience of over three decades in several positions of literary management and administration of national level literary institution. He is the Secretary of Sahitya Akademi, India's premier Institution of Letters since February 2013. He has been serving Sahitya Akademi for more than three decades. He is the author of Myths, Plays & Girish Karnad (in English) and Bhartiya Sahitya evam Sanskriti (in Hindi), and the forthcoming title is Perspectives Essays on Indian Literature.

Kashmir has been a centre of knowledge, seat of learning and a confluence of many cultures since ancient times. From the times of yore through Middle Ages, Kashmir has produced and also attracted highly acclaimed intellectuals not only from different parts of India but also from other countries.

Modern minds, more so the contemporary ones, may be prone to assumptions and wild guesses and that in itself could be a cultural phenomenon. However, culture of the given community or society doesn't include such assumptions. One of the major assumptions of the recent past is that Kashmir has much to do with one religion from the medieval period onwards. Nothing can be farther from the truth.

Kashmir has been the host to a number of languages, philosophies, religions, cultures, architectures, medical systems, literatures etc., from ancient to medieval period. Culture of a given society encompasses all these and practically includes all the practices, technology of the day, economy, customs, mores, institutions, and so on.

India is the land of languages and cultures. This diversity of large number of cultures and the amazing way in which they all co-existed and even contributed to each other makes India a very unique place on earth.