Interactive online site to broaden and deepen content in Indian languages
New Delhi, Apr 24: Lending fresh spirit to the Sanskrit word ‘saha’ meaning ‘together with’, a people’s platform on heritages and their interesting cross-connections has gone online, facilitating users to be recipients as well as donors of an ever-increasing knowledge bank on varied instances of human excellence.
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| panel discussion by experts on 'Culture Futures' at the launch of Sahapedia interactive platform at Rabindra Bhavan in Delhi on Saturday evening. From left Utpala Desai, Meera Natampally, Sudhanva Deshpande. |
Sahapedia.org, which is the country’s pioneering interactive platform on Indian and broadly South Asian cultures, took off after five years of intense research carried out on a cooperative basis, offering windows to novel encyclopedic content, images and videos on subjects under a wide range of tangible and intangible heritage.
Reliable and expanding information on matters ranging across visual arts, music, literature, cinema, dance, architecture, ecological systems, cuisine, percussion and oral histories among others will be integral to www.sahapedia.org, announced the not-for-profit organisation’s president S Ramadorai, who chairs the National Skill Development Agency, after launching the platform.
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| Classical vocalist Dr Subhadra Desai and team gives a recital ahead of the launch of Sahapedia interactive platform on heritages at Rabindra Bhavan in Delhi on Saturday evening |
“For now, much of the content is in English. Efforts are already on to incorporate Indian languages in a big way,” the former TCS chairman said at the function here on Saturday evening. Heritage education will be the focus, so as to kindle interest in the new generation about a range of knowledge straddling ancient and modern, he added.
Sahapedia.org not only serves information, but also promotes publication of reliable contributions from users—after review by empanelled subject experts. Also, it is not a place restricted to recording history; instead dynamically supplies information on current and emerging practices by also carrying out critical debate.
Artiste-author-researcher Dr Sudha Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director of Sahapedia, said the online platform had vast scope for cross-referencing content across domains. “All these would be constantly linked to the Sahapedia library, helping to bring out new links across disciplines,” the former head of National Mission for Manuscripts pointed out in her welcome address.
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| Former National Institute of Design head Ashoke Chatterjee makes obervations about Sahapedia interactive medium at the launch of India's pioneering interactive platform on hertiages in Rabindra Bhavan, Delhi |
The platform, rippling with scholar-curated modules on variety of topics, offers a rich multi-media experience also propped by the library which has multiple old and articles, journals, books, images from various institutions and authors. Sahapedia, which has the option to filter by format, offers interactive timelines that allow users to scroll through developments—as the gathering was shown through a tour of the innovative portal.
Ashoke Chatterjee, former head of the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, lauded Sahapedia for providing access to knowledge as well as scope to share and add to it simultaneously.
A panel discussion on ‘Culture Futures’ featured accounts of field experiences by folk traditions scholar Utpala Desai, digital empowerment activist Osama Manzar, architect-musician Meera Natampally, shadow puppeteer Ramachandra Pulavar and actor-director-publisher Sudhanva Deshpande. The panelists, most of whom have worked with Sahapedia on a range of content, also dwelt on their experiences with Sahapedia.
The function began with a 30-minute recital by classical vocalist Dr. Subhadra Desai. Sahapedia Secretary Vaibhav Chauhan proposed vote of thanks.
