Professor Hermann Kulke, the German historian whose scholarship fundamentally reshaped the academic understanding of Odisha’s past, passed away at the age of eighty-seven. For more than four decades, Kulke dedicated his intellectual life to studying the historical processes that shaped Odisha’s society, religion, and political traditions.

The Union Budget and the Odisha Budget offer an opportunity to examine how cultural policy is evolving in India. By comparing these budgets with international models of cultural governance, it becomes possible to assess both their achievements and their limitations.

While the expansion of heritage walks represents an encouraging development, it also brings certain challenges. One of the most common tendencies in public heritage storytelling is the romanticisation of history. Cultural landscapes are often narrated through emotionally powerful stories that emphasise glory, devotion, or civilisational pride. Such narratives are attractive and easy to communicate, particularly in informal public settings where audiences expect engaging story

When the Padma Shri honours are announced each year, they often reveal an unheard story of India—one that unfolds far from metropolitan stages and headline-driven achievements.

We live in a time that rewards immediacy. Knowledge is consumed in fragments— summaries, reels, headlines, and quick takes— circulating faster than they can be examined. The speed at which information travels today has undeniably democratized access, but it has also altered the nature of understanding itself.

Few social institutions in the world have shaped a civilisation as deeply as the caste system has shaped India. It is not merely a cultural practice or a religious belief but a comprehensive social structure that has historically governed occupation, marriage, ritual status, settlement patterns, and access to resources.

The architectural legacy of Kalinga occupies a curious position within the broader historiography of Indian architecture. On one hand, the temples of Bhubaneswar, Puri, and Konark are widely recognised as masterpieces of Indian temple architecture. Art historians have repeatedly highlighted their structural clarity and sculptural richness. On the other hand, the architectural narrative of Kalinga has been overwhelmingly framed through the study of temples alone. As a result,

Achieving national recognition with the Padma Shri in 2020, Das’s legacy lies not merely in his performances but also in his systematic effort to preserve, teach, and increase the visibility of Ghoda Nacha at a time when many traditional folk forms were struggling to survive.

To speak of Odisha adapting to summer is therefore not merely to describe cooling foods or seasonal festivals. It is to examine how communities across the state have historically converted climate stress into social practice. In this system, food becomes more than cuisine. Festivals become more than a celebration.

When culture is fluid and ever-changing, why do we place it on a pedestal and judge it by a single standard? Instead of offering a single authoritative answer, the cultural story is a living document that maps how different people understand, participate in, and reshape culture.

This commentary adopts a qualitative, analytical approach grounded in field observations of major social media platforms such as X, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Long before Odisha became a geographical reality, print created a shared public space where people could think together. Newspapers & magazines turned language into a place where society could gather.

India is entering a phase where governance is not just administration, but meaning. Policy, pride, and politics are merging to shape a new imagination of what India was, is, and seeks to become.

As the world turns inward and nations fortify borders, Odisha looks outward — across tides, across time. Bali Jatra reminds us that our ancestors crossed oceans not to dominate, but to connect.

An exploration of Dr Mayadhar Mansingh’s poetic, critical, and translational legacy—tracing how the Premika Kabi redefined modern Odia literature through love, intellect, and cultural insight.

How the living continuum of culture in the Indian subcontinent evolved into a discourse of identity, belief, and power.

In Upendra Bhanja, we do not merely encounter a poet of the past. We meet the first philosopher of Odia feeling, one who turned language into consciousness, and consciousness into art.