Aug 09 2024 to Aug 09 2024 6:30 p.m.

EVENT HAS ENDED

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

Demonised as he was after his death, the reign of King Ravana of Lanka, and his ancestors, the powerful Mayuranga, has long been obscured and shrouded in myth. Their kingdom is believed to have reached beyond the island's shores, capturing lands across the seas. A kingdom of such magnitude was never seen again in Lanka. In a bid to shed light on this lost era, Sunela Jayewardene travelled through Sri Lanka and listened to the storytellers and poets, researched Sri Lanka’s folklore, and sifted through race and religion, to stitch together a history of a forgotten landscape. The story of the kingdom that Ravana had ruled lay over the island like a fading, antique map. The edges of the story were frayed and there were lines disconnected by time, but the landscape it traced, exists.

Ravana’s Lanka: The Landscape of a Lost Kingdom, written by Sunela Jayewardene is the story she learned of King Ravana and the kingdom that he lost. In this session, Sunela will be in conversation with Theatre Practitioner, Anuradha Venkataraman.

A Q&A with the audience will follow.

Speakers

Sunela Jayewardene Author & Environmental Architect

Sunela Jayewardene is recognised as ‘Sri Lanka’s leading environmental architect’ (Time, March 2007; India Today, 2008). She has designed several award-winning hotels including Jetwing Vil Uyana, Colombo Court, Rainforest Ecolodge, Jetwing Kaduruketha, Camellia hills, and several private homes in Sri Lanka and India. Inspired by Sri Lanka’s precolonial cultural traditions, her primary design impulse has been serious concern for the ecology of sites and the sustainability of human habitats. Her work has been recognised internationally and the echelon listed her among the ‘50 most powerful women in Sri Lanka, in 2013 & 2014. Sunela is the author of Ravana’s Lanka for Penguin India. Her first book, The Line of Lanka, was nominated for the 2017 Gratiaen Prize.

Anuradha Venkataraman Dancer & Theatre Practitioner

Anuradha Venkataraman is a Bharatanatyam dancer and a theatre practitioner. Trained under Guru Saroja Vaidyanathana in Bharatanatyam and under V Balakrishnan in theatre. Anuradha has been performing regularly in India and abroad. She is an empanelled artist of ICCR and an ‘A’ graded artist of Delhi Doordarshan. Academically, Anuradha has completed her M.Phil in Cultural Studies in Jain University Bangalore under Dr. Choodamani Nangdagopal. She has been an Artist in residence at TUIDA in South Korea, Rags of Memory by Instabili Vaganti in India and OMI dance residency in New York. She has been part of two international collaborations, Fish Tree Moon a play written and directed by Yosup Bae from TUIDA which premiered in Rangashankara’s festival Bangalore and Dante Beyond Borders by Instabili Vaganti, which premiered in both India and in Italy.