Dr. Sushma Jatoo

Dr Sushma Jatoo is the Head of Kala Kosa Division of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), Ministry of Culture, Government of India. She is also the Project Director of the Women Studies program ’Nari Samvaad Prakalp’ of the IGNCA. One of the distinguished faculty members of the Post Graduate Diploma course on Cultural Informatics (PGDCI) conducted by IGNCA, Dr Jatoo has been an active member of the UNESCO’s project for Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage of India: the Documentation of Indian Oral Traditions of the Vedas. She is one of the authors of the concept of IGNCA’s ambitious project on preservation and promotion of the Vedas, titled the ‘Vedic Heritage Portal’ and is presently associated with the project as a member of its Task Force.

Dr Jatoo is a keen student of ‘Bhartiya Shastra Parampara’ (the traditional knowledge system of India) and has largely contributed towards bringing to light the Gyan Parampara of Indian arts and culture through her academic activities. She is the managing editor of several publications of IGNCA on Vedic, Agamic, musicological and architectural texts, which are fundamental to the understanding of Indian Arts. She is keenly interested in cross cultural studies and has actively contributed in the organization of several national and international conferences, Exhibitions, colloquia, etc. held at IGNCA.

She is the guiding force behind the inception of the ‘Shastra and Prayoga’ Programme of IGNCA which has actively looked at the interactions between the theory and practice of concepts of Indian arts in textual tradition.

She has been involved in the documentation programme pertaining to the performative aspects of the texts published under the fundamental texts series of the IGNCA. She has also conceptualized ‘Shastra Amritam’; a new project dedicated to bringing out the concise versions of the publications of Kala Kosa for the benefit of general readers.

Dr. Jatoo is joint executive producer of films like ‘Svachchata Devatva Ek Samaan (2016)’, ‘Agyat Shilpi (2016)’, ‘Women Saints and Philosophers of Kashmir (2019)’, and Streedesh: the extraordinary and chivalrous women of Kashmir (2020)’.

Dr Sushma Jatoo is a committed student of Kashmirian studies and has contributed significantly by highlighting Kashmiri textual traditions at national and international fora. Her Ph. D. thesis is on the Bakhshali Manuscript, the only extant Sharada Manuscript on ancient mathematics. A critical study of ‘Sivastotravali’, an important 10th century text of Kashmir Sivaism is one of the books authored by her. She has also edited Volumess on ‘Bhand Pather: the traditional folk theatre of Kashmir’, and another on the ‘Vakh and Vacana: the Pearls of Wisdom’ (based on the Vakhs of Kashmir and Vacanas of Karnataka). She has been an active member of the executive committee for the Kashmir Chapter of the IGNCA. She has been the Project Investigator for the ‘Kashmir-Vistarana’ programme of IGNCA.

She has authored several books, articles and book reviews, and has presented several illustrated talks and research papers at various national and international seminars and conferences etc. Read more

Dr. Sushma Jatoo

HoD, Kalakosa Division, IGNCA & Project Director,
Women Studies Program (Nari Samvaad Prakalp),
Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA),
Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India.

Mobile: +91 98119 83047
Emails: sushma.jatoo@gmail.com, igncakkhod@gmail.com, narivadas217@gmail.com