Bharat’s Cultural
Connections
across the Globe
A three-day international conference exploring the historical, cultural, philosophical and civilizational connections between Bharat and the wider world.
Participate in the conference
Conference begins in
Bharat, connected through exchange.
Brihattar Bharat signifies the wider civilizational sphere shaped by the transmission, adaptation and interaction of Indian cultural, philosophical, artistic, linguistic and religious traditions across Asia and beyond.
The conference approaches these connections as a history of circulation—of people, ideas, texts, artistic forms, technologies, goods and living traditions—rather than as a political or imperial construct.
बहुजनहिताय बहुजनसुखाय लोकानुकम्पाय
Bahujanahitāya Bahujanasukhāya Lokānukampāya
“For the welfare of many, for the happiness of many, and out of compassion for the world”
In the second half of the 20th century, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore emphasized the civilizational extent of ‘Bharatvarsha’ in the following lines:
Bharatvarsha was never merely a geographic territory — never just a stretch of land marked by political boundaries; instead, it was and is a civilizational idea, a spiritual and cultural expanse.
— Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore
From civilizational memory to contemporary expression.
“In the spirit of ‘Democracy first, Humanity First’, India is doing its duty as a ‘Vishwa Bandhu’.”
Prime Minister of Bharat Shri Narendra ModiParliament of Guyana, South America · 21 November 2024“Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam - One Earth, One Family, One Future”
Motto of the G20 SummitHeld in September 2023 in India“It is high time to start taking pride in our legacy.”
Prime Minister of Bharat Shri Narendra ModiRed Fort · 15 August 2022The renewed national resolve around decolonization of the mind — articulated as one of the Panch Praan of Amrit Kaal and reiterated at the Ramnath Goenka Lecture in November 2025 — calls for the recovery and continuation of this scholarship. The conference takes up, with fresh rigour and new perspectives, the work of documenting India's civilizational presence beyond its borders begun by an earlier generation of scholars and left incomplete.
A century of scholarship.
The 2026 conference marks the centenary of the Greater India Society and creates a new platform for Brihattar Bharat studies.
Greater India Society
Established in Calcutta to give systematic scholarly attention to India's wider civilizational interactions — monks, merchants, travellers and scholars as agents of exchange.
Journal & Scholarship
Eighteen volumes of the Journal of the Greater India Society documented research into the cultural and historical connections of India with regions beyond the subcontinent.
Centenary Conference
IGNCA convenes a new interdisciplinary international gathering to connect historical scholarship with contemporary academic inquiry on Bharat's civilizational reach.
Six routes of connection.
Follow the pathways through which ideas, people, goods and traditions travelled between Bharat, Asia and the wider world.
From archival scholarship to a living field of inquiry.
The Brihattar Bharat Scheme 2026–2031 supports research, documentation, publication, preservation, promotion, digitization, digital archiving and international academic partnerships under the Ministry of Culture.
Discover the InitiativeScheme Snapshot
Ten themes, one conversation.
From early civilizational interfaces to diaspora continuities, the conference brings multiple disciplines into dialogue.
Academic focus.
Explore civilizational and cultural linkages between India and regions across Asia and Europe, and identify the centres, sites, and traditions through which this connection is materially and textually manifested.
Recognize and research the monks, traders, travellers, and scholars — from Xuanzang and Faxian to Chola merchants and Sufi wanderers — who carried and disseminated Indian culture across the world.
Identify and document India's art traditions — architectural, sculptural, and performative — beyond the subcontinent, tracing their transmission, transformation, and living continuity.
Identify modern resource centres, archives, and untapped repositories in these regions that hold material relevant to the study of India's civilizational presence and make them accessible to researchers.
Invite international scholars across disciplines to bring forward new approaches, experimental methodologies, and fresh critical perspectives on the subject.
Identify the work of explorers and archaeologists — Mark Aurel Stein's expeditions, the archaeological surveys of Taxila and Nalanda, and comparable endeavours — and place their findings on an accessible scholarly portal.
Honour the scholars of the Greater India Society (Brihattar Bharat Parishad) and their intellectual legacy and make their publications accessible to a new generation of researchers.
Creating scholarship on the subject and including it as part of the curriculum.
Be part of the conversation.
Registration for the conference is open to faculty, research scholars, students and independent researchers.
Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
Vigyan Bhawan, Maulana Azad Road, New Delhi – 110011
Vigyan Bhawan is a landmark conference venue in New Delhi, designed for large-scale national and international events. It has hosted numerous academic, governmental and diplomatic gatherings.
Address
Maulana Azad Road, New Delhi – 110011
Conference Dates
14–16 October 2026
For any further details.
Brihattar Bharat Division
Prof. (Dr.) D. C. Choubey
407, 4th Floor 'A' Wing, IGNCA
Janpath Building, near Western Court, Janpath, New Delhi – 110001