Madhu Khanna

Madhu Khanna is an Indian people historian of religion and noted Tantric scholar based in Delhi. At present, she is Distinguished Fellow (2013–2014) in Asian and Comparative Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco. Until recently, she was Director for the Centre for the Study of Comparative Religion and Civilizations, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. She is at present Visiting Professor of Indic Religion at the same Centre, where she teaches interdisciplinary courses in Hindu Studies. She has several books and exhibition catalogues to her credit and has contributed to three national projects, as well as several research projects for the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA).

She obtained her PhD in Indology/Religious Studies from the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, in 1986. Her PhD thesis was on The Concept and Liturgy of the Sricakra based on Sivananda's Trilogy, under the supervision of Professor Alexis Sanderson, Ethics and Religion, All Souls College, University of Oxford. Her subject was Esoteric Hinduism, with special reference to Hindu Tantra and Goddess Traditions. Her research has shown that the origins of Sri Vidya as a central doctrine of Shaktism were in Kashmir.

She has been Associate Professor (Religious/Indic studies) at the IGNCA, where she researched and organized all major, inter-disciplinary research projects and exhibitions, including Prakriti: Man in Harmony with the Elements, a cross-cultural, inter-disciplinary project; Rta: Cosmic Order & Chaos, a cross-cultural seminar which explored the multi-faceted concept of Rta, Cosmic Order, traceable to the Vedas which pervades all aspects of life, the natural order, the human world, the social and the moral worlds, as well as the arts; and Rupa-Pratirupa: Man, Mind & Mask, to name a few. She spearheaded Narivada: Gender, Culture & Civilization Network of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), Delhi. Narivada is a pioneer project that revisions and contextualizes women's cultural resources and knowledge systems in South Asia as an integral element in Gender Studies.

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