Visiting Faculty
Sumedha Verma Ojha is an author, columnist and speaker. She was born in Patna, completed schooling in Bihar and Jharkhand, and graduated in economics from Lady Sriram College, New Delhi and post-graduated in sociology from Delhi School of Economics, under Delhi University.
She joined Indian Civil Services in 1992; but switched careers after a sabbatical in 2006. Since then she has been engaged in in-depth research on ancient Indian history and Samskrit and Prakrit works. She researched and wrote a book – ‘Urnabhih’ – set in the Mauryan period, based on Arthashastra of Chanakya. Later it expanded into a book series on the Mauryan Empire.
Sumedha works in the area of translating and explaining the epics and bringing ancient Samskrit/Prakrit literature into the modern world, also covering a gendered analysis of ancient India. Her free translation of the Samskrit Valmiki Ramayan was published in 2016. She is engaged in writing a book on the women of ancient India, which will set a new approach to understanding women, based on the emic Shaastric and Indic traditions of the subcontinent.
