ShodhKosh Journal of Visual and Performing Arts
April 3, 2026
Surendra P. Singh, Lohans Kumar Kalyani, Manju Singh et al.
Yoga and meditation can help performing artists improve physical awareness, cognitive focus, emotional control, and creative engagement, while reducing performance anxiety and building emotional resilience. The paper reviews interdisciplinary literature from performing arts, psychology, and mindfulness studies to discuss how practices such as asana (poses), pranayama (breath control), and meditation support body alignment, breathing performance, and mental clarity. A Mindfulness-Based Performance Framework is proposed that integrates these practices into performing arts training and rehearsal techniques. The findings suggest that yoga and meditation are valuable for the holistic development of artists and their long-term well-being.
ShodhKosh Journal of Visual and Performing Arts
March 27, 2026
Nidhi Vats
Indigenous knowledge systems in India resist translation into written archives; they are preserved through embodied practices such as ritual healing, martial movement, artisanal labour, ecological stewardship, and spirit-mediated communication. The paper argues that these practices function as living archives encoding ecological intelligence, historical memory, and ethical relationships with land and community. It criticizes mainstream epistemologies favoring textuality and scientism, showing how colonial and postcolonial paradigms splintered indigenous knowledge. The authors propose a pluralistic, practice-oriented model that treats embodiment as an epistemic situation, not a metaphor, and validates indigenous knowledge systems as legitimate epistemologies within contemporary India, offering insights for sustainable conservation and culturally sensitive policy.
ShodhKosh Journal of Visual and Performing Arts
December 19, 2025
Jay Vasani, Savita Deogirkar
Mirabai and Tulsidas, two major poets of the Indian Bhakti movement, express devotion and union with the divine in contrasting ways. Mirabai's poetry is emotional and fearless, addressing Krishna as a lover and rejecting social rules to express spiritual freedom through dance, song, and submission. Tulsidas writes with humility, turning to Rama with faith through service, discipline, and remembrance, finding grace in prayer and repentance. Both use simple language and rich symbols to convey mystical experience as lived, not merely believed. Their work shows that Bhakti spirituality encompasses not only silence and solitude but also music, longing, protest, and poetry.