Sudha Gopalakrishnan has a doctoral degree in Comparative Drama and Master’s degree in English Language and Literature. Her books include original works, translations and edited volumes. Her books include From the Comic to the Comedic: Traditions of Comedy (1993), Kṛṣṇagīti (with CR Swaminathan, translation of Manaveda’s source text for Kṛṣṇāṭṭam), Nalacaritam (translation of Unnayi Varier’s Kathakali play, 2001) Tattvabodha (edited essays, NAMAMI, 2006) and Kutiyattam: The Heritage Theatre of India (2011). She has contributed papers in national and international publications, and given academic lectures in institutions in India and abroad. Her research interests cover Malayalam literature, Sanskrit poetry and drama and the performing arts of Kerala including Kutiyattam and Kathakali.
Sudha Gopalakrishnan is Executive Director, SAHAPEDIA, an open, online encyclopedia of Indian arts, cultures and histories. Sahapedia seeks to create knowledge more interactive and extensive by creating a platform where institutions, experts and all registered users can contribute content and exchange ideas.
Previously (2003-2007) she was Mission Director of India’s National Mission for
Manuscripts (NAMAMI) where she led a nation-wide effort to survey, document, conserve, and place in the public domain one million Indian manuscripts, now a global knowledge resource at www.namami.org. NAMAMI collaborated with eighty-five important manuscript resource centres, networked with more than five hundred institutions and identified more than 60,000 institutions with manuscript holdings. Her previous stints with institutions include the Sahitya Akademi (India’s National Academy of Letters), Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts and the National University of Educational Planning and Administration.
She was instrumental in securing four international recognitions for India—three in the field of intangible cultural heritage for the programme of the UNESCO “Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” (for Kutiyattam, Vedic chanting and Ramlila) and one (Rig Veda Padapātha) for the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme.
Sudha Gopalakrishnan is a trained dancer of Kathakali.