Lunchtime lectures and talks

Lunchtime lectures
Admission free, booking advised

19th-century Scottish surgeons and Indian artists

Thursday 4 June, 13.15
Stevenson Lecture Theatre

Henry Noltie, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, discusses the role of 19th century Indian artists in assisting Scottish surgeons working for the East India Company to document the rich and colourful Indian flora.

Joseph Hooker talks with Charles Darwin about
Indian plants

Friday 12 June, 13.15
BP Lecture Theatre

Emma Townshend, gardening correspondent of The Independent on Sunday, examines the period of correspondence and discussion in the mid 19th century between the great botanist and plant-collector Joseph Hooker and Charles Darwin.

The archaeology of
Hindu ritual

Friday 24 July, 13.15
Stevenson Lecture Theatre

Dr Michael Willis, British Museum, examines the rituals of Udayagiri in central India, a key site from the imperial Gupta dynasty (3rd–6th century AD). He demonstrates how ceremonies can be reconstructed from inscriptions and archaeological evidence.

Marianne North in India

Friday 18 September, 13.15
Stevenson Lecture Theatre

Laura Ponsonby, formerly Archivist, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, explores the importance of Marianne North’s work discovering, recording and preserving many Indian plants.

Nine lives: in search of the sacred in modern India

Monday 5 October, 13.15
BP Lecture Theatre

Historian and travel writer William Dalrymple introduces his new book, Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India, which discusses how traditional religious life in South Asia has been transformed by the region’s rapid change. Followed by a book signing.