India in Pixels by Ashris

What percentage of your country identifies as religious? Data from 2017

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 1,085

India in Pixels by Ashris

www.nature.com/articles/s41431-025-01963-1

This Nature paper published yesterday almost makes it conclusive that the homeland of the Proto-Dravidian speakers was the Zagrosian plateau (in Iran). We covered this theory in our video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqbLo... which is now kinda official.

Dravidian is a sub branch of the Zagrosian language family of which Brahui and Elamite are also members.

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1 month ago | [YT] | 494

India in Pixels by Ashris

a viewer had asked in the comments section of the last video, "why does acceptance reduce ambition"?

I found it to be a beatiful question. I hadn't given it a closer look and I am glad for the question as it allowed me to do so.

Between acceptance and ambition, there is a missing link we should name - taste.
Your taste is the boundary of what you consider 'aesthetic'/

Taste seems to manifest even on a subconscious layer and it seems to be a function of a lot of your persona, from IQ to gender, age, genetics, education, class and so on. Anything that your taste approves is beautiful, anything it doesn't is cringe.

You can see why taste seems to be a core ingredient in the alchemy of identity.

The stricter your taste is, the harder acceptance becomes. Taste is like a judge, the harsher it judges, the more aesthetic the world around will be but the more disagreeable you have to be to elements and choices around. Lowering your standards is the easiest way to be more accepting.

Ambition requires this discriminating energy to be strong. Discrimination not in the sense of discriminating people but being able to discriminate between a temptation and a need, a good choice vs a bad choice. You cannot therefore have high degree of acceptance while having a sustained ambition as a culture.

Maybe that’s why acceptance dulls ambition. a culture can’t be naïvely accepting and still burn with the fire to refine, improve, and transform - they are two polar energies anchored in the center with taste. A culture that worships comfort will always find ambition exhausting.

2 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 761

India in Pixels by Ashris

Ideas you can steal for the RigVed Hackathon

1. Compare translations: line-by-line view across Sayana, Wilson, Griffith, Geldner, Jamison–Brereton, KL Joshi, etc., with quick toggles and notes on key divergences.

2. Layered viz: switchable layers for deities, rishis, meters, themes, rituals, places, epithets. Tap to filter the text live.

3. Key Suktas explorer: curated trails for Agni, Soma, Ushas, Indra vs Vritra, Nasadiya, Purusha. Each trail has 5–8 hymns with short explainers.

4. Onboarding tutorial: a first-time guide that teaches how to read a hymn panel, what “meter” means, how to toggle Sanskrit/transliteration/translation.

5. Meter scanner: auto-detect or manually annotate syllable weight, show cadence and clap track while audio plays. Show how this rhythm varies across mandals.

6. Audio alignment: word or pāda level syncing of recitations so hovering text plays the exact segment.

7. Deity graph: network of deities and epithets, with edges linking to the specific verses that justify each connection.

8. Rishi atlas: who composed what, arranged by family books, with time/place hypotheses and quick jumps to signature verses.

9. Concordance surfer: n-grams, epithets, collocations, co-occurrence heatmaps; click any token to see all contexts instantly.

10. Parallel pane: Sanskrit, transliteration, two translations, and a commentary column that auto-scroll together.

11. “Guess the deity” game: show a bundle of epithets and a verse fragment, user guesses the deity and meter, instant feedback with sources.

12. Ritual timeline: map selected hymns to ritual steps with citations to Śrauta/Gṛhya references, plus a visual flow.

13. Theme map: sliders for “dawn”, “rain”, “cow/wealth”, “battle”, “order (ṛta)”, “speech (vāc)”; the corpus lights up where themes are strongest.

14. Place map: geo-tag rivers, tribes, mountains named in the Rig Veda, link pins to verses, add uncertainty flags.

15. Epithet explorer: clickable tags like “vajrabāhu”, “maghavan”, “purohita”; show frequency by book and the earliest attestation.

16. Compare commentaries/research: short snippets from Sayana or Talageri or later scholars side-by-side with modern notes, clearly sourced.

17. “Paths through the Veda”: user-generated or curated playlists of hymns with a purpose (fire, hospitality, cosmic origins), shareable via URL.

18. Source checker: every claim has a tiny cite button that reveals verse numbers and edition details, so nothing is hand-wavy.

19. Study mode: spaced repetition cards made from selected verses, epithets, and meters for learners.

20. Build-your-own view: let users pick columns (Sanskrit, IAST, translation A/B, meter, deity) and save a preset link.

Keep it sharp, fast, and joyful.

2 months ago | [YT] | 255

India in Pixels by Ashris

🚨 Announcing Rig Veda Hackathon (₹7,000 prize) 🚨

Build anything that makes the Rig Veda delightful to explore - interactive viz, bot, mantra visualizer, quiz, data viz… surprise us!

Dataset:

Use RigVed samhita only. (Mandalas 1 - Mandalas 10). Khilas are not allowed.

Hard rules:

• Publicly accessible link. No login. No paywall.
• AI is allowed. No drama about tools.
• Works on desktop. Mobile friendly is a plus.
• Attribute your sources. Do not upload copyrighted translations that you do not have rights to host.
• Keep user data collection to zero or near zero. If you log anything, say so clearly.

Judging criteria:

• Design: visual clarity, typography, layout, taste.
• Usability: can a curious person get value in 30 seconds without reading a manual.
• Performance: quick load, smooth interactions.
• Rigor: correct references, honest framing, citations where needed.
• Originality: a novel idea or a fresh twist on a known tool.
• User delight: the “wow, this is fun and insightful” factor.

Submit
Reply with: 1-line pitch + 30–60s demo + live link (+ GitHub if any). Tag #RigVedaHack.

I will feature the winner in my upcoming Rig Veda video and across my socials, with credit. This is also a talent-scouting exercise. If you impress me, we will jam on bigger things.

Inspiration
iashris.com/rigved
vedaweb.uni-koeln.de/rigveda
rigveda-online.github.io/8/index.html

Timeline
Deadline: 7 Oct 2025, 11:59 PM IST

Sponsored by
@iipmaps
— instant, beautiful data visualisations.

Sanglish poetry competition results: x.com/indiainpixels/status/1967466563126308968

2 months ago | [YT] | 522

India in Pixels by Ashris

🚨 Announcing the first Sanglish Poetry Competition! 🚨

👉 Reply with your poem in Sanglish (mixed Sanskrit + English).
🏆 Prizes in three categories

Best Poem Overall
Most Popular
Most Creative

Split: ₹5k, ₹2k, ₹3k

✨ Sponsored by @iipmaps, the easiest way to create data visualisations.

Rules:

1. Poems need to use both Sanskrit and English words. No other language is allowed to be added (except as proper nouns)

2. Use of AI is discouraged but not disallowed

3. Script either should be all Latin (English alphabets)/IAST/Devanagari-Latin (using Devanagari for Sanskrit, Latin for English)

Optional: you can attach a video/audio submisison of you presenting your poem
for brownie points

4. Topic: Up to you. Avoid offensive, graphic, troll submissions.

5. Poem? need not be literal poem such as rhyming poetry, can be rap, can be even freestyle but no essays.

Winners will be announced on 14th September.


Please post your poems on x.com/indiainpixels’ post. Ones not posted there will not be considered. (You can post them here too)

3 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 278

India in Pixels by Ashris

Hindi cinema's approach to inter state relationships follows a remarkably consistent pattern. The guy is usually from north or west and the girl is invariably from south or east.

The data is striking: 2 States (Punjabi-Tamil), Chennai Express (Punjabi-Tamil), Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani (Punjabi-Bengali), Vicky Donor (Punjabi-Bengali), Param Sundari (Delhi-Malayalam).

The exceptions are rare but those films aren't as popular as the main stereotypical pairing. Take Mr. and Mrs. Iyer for example (Tamil Brahmin woman, Bengali Muslim man). Or, Raanjhanaa's Tamil Brahmin man and Muslim lady pairing operated outside the standard matrix.

Not an exhaustive list.

3 months ago | [YT] | 948

India in Pixels by Ashris

Here’s a sample text in Sanglish:

Aham earlymorninge uttiṣṭhāmi. Mama mind tired āsīt, kintu coffee-pānam māṃ energī dadāti. Adya university gatvā me friend saha discussion akāram, asmābhiḥ AI future viṣaye bahu charchā abhavat. Saḥ vadati: Technology rapidly evolve karoti, asmākam responsibility api vardhate. Aham anumemi etad satyam. Jīvanasya artha na kevalam money-pursuit, api tu creativity, friendship, cha compassion api asti.

You…

3 months ago | [YT] | 232

India in Pixels by Ashris

Hey everyone 👋

I just put iipmaps up on Product Hunt today. If you have a minute, a vote or a comment there would really help. I’ve pinned the link below.

I built this because a good map lets people start from the same picture and talk better. One frame, a lot of context.

Thank you for being here. 🙏

www.producthunt.com/products/iipmaps

4 months ago | [YT] | 224

India in Pixels by Ashris

With everything happening in the country right now, I am personally not in the mood of making videos on languages or researching on languages or doing anything related to languages right now. Languages are mythical creatures that have personalities like us who guide us and shape us across generations. They are treasure troves of our collective consciousness that root us to our past. However to see the same languages being used as a way to make people feel discriminated makes me feels like my work isn't amounting to much. I had a very bright eyed optimistic spirit for our country when I started this channel six years back but with the kind of depressing news one hears each day, it is hard to keep that innocent positivity burning bright.

My channel is dedicated to curious sweet sensitive souls who aspire to make this country a shining star in the world. Know that this country dissapoints both long term optimists and pessimists. Just because the world is overflowing with poison right now doesn't mean you have to drink its waters. Anger and hate are often byproducts of fear and insecurity. Don't fuel it with your attention. When these emotions have left everyone exhausted, it will be your kindness that the world will desperately need. Keep yourself healthy and protected for that moment.

You belong, you deserve love and respect, you are important and valuable. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

5 months ago | [YT] | 2,745