Centre for Embodied Knowledge CEK, seeks to nurture crafts of hand and voice created with love and effort in tune with nature, traditions – living and lost, in search of languages silent and unspoken, languages expressed through embodied action.
At CEK, we seek to know their past, processes indigeneity, locality and infinite continuity to learn their wisdom unsaid yet expressed through beauty and form. We seek a fraternity of artisans, performing communities celebrate and revel with them divine rituals with craft dance, songs and stories.
We seek that they own their traditions, in every way there is, through mind, law and social recognition for only through such an ownership can anyone dignify themselves and own their inner being. We seek to showcase their knowledge in ways more than one sharing, showing other paths similar, dissimilar through disciplines, technologies.
Established in 2021, the founders of the Center, Akanksha Damini Joshi, Sunny Narang and Hari Kiran Vadlamani had imagined it to be like Noah’s Ark or Matsya Avatar during the flood where they try to discover co travellers and seekers, who are on their own journeys to explore, nurture and document indigenous embodied knowledges and processes.
Guru Ravindra Sharma who has inspired members Annapurna, Aseem, Ashish and Rajni the founders of Jeevika Ashram and many more, had said that “Saundarya Drishti” or the “Aesthetic -Spiritual Perception” of Bharatiya Sanskriti and Samaj is being drowned under modernity and industrialization and that we need to secure and protect the seeds of that beautiful tree. “It’s with this singular intent, we had imagined CEK, and right from the beginning it’s been a journey of discovery, without a plan. Our Vision is just the intent of celebrating the inherent genius of our bhoomi , and those immersed in it. Of the Sanatan spirit embodied in farmers, artisans, musicians, artists, healers and seekers as they find their vocations and journeys.”
For CEK, throughout 2023, a series of enriching workshops unfolded amidst the picturesque surroundings of Jeevika Ashram in Indrana Village, Jabalpur. In March, they inaugurated the first Nature and Culture Workshop, followed by an Architecture Documentation Workshop in August, dedicated to studying the indigenous architectural marvels of the local village.
Continuing the exploration, a second edition of the Nature and Culture Workshop was convened in October. November marked a significant milestone as the Ashram hosted a Symposium on Indian Society and Economics, gathering over 50 scholars, community workers, artisans, and farmers for insightful discussions.
CEK also supported a course on the Indian economy titled, Arthvyavastha, to carry forward learnings and facilitate a conversation on an issue that we think urgently calls for a larger rethinking in our time. Around 25 people from across the country met between 25th and 31st January 2024 at the Ashram.
Arthvyavastha was a weeklong course for young people to look at the discipline of economics and more importantly, our economy, with our own eyes. It aimed at developing a perspective that is rooted in traditions that emphasise our deep harmony with the natural world and the values of love, non-violence, peace and justice.
Under the banner of “Exploring the Architectural Heritage of Indrana,” the documentation project served as a gateway to dual investigations: one entailing the physical and technical examination of the structures themselves, and another delving into the profound connection between artisans and their modest dwellings.
