Pancha Indriya · The Five Senses
The Indus Valley Foundation preserves Indian heritage the way it was always transmitted — through taste, touch, sight, sound, and smell. Not as museum exhibits, but as living practice.
The Bhagavad Gita names Manas — the mind — as the sixth indriya. Not a separate sense, but the awareness that integrates all five. The space where taste, touch, sight, sound, and smell converge into presence. Every program we offer is, at its root, a practice in awareness — learning to be fully here while the senses receive what heritage has to teach.
The Samkhya philosophers taught that each sense connects to a great element — earth, water, fire, air, ether. The Charaka Samhita mapped each sense to health and wholeness. We follow this ancient architecture: five doorways, one awareness.
Food is memory. Food is medicine. Our Supper Club and cooking programs explore the why behind what we eat — Ayurvedic principles, regional traditions, seasonal rhythms, and the communal rituals that made Indian cuisine one of the world’s great culinary traditions. Connected to Jala (water) and the tongue.
From Banarasi silk to Khadi, each weave carries centuries of technique and identity. Our textile programs connect diaspora communities with artisan weavers, champion handloom and natural fibers, and revive the intimate knowledge passed through the hands. Connected to Vayu (air) and the skin.
The Dancing Girl of Mohenjo-daro, cast in bronze 4,500 years ago, stands in tribhanga — the same three-bend pose used in Bharatanatyam today. Dance, visual arts, rangoli, architecture — we preserve the traditions that speak through the eyes. Connected to Agni (fire) and the eyes.
The raga system maps the full spectrum of human emotion across time of day, season, and mood. From classical music to folk songs to the rhythmic patterns of spoken Sanskrit, sound carries the oldest layer of Indian knowledge. Connected to Akasha (ether) and the ears.
Sandalwood, turmeric, camphor, jasmine — the aromatics of ritual, healing, and daily life. Ayurvedic traditions, incense making, spice cultivation, and the sacred scents that mark every ceremony from birth to death. Connected to Prithvi (earth) and the nose.
Our inaugural event in New Jersey was an experiment in Rasa — taste as a doorway to memory. We gathered a table and asked guests not just to eat, but to notice. One person said the food reminded them of eating on the streets back home. Another, mid-bite, drifted into memories of spiritual music. Every story was different. The common thread was the same — food, through taste and smell and sight and touch, awakened something that conversation alone never could.
The Dancing Girl of Mohenjo-daro was cast in 2500 BCE. The Sangam poets of Tamil Nadu were composing literature by 300 BCE. Between them, scholars like Asko Parpola and Iravatham Mahadevan have traced threads of language, symbol, and culture that suggest the Indus Valley and Dravidian civilizations were not separate stories, but chapters of the same one.
Tamil — one of the oldest living languages on earth — may preserve words, astronomical terms, and cultural memory from the Indus Valley itself. The Keezhadi excavations in Tamil Nadu have revealed a civilization 3,200 years old, existing alongside, not after, the Indus Valley. The story of Indian heritage is not a line from north to south. It is a web, ancient and tangled and beautiful.
யாதும் ஊரே யாவரும் கேளிர்
“Every place is my homeland. Every person is my kin.”
Kaniyan Poongundranar · Purananuru · Sangam Literature · c. 300 BCE
This foundation exists at that intersection. Founded by a woman shaped equally by Tamil, Hindi, and Marathi — by Vedic and Dravidian traditions alike — devoted to the whole. Not any single thread, but the entire tapestry.
The Dancing Girl of Mohenjo-daro was cast 4,500 years ago. The Rig Veda named the senses as instruments of Indra. This lineage doesn’t start with us — we simply refuse to let it end.
Establish the Foundation. Build programming through Supper Clubs, workshops, and concerts. Begin the Oral History Project. Secure first grants. Grow the community.
Expand to the tri-state area. Launch artisan exchange programs with India. Build the Digital Archive. Partner with museums and universities. Hire program staff.
Open a physical Heritage Center — a space designed around the five senses. A kitchen for Rasa, a weaving studio for Sparsha, a performance hall for Roopa and Shabda, a healing garden for Gandha. Heritage not behind glass, but in your hands.
Whether you want to attend events, volunteer, advise, or simply stay connected — we’d love to hear from you.
Thank you for joining the Indus Valley Foundation. We’ll be in touch with updates on upcoming events and programs. Together, we preserve what matters.
“I am a trained Bharatanatyam dancer. A meditation practice in my late thirties awakened something I’d always carried but never named — heritage living in my own body. At our first Supper Club, I watched people slow down. One guest said the food reminded them of eating on the streets back home. Another drifted into memories of spiritual music. Every story was different. The common thread was the same — the senses awaken what the mind forgets.”
Brindha Sridhar
Founder, Indus Valley Foundation