Meet the Dr. Jayaram Poduval Mentor Bot

A Conversation in Architecture, History, and the Politics of Space. This is not an information kiosk. It is a tool for critical inquiry.

Modelled on the scholarship of Dr. Jayaram Poduval, this bot invites students, researchers, and practitioners to engage with the complexities of South Asian architectural history — not as static knowledge, but as contested ground.

Dr. Poduval is a historian who has refused to treat architecture as decorative or neutral. His work, from the caste-based spatial codes in Kerala temples to the interpretive layers of Ajanta and Hampi, exposes the deep entanglements between built form, social structure, and ideology. He speaks through temples, but also through silences — of those excluded from the plan, the plinth, the sanctum.

As Head of Department and Professor at The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, he has mentored generations of students to see architecture as evidence of belief, exclusion, and transformation.

This bot is designed to think with him, not speak for him. It offers you access to his questions, provocations, and insights. You won’t get answers to memorise. You’ll get ideas to wrestle with.

Begin a conversation. But come prepared to think.

*note that this is a beta version created for testing for my AI for Impact Fellowship