Dr Sushma Jansari is a British Indian historian specialising in the Mauryan period and collecting histories. She is the Tabor Foundation curator South Asia at the British Museum and Vice Chair of Trustees of the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre.[1] Jansari is also the founder and presenter of The Wonder Housepodcast and a former council member and honorary joint-secretary of the Royal Numismatic Society.
Jansari studied ancient history at University College London,graduating with a BA in 2005 and MA in 2006. She undertook postgraduate research at this institution,completing her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 2016 with a thesis titled "From Megasthenes to Sophytes:A re-examination of literary and numismatic sources for Seleucid-Mauryan relations in British and Indian scholarship".[2]
Career
While working on her PhD,Jansari joined the British Museum's Department of Asia and curated the ancient to mediaeval displays in the Sir Joseph Hotung Gallery for China and South Asia (opened 2017).[3] In 2018,she was appointed Tabor Foundation curator of South Asia,becoming the first person of Indian origin to hold a permanent role curating the South Asian collections.[4]
Jansari was lead curator (2016-2022) for the Manchester Museum South Asia Gallery,a British Museum Partnership which opened in 2023. She was the first Indian origin woman to join the Royal Numismatic Society Council (2012-2018) and hold the post of honorary joint-secretary. She introduced annual student and early career scholar lectures to the society.[citation needed]
As a curator of Gujarati origin,Jansari was featured in the Roots and Changes - Gujarati Influences exhibition at Brent Museum and Archives in 2021.[5] Her book,Chandragupta Maurya:The Creation of a National Hero in India,was published by UCL Press in June 2023.[6] The exhibition Ancient India:living traditions by Jansari,about art and religion in ancient South Asia,at The British Museum opened in May 2025.[7] The exhibition book also titled Ancient India:living traditions was also released in May 2025 and is the first British Museum publication to be entirely vegan.[8] The exhibition has received positive reviews.[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]
Podcaster
In 2019,Jansari launched The Wonder House podcast.[3] She founded,presents and produces this show.[17]
Select publications
Jansari, S. (2012). "Roman Coins from the Mackenzie Collection at the British Museum". Numismatic Chronicle. 172: 93–104.
Jansari, S. (2012). "Roman Coins from the Masson and Mackenzie Collections in the British Museum". South Asian Studies. 29 (2): 177–193.
Jansari, S; Ricot R. (2016). "Megasthenes and the Astomoi: a case study into ethnography and paradoxography". In Brinkhaus H.; Wieshöfer, J. (eds.). Megasthenes und seine Zeit/Megasthenes and his Time. Wiesebaden: Harrassowitz. pp.85–96.
Jansari, S. (2019). "The Sophytes coins: from the Punjab to Bactria and back again". Numismatic Chronicle. 178: 1–99.
Jansari, S. (2019). "From Geography to Paradoxography: the use, transmission and survival of Megasthenes Indica". Journal of Ancient History. 8 (1): 26–49.
Jansari, S. (2019). "Colonial Collecting in Ceylon: Dispersing the Hugh Nevill Collections across the British Isles". In Peyton, A.B.; Paul, K.A. (eds.). Arts of South Asia: Cultures of Collecting. University of Florida Press. pp.63–94. ISBN9781683400479.
Jansari, S. (2020). "South Asia". In Mairs, R. (ed.). The Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek World. Routledge. pp.38–55. ISBN9781138090699.
Jansari, S. (2020). "Two sides of the coin: from Sophytes to Skanda-Kārttikeya". In Mairs, R. (ed.). The Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek World. Routledge. pp.487–498. ISBN9781138090699.
Argounova-Low, T.; Brown, A.; Jansari, S. (2020). Model of a Summer Camp. London: British Museum Press. ISBN0714124885.
Jansari, S. (2020). "Buildings with a Message – Experimenting with a Rich Mosaic of Objects and Voices". RETHINK Design Guide: Architecture for a post-pandemic world. London: RIBA Publishing. pp.66–69. ISBN9781859469804.
Jansari, S. (2023). Chandragupta Maurya: The creation of a national hero in India. London: UCL Press. ISBN9781800083905.
Jansari, S. and Muthukumaran, S. (2025). Ancient India: living traditions. London: British Museum Press. ISBN978-0714124995.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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