Sreshta Ponnala

Sacred Steinkerns: Shaligram Shilas as a Living Geomyth, and the Palaeontological Consequences of Devotional Custody

This paper looks at Shaligram shilas, the black spiral stones from Nepal's Kali Gandaki river that Hindus worship as forms of Vishnu, from two sides. As geology, they are Late Jurassic ammonoid fossils. The paper traces them from the Spiti Shale sea floor on the edge of the Tethy...

A Safeguarding-Aware Agentic AI Tutor for Montessori-Inspired Personalised Education

This record documents the design and classroom trial of a working AI tutoring system built for adolescents at Blue Blocks Montessori School, Hyderabad, and the architectural argument that follows from it: that personalisation, teacher oversight, and child safeguarding should live...