Kapila Vatsyayana, grand matriarch of cultural research demanded excellence

Her towering presence and extenuating scholarship that will be difficult to match in times to come, writes Kishore Singh

Nobody said Kapila Vatsyayana was an easy person to deal with for she did not suffer fools gladly. Respect for her was tinged by something akin to trepidation – you could never tell when she would tick you off waspishly for not being meticulous enough in your research or work. No one knew this better than her editors or their assistants should they have been less than exacting in their task. Her domain knowledge ranged from dance and theatre to architecture, and in art history she conceded ground to none other than her brother, the critic Keshav Malik, who predeceased