Akarsh studies the trans-regional interactions of Buddhist material culture across the Indian Ocean with a focus on locating Tamiḻakam in the South-Southeast Asian cultural encounters of Southern Buddhism. Akarsh holds a BA in History from University of Delhi (2016) and MA in Buddhist Art History and Conservation from the Courtauld Institute of Art (2019), where his dissertation on the art, epigraphs and religious networks of Buddhism in Tamiḻakam led him to his current project at Harvard. His research interests span across South Asian religious, visual and performing arts, drawing from an extensive pool of visual aesthetics in Sanskrit and Tamil literary cultures, Hindu, Buddhist and Jain ritual practices, early modern ethno-musicology and technical analysis of art.