Tejas '25
Find Your Indic Lens
Alumni Volunteers
POTS Interviews
Ballroom Internship Fair
Tejas Book Club
This year, we also watch.
Alongside our 3 assigned books, the High School cohort's reading list includes a web series for the first time: the Valmiki Ramayan by 21Notes. It's the authentic Valmiki Ramayana — no distortions — told in episodes under 10 minutes, built for today's audience, their questions, their framing, and their patience. We recommend it to readers of every age, competition or not.
Chapter Two — Year Two
In Year One, over 100 teams asked whether Indic knowledge could hand them a new lens. In Year Two, we got our answer — not from us, but from them.
Twelve of last year's participants came back on their own, not as competitors this time, but as volunteers, giving up their weekend to help run the very finale they'd once competed in. A book club formed out of nowhere — alumni and newcomers, still reading, still arguing over dinner-table questions the books had raised months earlier. And when the finale ran alongside DCF's own Dharma in Digital Age conference, our participants didn't just watch the luminaries speak — they picked up microphones and interviewed them.
That's what a lens becomes, once you've found it: something you keep using.
Chapter Three
The Books
Six books this year, plus — for the first time — a web series.
Immortals of Meluha
The first book of the Shiva Trilogy — Shiva reimagined as a flesh-and-blood tribal chieftain in ancient India, in a Meluha (Indus-Saraswati civilization) built as a real, functioning society rather than a myth.
Scientific Yogi
An argument that science and yoga are two paths converging on the same destination — unity — walking through Vedic and yogic frameworks alongside modern scientific discovery.
Revisiting the Educational Heritage of India
A history of India's ancient learning ecosystem — Nalanda, Takshashila, the gurukuls — and how that ecosystem was dismantled, plus what's worth rebuilding today.
Valmiki Ramayan
21Notes — creator Yashodeep Deodhar
A 100-episode retelling of Valmiki's original Ramayana, presented as itihasa — "that is how it happened" — not myth. Authentic, no distortions, each episode under 10 minutes, built for a modern audience.
Watch on YouTube →
Being Different
A comparative civilizational study arguing Dharmic traditions rest on fundamentally different premises than the Judeo-Christian West — not better or worse, but genuinely different.
Dharmanomics
A framework for understanding ancient Indian economic systems through the lens of Dharma — temple economies, trade guilds, and kingdoms from the Cholas to the Khmer Empire.
Mahabharat Unravelled II: The Dharma Discourses
A sequel focused on the Mahabharata's philosophical discourses — Bhishma's teachings to Yudhishthira, Vidura's counsel, and more, made accessible for a modern reader.
Chapter Four
The Qualifying Round
Two cohorts, two challenge sets — Senior gets its own, more mature names for the same formats.
High School Cohort — Advancement
5 challenges, 5 Challenge Toppers (one per challenge). Top 5 teams overall advanced to the finale.
Senior Cohort — Advancement
4 challenges, no Challenge Toppers this cohort. Top 4 teams overall advanced directly to the finale.
YouTube Short
A short video based on the prompt provided.
Booklet Me
Explore a given prompt in a booklet.
GenZ Speak
Convey the prompt to your GenZ peers, in any format.
Podcast
A podcast based on the prompt provided.
Memefy This
Spot the difference between Indic and contemporary dominant thought.
YouTube Short
A short video based on the prompt provided.
Between the Lines
The Senior take on Booklet Me.
Millennial Mosaic
The Senior take on GenZ Speak — millennials speaking to millennials.
Echoes of Wisdom
The Senior take on Podcast.
Chapter Five
The Finale
Bigger this year — alumni came back to run it, and the internship fair outgrew the hallway.
Georgia Tech · Atlanta
A Weekend That Grew Up
June 13–15, 2025 · Same 3 finale rounds as Year One — Jeopardy, Just-3-Minutes, Act-It-Out
Three Finale Rounds
Jeopardy
A live trivia showdown testing how deep finalists really went into their books.
Just-3-Minutes
Make your case, tell your story — in exactly three minutes, live in front of judges.
Act-It-Out
A live performance round bringing a scene or theme from the books to the stage.
Expert Sessions
Working professionals coached participants on their craft — details to come.
YouTube Shorts
Rewa Ravat
Podcast
Sunanda Vashisth
GenZ
Aditya Patwardhan
Booklet Me
Saiswaroopa Iyer
Internship Fair — Ballroom Edition
Held alongside DDA '25, this year's internship fair grew from hallway recruiter pitches into a full ballroom fair — Media, Medicine, Integrative Health, and Research positions with authors, including paid internships.
A Book Club Is Born
Over finale weekend, Tejas alumni and new participants started a book club together — a way to keep reconnecting with their roots long after the competition ends.
Chapter Six
POTS — Podcasts on the Sidelines
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: Tejas participants interviewing world luminaries at DDA '25.
Featured This Year
What happens when teenagers get to interview the speakers?
Because the Tejas finale ran alongside DCF's own Dharma in Digital Age conference — bringing in luminaries from around the world — our participants didn't just sit in the audience. They picked up microphones and asked the questions themselves.
▶ Watch the full POTS playlistInterviews conducted by Tejas participants Vedika Rathi, Vedaant Bal, and Aditya Patwardhan.
Who They Interviewed
Amish Tripathi
Author (also this year's assigned author, Immortals of Meluha)
Yogesh Bendale
Oncology Ayurvedic Vaidya
Sachin Nandha
Think Tank Founder & President, Author
Vibhuti Jha
Senior Journalist, Head of News Channel
Manoj Gupta
Author & Tech Expert
Amit Deodhar
Veteran Finance Leader
Saumitra Gokhale
Public Intellectual; Board Advisor to several Dharmic institutions
Chapter Seven
Winners
Challenge Toppers — High School Only (5)
Senior cohort had no Challenge Toppers this year — its 4 finalist teams advanced directly by overall standing.
Chapter Eight
Winning Entries
One standout entry per challenge across both cohorts — 9 in total. Each media type keeps its native shape rather than being force-cropped into a uniform grid.
Team / Entry Title
Participant — Book
Team / Entry Title
Participant — Book
Team / Entry Title
Participant — Book
Team / Entry Title
Participant — Book
Team / Entry Title
Participant — Book
Team / Entry Title
Participant — Book
Team / Entry Title
Participant — Book
Team / Entry Title
Participant — Book
Team / Entry Title
Participant — Book
Chapter Nine
The Authors
Seven authors and creators whose work shaped the 2025 reading list.
Amish Tripathi
Immortals of Meluha
Tulsi Arora
Scientific Yogi
Sahana Singh
Revisiting the Educational Heritage of India
Yashodeep Deodhar
Valmiki Ramayan (web series, 21Notes)
Rajiv Malhotra
Being Different
Sriram Balasubramanian
Dharmanomics
Ami Ganatra
Mahabharat Unravelled II
Chapter Ten
Candid Moments
More photos this year than last — the energy of the weekend, not just the podium.
Chapter Eleven
Voices & Vox Pop
🔴 Testimonial placeholder — add 2025 quotes when ready.
🔴 Testimonial placeholder — add 2025 quotes when ready.
🔴 Testimonial placeholder — add 2025 quotes when ready.
Vox Pop
Tejas '27 is Coming
Two years in — and the roots keep spreading
Join the interest list for Tejas '27, or share Year Two's story with someone who'd love it.
