Pepita Seth Biography 
Pepita Seth is a British born writer and photographer, best known for her research and documentation of Kerala temple art and rituals. For her services to the field of art and culture, government of India honoured her with Padma Shri in 2012. She was given the honour in the category, Literature and Education. She also owns a good collection of photographs of the iconic Kerala celebrated elephant, Guruvayur Kesavan. She lives in Guruvayur right now. She remains the only foreigner to be granted entry to the temple, which bars the entry of Non-Hindus. She is legally separated from Indian-born British actor Roshan Seth, best known for playing the role of Jawaharlal Nehru in 1982 Oscar award winning film, Gandhi. They legally divorced in 2004.
Pepita Seth was born in Suffolk, East of England. She belonged to a family of farmers. Her maternal great-grandfather served in British Indian army. She did not have any formal education, as educating a girl child was still a taboo in the lower sectors of her society. Years later, she chose films as her career option and studied film editing. Once she happened to go through the diary of her grandfather which prompted her to move to India. Thus she reached Kolkata in 1970. The journey from Kolkata ended in Guruvayur where she got fascinated with the temple arts and rituals of Kerala.
She started visiting Kerala frequently throughout 1970s. In 1979 she permanently settled in the temple town of Guruvayur. Non-Hindus are not allowed to visit Guruvayur temple, and hence she was denied entry first. However she finally convinced Devaswom and got entry to the main temple. As a photographer she has exclusively covered temple festivals and rituals across Kerala, and she published them in several international publications too. Pepita Seth has authored two research books on Hindu tradition, rituals and festivals of Kerala - Heaven on Earth: The Universe of Kerala’s Guruvayur Temple and The Divine Frenzy – Hindu Myths and Rituals of Kerala. She writes extensively about captive elephants of Kerala.
Published: March 01, 2019
Updated: March 01, 2019
