VIKRAM SAMPATH, a Bangalore-based historian, is the author of ten acclaimed books, including: Splendours of Royal Mysore: The Untold Story of the Wodeyars. His two-volume biography, Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past and Savarkar: A Contested Legacy, and his latest books, Bravehearts of Bharat: Vignettes from Indian History and Waiting for Shiva: Unearthing the Truth of Kashi's Gyan Vapi, have all gone on to become national bestsellers. In 2021, Vikram was elected a fellow of the prestigious Royal Historical Society. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi's first Yuva Puraskar in English literature and the ARSC International Award for excellence in historical research in New York for his book My Name Is Gauhar Jaan: The Life and Times of a Musician. Vikram was among four writers and artists selected as writers-in-residence at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in 2015.
He has a doctorate in history and music from the University of Queensland, Australia, and was a senior research fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. He was also a fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, an Eisenhower Global Fellow and a visiting fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. Currently, he is an adjunct senior fellow at Monash University, Australia. Vikram is the founder of the Archive of Indian Music (AIM) and the Foundation for Indian Historical and Cultural Research (FIHCR).