She was born in Delhi to Ram Lal and Satyawati Malik. She earned an MA in English literature from Delhi University. Thereafter, she completed a second MA in Education at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a PhD at the Banaras Hindu University. The poet and art critic Keshav Malik was her older brother, and she was married to the noted Hindi Writer S.H. Vatsyayan 'Ajneya'. They married in 1956 and separated in 1969.
Career
Vatsyayan is the author of many books, including The Square and the Circle of Indian Arts, Bharata: The Natya Sastra, and Matralaksanam. In 1987, she became the founder trustee and member secretary of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, India's premier arts organisation, in Delhi. Thereafter, in 1993, she was made its academic director, a post she held until 2000, when she was retired by a BJP-led centre-right government. In 2005, when an Indian National Congress-led centre-left government returned to power, she was made the chairperson of the institution. She also served as Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Education, where she was responsible for the establishment of a large number of national institutions of higher education. She is the chairperson of the Asia Project at the India International Centre, New Delhi. She was nominated as a member of the Upper House of Parliament of India, the Rajya Sabha in 2006, though subsequently in March 2006, she resigned following an office of profit controversy. In April 2007, she was renominated to the Rajya Sabha, with a term expiring in February 2012.
Awards
Vatsyayan received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 1970. In the same year she was awarded a fellowship from the John D. Rockefeller 3rd Fund to survey cultural institutions and contemporary art developments in the United States and Indonesia. She was awarded the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship in 1975. In 1992 the Asian Cultural Council honoured her with the John D. Rockefeller 3rd Award for outstanding professional achievement and her significant contribution to the international understanding, practice, and study of dance and art history in India. In 1998, she received the "Outstanding Contribution to Dance Research" award, given by Congress on Research in Dance. In 2000, she was a recipient of Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award and in 2011, she was awarded the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India.
