Explore the second lecture in a three-part series on Higgs bundles delivered by renowned mathematician Nigel Hitchin from the University of Oxford at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences. Delve into the concept of a universal moduli space and discover how the moduli space of Higgs bundles possesses a natural hyperkähler metric that depends on the complex structure of the Riemann surface, while simultaneously being identifiable with a character variety of the fundamental group that depends only on topology. Learn how these two fundamental aspects generate a differential-geometric structure on the universal bundle over Teichmüller space, bridging differential geometry, algebraic geometry, and theoretical physics. This lecture forms part of the Infosys-ICTS Ramanujan Lectures series and is delivered by a Shaw Prize winner whose groundbreaking work has significantly advanced our understanding of geometric structures and their applications in mathematical physics.