National 3 (Spotlight Weekly)

The Unseen Jewel

The exhibition of photographs of Ajanta paintings show cultural commonalities between Nepal and India

By A CORRESPONDENT

From art to culture and religion to language and heritage to ethnicity, Nepal and India share many commonalities. These commonalities play important role to flourish the relations between the two close neighbors of South Asia.

Organized by Indian Embassy Kathmandu, the exhibition of photographs of Ajanta paintings has once again proved that the heritages of two countries originate from similar religious and social background.

Based on the Buddhist philosophy, inspirational Ajanta caves was lost to human civilization for over 1000 years. About two hundred years ago, British discovered the caves but no photographs were successfully taken because of the dim natural light inside the cave.

From Mahayana Buddhism to Hinyana, the paintings of the cave have depicted entire cycle of Buddhist art and paintings. The Buddhism, which traveled from Nepal to northern Indian plains, flourished there. The paintings designed more than one thousand years ago reveal richness and creativity of the people of at that time.

Thanks to the efforts of Binoy K. Behl, an Indian documentary filmmaker and art historian, the photographs of the important period of human civilization were taken and it is now being displayed to the broader public around the world.

According to experts, the Ajanta Caves in Western India are a World Heritage site and were sculpted and painted in phases over the period 2nd century BC to 6th century AD. Lost to civilization for over 1000 years, Ajanta Caves are spiritually inspirational and a fountainhead of Asian Buddhist Art.

The paintings in the cave portray with unsurpassed exuberance and vitality the early images of the great religion of Buddhism, the stories of Buddha in his previous births, as a man and in the form of various animals. The artists of Ajanta used just four colors red, blue, back and yellow to project perfect images of material and spiritual synergy.

Until recently, photograph had failed to accurately bring out the colors and intensity of the Ajanta paintings because of the poor natural light in the caves and the prohibition to use photographic flash lights, lest these would damage the 1500 year old paintings.

Behl, an Indian documentary filmmaker using a new technique of photographing in low light has conquered the darkness of the caves. For the first time, the people living outside the world can see the Ajanta paintings in their luminous and resplendent colors.

Inaugurated by the Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil aviation, Deep Kumar Upadhaya, the exhibition - Ajanta: The Unseen Jewel - exhibit intrinsic similarities of the cultures of Nepal and India.

At the foothill of Himalayas, Hindu and Buddhist civilization has flourished for centuries. Many artifacts exhibited in the two countries show that both have close relations backed by the common culture and civilization.