Culture News

Restoring Lost world of Ajanta Cave paintings

In an interview to South Asia Monitor by Rashmi Saxsena, Mr. Benoy Behl- Art Historian, documentary filmmaker and famous photographer and Mr. Ashwin Srivastava (CEO of Sapio Analytics- an Advisory company working closely with the Ministry of Culture) have explained how they are working to restore, digitize, preserve, and archive the iconic painting murals of Ajanta Caves in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. By doing these incredible works, Ajantahc is saving for posterity of the glory of ancient Indian civilization.

The unique paintings from Ajanta monasteries dating back to 2400 B.C. are now preserved for eternity and for future generations to admire and learn from what their ancestors have left to them

Ajantahc is a collaboration of UITV founded by Mr. Vedan Choolun- Chairman of UITV and Sapio Analytics whose objective is to preserve and introduce the glory of the Indian artwork to the world.

Built in 5 B.C, Ajanta Caves is a UNESCO world heritage site, so with time it is paintings and sculptures have lost its real colour and beauty, yet those unknown artists who designed such magnificent architecture were so exceptionally skilled that even today the powerful foundation and sharp finish of the structures stay intact despite getting exhausted.

Benoy K Behl, Shiva Relief, Unnakoti, Tripura
Benoy K Behl, Shiva Relief, Unnakoti, Tripura

Mr. Benoy Behl got in touch with several experts in 1991 and 1992. Benoy Behl’s book on Ajanta Caves is one of the bestselling book in Indian history. As photography is not allowed in Ajanta Caves owing to security reasons and no one is allowed to even touch it, he has also taken clean pictures of interior part of Ajanta Caves that are dark and least exposed to light buy the grace and compassion of the architect is found in every line of the paintings.

Mr. Behl has been fortunate of having documented the entire set of paintings of Ajanta that not only depicts life of Lord Buddha as young Siddhartha but also something completely different from another period like tales from Jataka stories- most extensive presentation in the world. Ajanta is an amazing fountainhead of art where all Asian countries which is influenced by Buddhism finds its roots into it as the paintings of Ajanta is full of compassion and warmth.

Mr. Ashwin Srivastav urges Indians residing in India and abroad to participate in restoration of such grand architectures that have survived and stand tall despite of substantial destruction since ages. Arctic World Archives are the major contributing force along withSapio Analytics.

Software’s of many kinds are available but as these creations are masterpieces that represent the divine soul and lifestyle of the classic period when Lord Buddha achieved his “nirvana” enlightenment and gave some of the eternal life lessons to the world. Today there are billions of Lord Buddha followers in the world.

Mr. Benoy Behl has worked with very highly selected team of operators. According toMr. Ashwin Srivastav the preservation is made in film formats which are indestructible along with PIQL who run Arctic world Archive and restored the painting images of Ajanta in PIQL format which is like for e.g. magnetic fields would not affect data storage, then this is preserved in Svalbard a small island in Arctic.

As a part of present govt. manifesto that seeks to promote restoration of lost Indian cultural heritage, a layman can access it by entering into a virtual 3D museum which will be later brought upon byMr. Ashwin  Srivastav and his team in Mumbai, India and Mr. Vedan Choolun team in London, UK and Bangalore, India.
Furthermore,not everyone can travel to visit this historical destination and even if they do not everyone can comprehend the in-depth theme behind it but today our global audience can visit ajantahc ‘s site and view  these glorious places of artistic history on display.It has become easy for everyone to explore it closely.

The main goal of Vedan Choolun and of Ashwin Srivastav is to offer and introduce the ancient and modern paintings of India to a global online audience. We are also bringing other historical artefacts from Asian countries to the attention to other world communities to share and enjoy.