Ajanta Paintings, an overview

Tamil Heritage Group
invite you and your friends
for a two-part serial talk on
the Paintings of Ajanta
i. Ajanta Paintings, an Overview
by S. Swaminathan on 2-1-2010 (Saturday)
ii. Textile Heritage of Ajanta
by Bhushavali Natarajan & S. Swaminathan on 6-2-2010 (Saturday)

Venue (for both the programmes):
Vinobha Hall, Thakkar Bapa Vdyalaya Complex
58, Venkatanarayana Road, T. Nagar, Chennai – 600 017

About the talks:
The mural paintings of the Ajanta caves are unique. As for as the sculptures or temple architectures are concerned, more than one can compete with for the first position, but the paintings here have no parallels.
Covering a span of about eight centuries, one can see the beginning of the Ajanta art tradition that reaches maturity and becomes baroque before declining. This Buddhist art is the earliest in India and was also the inspiration for religious art in India and the entire south and south-east Asia.
Though religious in nature, the paintings here reflects the secular society too, which is their special feature. For example, the textiles that we find on the walls of Ajanta are truly amazing. We find that a host of very sophisticated techniques, like sectional warping, tie-dyed yarn, block printing, ikat – single & double, bandhni etc, have been in vogue as can be seen in the paintings and the tradition, which is at least fifteen centuries old is still living.
We are planning to celebrate this truly indigenous religious art and the textile heritage of Ajanta in two sessions. The first would be an overview of the paintings to be given by S. Swaminathan. In the second session, he will be assisting Bhushavali, a textile designer, to showcase the textile heritage of the Ajanta paintings. In the second talk there would also be an exhibition of modern textile that is found in Ajanta to show the continuity of this heritage.
A preview of the first presentation on the 2nd of January can me mad by accessing umapdkt@gmail.com using password swaminathan.

RSVP:
A. Annamalai: Gandhi Study Centre -
gandhicentre@gmail.com; 94441-83198
Badri Seshadri: Kizhakku-p-padippakam -
badri@nhm.in; 98840-66566
TK Ramachandran, IAS : TN Slum Clearance Board -
tkramachandranias@hotmail.com; 99406-41144
S. Kannan: Bank of Baroda - 2498 5836)
S. Swaminathan: Marg Constructions -
sswami99@gmail.com; 2467 1501