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EVENT CONCEPT

The event was made based on the idea: to show photos and videos of two famous UNESCO sites in India – the cave complexes of Ajanta and Ellora.

I came up to A.O. Zagorsky, the moderator of the section “Preservation of Cultural Heritage”, with an idea to hold an evening of documentary photography as part of the 5th St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum. The idea was supported by O.V. Ryzhkov, who at that time was the head of the section “Preservation of Cultural Heritage”. My offer was accepted. The event was conducted in the Municipal Budgetary Institution of the Centralized Library System of the city of Gatchina in the Central Library named after A.I. Kuprin in November 2016.

THE AJANTA CAVE COMPLEX

The site dates back to the 2nd century BC. This is a former Buddhist temple and monastery cave complex located in the state of Maharashtra. It is a rock in the form of a horseshoe with 29 caves.

Let’s imagine mountains. And lots and lots of rocks. In these rocks, some kind of “rooms” were hollowed out – temples. In addition, rock paintings and sculptural compositions were also created there.

The skill of sculptors still surprises us. The colors of many paintings have not yet faded. And scientists fail to unravel the secret of making these colors.

The temple complex is located deep in the forest, and it is quite difficult to get there.

Each cave has its keeper from the museum. At the entrance to the complex, guidebooks that include descriptions of each cave are sold. And those who want to get into the caves need to go along a long rocky corridor that has safety fencing.

You cannot stop wondering looking at it.

People lived here, ate, prayed, died, had children.

The temple complex was built on the Silk Road. Therefore, travelers with trade carts often stopped there, which, of course, provided some financial support for building and construction works.

Rich Indian kings also helped the forest monks to maintain temples. What impressed me?

First of all, the age of these caves. They are more than two thousand years old. Of course, I looked at these amazing colors for a long time, which were applied by artists more than two thousand years ago.

I learned that sculptors and painters worked in so-called family guilds. And they did not reveal their tricks of the trade outside their family. That is why the secret of making non-fading colors has remained a secret. Apparently, a dynasty of a craftsman was stopped.

The cave complexes of Ajanta have a long history.

It is known that these temples were abandoned for a long time. Only in 1819, they were accidentally discovered by British soldiers that hunted tigers in this area. India was a colony of England at that time. Therefore, information about the “cultural wonder” very soon became known in London and then spread all over

Europe.

Interestingly, the researchers of the Ajanta rock paintings concluded that they showed the history of Indian civilization. It is known that the age of Indian civilization is 5 thousand years. So, the paintings reflected a life of three millennia. In addition, various religious Buddhist subjects were depicted on the frescoes.

I noticed that a lot of tourists from different countries come to the Ajanta.

site. ELLORA CAVE COMPLEX

I spend a little bit more time in the Ellora cave complex.

I spent the night in the hotel of the settlement, which is located next to the

The Ellora rock complex dates back to the 6th century. It includes 34 caves.

We drove about 200 kilometers by car from the Ajanta to the Ellora.

The cave temples of Ajanta were made by hollowing out “rooms” (caves), and the temples of Ellora were mainly carved out using the “top-down” method. In addition, certain sculptural compositions were made along with the construction.

For example, the figure of a huge elephant was made simultaneously with the construction of the cave itself.

I have not been to Buddhist caves, but I have been to several Hindu and Jain caves. There are a lot of sculptural compositions in Hindu temples. These temples look very ornate. Jain caves, on the contrary, are very modest. It was explained to us, the tourists, that the richer people had richer temples.

It is interesting that the temples of Ellora are, in fact, a united cave complex. And priests of three different religions lived together there for a long time. This is a manifestation of a tolerant attitude in India.

There is such a story associated with the most remarkable of the temples, the Kailasa temple, a magnificent, perfectly preserved example of Dravidian architecture. According to the legend, the temple was erected by the raj of Ellichpur Edu in gratitude for the healing with water from a nearby spring. The temple is located in the back of a yard side carved out solid rock. There are colossal statues of Shiva, Vishnu, and others made of stone in the granite canopy above the entrance. Behind the canopy, there is a large statue of the goddess Lakshmi, resting on lotus flowers and surrounded by elephants.

An interesting service is provided here for tourists: small vans (some kind of museum taxi) transport tourists from one part of the cave complex to another.

HOW WAS IT

The library staff, where my event took place, did a great organizational job. There were about 30 members of the audience. The event visited local television journalists.

Before presenting my photo and video works, a local resident, a famous dancer of Indian dances, held a mini-concert. Then the representatives of the Russian-Indian Friendship Society, invited by me, spoke and said many good words about the friendship between India and Russia.

There was a teapoy with oriental sweets and Indian tea.

Also, I and the library staff prepared small exhibitions of Indian books.

My speech was received with great applause. In a word, it turned out to be a wonderful evening of documentary photography!