RESTORATION – prasadpawar

What Is Specific In Ajanta?

“Unity in diversity” the rich Indian culture of 2000 years ago can be specifically seen Indian cultural history Indian cultural philosophy Indian cultural art grandeur Indian cultural lifestyle Indian cultural rich tradition Indian cultural Universal thoughts – idea of knowledge Indian cultural exchange within Asian continent is in Ajanta.

What Is The Present Condition Of Ajanta Paintings ?

Many Jatak Katha’s or stories are on the verge of destruction and getting extinct. We are forced to see the painting in very scant available natural light in the Caves. ASI regulations, does not permit anybody to touch these Ajanta paintings. Ajanta paintings are deteriorating continuously and damaged portion cannot be completed using colours and material.

Will Ajanta Paintings Continue To Deteriorate As Time Passes?

YES, We are helpless and can observe the deterioration of the paintings. Onsite Preservation and conservation at Ajanta is not possible to halt deterioration of Ajanta paintings as it is natural and nobody can stop it. Lots of efforts are undertaken to artificially keep it alive but still deterioration shall continue as natural lifespan has ended.

What Is Extent Of Destruction Of Paintings?

Contents of the Jatak stories are getting destroyed. Nose, ears, eyes, face, hands, legs like body parts are missing from some places while in some paintings about 62% portion is destroyed. Some paintings have been damaged more. Truth is that, invaluable treasure is getting destroyed slowly. 2000 years Ajanta has survived, but we can’t predict how many years it will survive in future.

How To Conserve The Destroying Indian Culture Depictions?

2000 years ago lime plaster was applied to stone surfaces on which Ajanta paintings were painted. The actual stone-earth medium can be changed to digital medium and modern technology for preserving it for further 2000 years and beyond also. Medium of presenting this rich Indian culture should be changed with Modern Times.

How To Preserve Ajanta Indian Culture Historical Treasure For Future 2000 Years?

Since 1989 Prasad Pawar is working for last 30 years for saving the Ajanta paintings style. The “mirror” of Indian culture is getting destroyed. His efforts are to preserve it for thousands of years, educating, research, conservation and thus this invaluable treasure can be conserved for future generations.

How Conservation Of Ajanta Paintings Is Done Through Research Restoration?

55,000 km journey, visiting 2000 years old temples, caves and study of it enabled Ajanta paintings photo documentation.

COLOR OF THE PAINTING COLOR INTENSITY & CORRECTION

The biggest wonder of the world is the paintings from Ajanta from the last 2000 years are still in good condition the paint which is made in today’s era may not be having this much of durable life and therefore this treasure of Ajanta art from the culture of India he still live. It shows that Indians before thousands of years were aware of making paints and paints which are durable for more than 2000 years. This technique was very well conversant to Indian culture. It also give light on the quality of colors, quality of color shades, method of painting, brushes of different shapes, etc. The paintings are also long lasting for thousands of years and regular supply of this good quality paints.They had all command on these activities. Jatak Tales of Lord Buddha are right from 2000 years and they are the evidence to Indian culture. Therefore the preservation or restoreration of all this paintings is of very very important. It also reflects on from the Jatak Tales that the main characters from this paintings are showing their social life and there different qualities and association within the social life. It shows the architectural technologies of that era, costumes used by the people of that time and accordingly during analysis of this photograph there are many observations found that wherever there is a direct sunlight falling on the paintings the colors at that particular person are faded and wherever that light is not reaching to the picture the paints are still in good condition. Over a period of time, lot of paintings on these walls are damaged. Another factor that there was a heavy leakage of water during monsoon in these caves through the joints of stones and because of this water when it was falling on this paintings that paintings was also damaged.

28th of April 1819

Ajanta Caves were found on 28th of April 1819 by a British officer John Smith, who was on the mission of his hunting and he found this Ajanta Caves. After 200 years it was found that these caves were used by human for cooking food and for taking Honey from the honeycomb and during that time they used to make lot of smoke. Because of the smoke there is lot of deterioration in the paintings. Before restriction of the Archeological Survey of India many of the tourist have also damage the paintings intentionally. Therefore many of the paintings have been now protected with a glass frames. It is very difficult task to document all this from the Ajanta on the verge of its diminishing time. Our research needs to identify what portion of paintings has been damaged. Many of these paintings they are either too dark or more light inside or somewhere it is colorless, some where it is only in the form of lines. Considering all these nature of defects each and every micro portion of the field of the paintings have been taken up for color correction and these have been restored into the computers where the color temperature is again corrected to the normal paintings and this variation is controlled very well.

RECONSTRUCTION OF PAINTINGS

Schlingloff wrote book on “Guide of the Ajanta Painting” and with this reference to this book the digitization of these paintings started. Here the reference of the story from this Jatak Tales starts and the portion which is damaged is being studied from different languages like Pali, Sanskrit and Magadhi, Ardhamagadhi, Simhali and English. From all of these literature and addition to this many of the experts from this literature have been contacted. It is also interested that the Jatak Tales which is been shown their whether it is found anywhere in India in the form of paintings and sculptures for this it is been discovered that what portion of the paintings has been missing and after that the natural flowers and leaves and show have been sketched, internal decoration sketches of the human being original feelings of the paintings the people who are available in the story and their position in the story.

RESTORATION WORK

Their costume, their ornaments, their day to day use articles, the animals and birds seen in this paintings, social life concern to the subject of the paintings, main character, side characters all these subjects have been studied in depth and then it is considered for completion. Considering their shapes, lines, colors initially the sketches are made on the paper then the color combination has been decided with the reference of the story and literature and then after completion of this paintings it is being saved to the computer and Inch by Inch this paintings have been tried to be restored. Therefore you don’t find paintings having no eyes, no nose, no face and you get the paintings having a complete shape, size and color combination, by this, the art which was in the dark for many years is now made easy for the community and human being to understand better and with the full knowledge. The message what Lord Buddha wanted to give to the community is being more clearly seen from this Jatak Tales.

PRESERVATION OF INCH BY INCH

Otherwise it was missing because of this damages to the paintings. If you look at these damaged paintings the main theme and the subject of the paintings was impossible to understand and it was very much of heartening and because of this missing person in the paintings it was very difficult to pursue the paintings, explain to others and there were a lot of hurdles and because of poor imagination it was impossible to understand the message as well as the importance of this art. Today the Restoration work of these paintings through this research activities is in progress and because of this it is being appreciated all over India through many of the exhibition being organized on Ajanta. Preservation of Inch by Inch, this Restoration work is spontaneous. For example I have preserved from cave no.1 and restored around 1400 square inch area of the paintings in Phase 1. The targeted work from Phase-1 is around 2 lacs square inches.

WHAT SIZE OF CONSERVATION IS ACHIEVED ?

We had planned to restore 2,23,700 square inch in the first phase. Your support in this shall be valuable because by recreating a total 14,400 square inch works, we are successful in achieving a fraction of it. All this is done single handedly by Prasad Pawar. You all are learned scholars and I need your help for saving Indian culture. This Indian culture is being researched inch-by-inch and the same with the use of modern medium shall be presented to crores of people worldwide. Who will be able to see, understand and enjoy the Indian culture from close. Future generation shall benefit the most.

SPOT VISITS

My work is still today going on day and night to understand Lord Buddha. I visited all around the world in China Longmen Grottes (Luoyang),Lingyin Temple is a Buddhist temple of the Chan sect located north-west of Hangzhou,China. Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and likewise. I studied the Buddhism culture. To understand Indian culture I traveled on the road around 55,000 km in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and likewise many states of India. I visited personally and taken photographs of many of these important paintings and sculptures, which are available in Indian culture. I studied ancient languages and the references of those languages. I am the student of Pali Language Department in the University of Pune and have contact with 200 prominent personalities and the experts all around the world. These all efforts are aimed only at the Restoration, Savings and multiplication of the Ajanta work.