A visitor at the exhibition.Picture by Suman Tamang

Darjeeling, April 23: National Museum of New Delhi has lined up photographs of the Ajanta caves’ paintings at an exhibition here.

Titled “Ajanata — The Unseen Jewel”, the exhibition at Marwari Sahayak Samiti Hall showcases 30 pictures taken by Benoy Behl, an art historian with the museum. They mostly consist of Jataka tales’ paintings. Assistant director of the museum U. Das said a unique optic fibre lighting technique had been used by Behl to achieve the near natural effect.

“The exhibition is at par with the world standard and the photographs have been processed in Hong Kong,” Das added. “The photographs,which were exhibited in Guwahati, will be taken to Gangtok from here.”

Photographs of the paintings like the Flautists, the Dancing Scene and those of Prince Visvantara and Princess Madri, from Cave no 17 has been a big draw with the visitors.

The touring exhibition was flagged off in Delhi, from where it was taken to Guwahati. Darjeeling was is the third stop.

“We have chosen a long list of non-metropolitan towns with a purpose. We also wanted the people of these places to see a world class exhibition, which so far has been an exclusive privilege for the people of the bigger cities. It was the intention of promoting such exhibitions and reaching our to the largest possible audience in each venue that we have allowed free entry,” said Das.

The museum authorities have already chalked out plans to take the same set of photographys to Japan, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka.

“Though the dates have not yet been finalised, we are confident that we will be able to take the hpotographs to these countries by the end of the this year”, said Das. “We expect the exhibition to draw as much of a crowd as it has in the country.”