High Commission of Sri Lanka in India

Inaugurating an exhibition entitled ‘Traditional Temple Paintings of Sri Lanka’ by three Sri Lankan artistes at the prestigious Lalit Kala Akademi in New Delhi, High Commissioner Prasad Kariyawasam said that Sri Lanka is one of the few countries in the South and South-East Asian region that can claim an unbroken tradition of wall painting, which is older than two thousand years and continues to the present day. 

The exhibition which is organised under the India-Sri Lanka Cultural Exchange Programme as a joint effort by the National Crafts Council of Sri Lanka and the Lalit Kala Akademi of India, features about 110 replicas of ancient temple paintings and rock and wall paintings as well as interpretations in traditional style.

Highlighting the exhibition as yet another event in the continuous important partnership between India and Sri Lanka, High Commissioner Kariyawasam referred to the earliest Buddhist images found in Sri Lanka dating back to the 1st century which are characteristic of the Indian Amaravati style. Some of the carvings in the ancient Anuradhapura Kingdom have been said to reflect the influence of the Gupta and Pallava schools of India of the 4th, 5th and 7th centuries. He said that the paintings at Sigiriya, of which some reproductions were on display at the exhibition, are from the same period as those of Ajanta in India. The suggestion often made, which seems reasonable, is that the Ajanta school representatives and artists from Sri Lanka may have travelled in both directions and exchanged the latest art technologies of the time.

The High Commissioner pointed out that like Buddhism, Hinduism too has left an indelible impression on the evolution of the arts of Sri Lanka. According to some scholars a comparison of the stone architecture of Southern India with the Hindu buildings in Sri Lanka illustrate that the survival of early Hindu culture in Sri Lanka was perhaps “better preserved than on the mainland”. The fusion in art of the Buddhistic and Hindu traditions, is an integral part of our rich heritage that Sri Lanka is justifiably proud of, he added.

Mr. Balan Nambiar, Acting Chairman and Dr Sudhakar Sharma, Secretary of the Lalit Kala Akademi as well as Mr Suresh Goel, Director General, Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Ambassadors and diplomats based in New Delhi, a number of leading artists and art critics were among the participants at the inauguration of the exhibition which continues until the 5th April 2012.