Indian cave paintings come to life in digital form

A digitally restored image of one of the oldest-surviving Indian paintings from the Badami caves of Karnataka lies buried deep within an Arctic mountain, on an archipelago in Norway. An additional painting from the Ajanta caves has also been preserved for posterity at the Arctic World Archive (AWA). It is a milestone in the world of Indian heritage, because not only do these images preserve original masterpieces from oblivion, they are also made accessible to a global audience.

Art historian and photographer Benoy K. Behl, who restored these images over years using his own technique, says this collection establishes ‘India’s continuous tradition of ancient painting’. ‘India has one of the finest traditions of painting, but most of them are hidden in temples and caves’. The Ajanta paintings of the 5th century are well-known, but for about 700 years before that the case wasn’t quite the same as those from earlier periods. Behl says that the quality of the Ajanta paintings was not seen by westerners until much later, with the Impressionists.

Photographs by Behl

Behl’s own photographs, taken decades ago, were digitally restored. ‘There was no light allowed in the caves, so it was impossible to see the paintings clearly. Art critics and others said we had conquered darkness when I used my technique of photographing in extreme low light, which is like darkness’, he said. He then photographed many other ancient paintings. Behl reached the Badami caves in 2001. By then, much of the paintings had already been lost and by 2008, when a National Geographic team visited the site to document his work, the paintings could hardly even be seen.

The significance of Behl’s work may go unappreciated by most people, even though art critics have applauded it around the globe. He began the process of digitally restoring the images. Behl completed the digital restoration of the Ajanta cave painting in 2019, just in time to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the caves’ discovery, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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Sapio Analytics, a Mumbai-based company focused on creating high-end data-based algorithms powered by AI, approached Behl to work together on restoring and preserving the images in AWA and other digital artifacts from around the world in 2020. In addition to manuscripts from the Vatican library, the archives have political histories, masterpieces from different eras, and examples of scientific breakthroughs.