June 16, 2008

Commendable Effort

For 120 days, they travelled through some of the more remote regions of Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, carrying around 600 kg of equipment.

S. Krishnaswamy of Krishnaswamy Associates and his wife (and producer) Mohana Krishnaswamy have made‘Indian Imprints’, a nine-hour documentary that traces the impact of ancient Indian culture and civilisation on South East Asia, historically.

“We’re not talking about the Mariamman temples built 150 years ago by Chettiars who settled there,” says Krishnaswamy, who has won four National Awards for his short non-fiction films “The temples and monuments we’ve covered go back all the way to an unspecified pre-Christian era, with authentic documentation from the first century A.D. onwards. The monuments offer a fascinating study in cross-cultural pollination such as the Pandava Chandis, temples for the Pandavas and Draupadi dating back to the 8th century in Java, Angkor Wat, the massive 11th century Vishnu temple in Cambodia, or sculptures dedicated to Karaikal Ammaiyar, a 9th century saint from Tamil Nadu scattered all over the region.

More interesting info at The Hindu - Metro Plus

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