Bengaluru: Even William Dalrymple himself couldn’t possibly have anticipated the stunning response he received for his lecture on the Ajanta cave paintings.
The author and historian delivered the Tasveer Foundation Lecture at the National Gallery of Modern Art and the auditorium was packed to the rafters.
Fans spilled out of every nook as the tardy ones craned their necks hoping for a mere glimpse of the man.
Dalrymple, with his newly flowing beard looked every bit the part, as he breezed about on stage, full of his usual self-deprecating humour, even referring to himself as an ‘amateur meddler’, to a roar of appreciation from the audience.
Dalrymple's tryst with the Ajanta cave paintings began back in March, during a weekend trip.
"We were visiting there and I realised I'd never seen the paintings, or read any books on them, for that matter." When he began doing a little research, he found, to his surprise, that no literature really existed.
"It took me a month and a half to realise that they had only been restored by one man Manager Rajdeo Singh, the ASI chief of conservation and head of science, Aurangabad.
He discovered the oldest Buddhist paintings in the world," he says, speaking as if he can hardly believe himself. "Singh began his work in 1999 restoring murals in caves 9 and 10 at Ajanta. He did it for no credit.
In any other country, he would have been given the highest national honour!"
His next book, The Anarchy, traces the journey of the East India Company, from profit-making venture to coloniser. He admits its still a few years away, though! "It's fascinating to think of a company like so many others that managed to go from five-windows-wide and run by 35 people to the rulers of a nation," he said.
To Dalrymple, the East India Company is the single greatest example of corporate irresponsibility. "They were here to do a job and make a profit, but look how far they got. Like all big companies, it was symbiotic with the political powers back in London.
It had its controlling interests sitting in the parliament, but that's a modern day tale too. We have a lot to learn from history. To me, Shah Alam's negiotiations with the East India Company amounted to one thing only - privatisation!"
