The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Documentary explores Indian imprints in South-East Asia

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Thursday, Apr 03, 2008
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Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Documentary explores Indian imprints in South-East Asia

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: A new documentary attempts to shed light on one of the least researched areas of scholarship in Asian history: the many cultural and religious influences of ancient Indian civilisation on the kingdoms in South-East Asia.

‘Indian Imprints,’ a documentary film directed by S. Krishnaswamy, which will soon be aired on Doordarshan, will feature the many legacies of a thousand years of close cultural contact between the civilisations of ancient India and South-East Asia, from monuments and temples to dance forms and literature.

The documentary was filmed in over 100 locations in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia. From the first century A.D., traders from southern India visited kingdoms in these countries, leading to extensive cultural contact between kingdoms such as the Pallavas in south India and civilisations such as the Cham in south Vietnam and the Khmer Empire in modern Cambodia.

The documentary will feature the many existing symbols of this cultural syncretism such as the famous Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia that King Suryavarman of the Khmer Empire built as a monument to the Hindu god Vishnu and the various adaptations of the Ramayana that continue to be staged in Thailand and Indonesia even today.

“When ancient Indian civilisations went to these places, they did not go as colonisers, but made an enormous cultural and philosophical impact,” Mr. Krishnaswamy, who wrote and directed the film, said. “We have to wake up to our old values of mutual respect and tolerance.”

Mr. Krishnaswamy said the film took three years to complete.

He first conceived of the idea in the 1970s when he was conducting research for his award-winning documentary ‘Indus Valley to Indira Gandhi’ (1976).

N. Ram, Editor-in-chief, The Hindu, praised Mr. Krishnaswamy for his commitment to history. Broadmindedness and openness for cultural exchange needed “loud reiteration” at a time when these ideas were under attack by intolerant, homogenising movements and ideas such as the Hindutva.

The documentary will be telecast in 18 episodes every Sunday starting April 6 at 1.30 p.m. on DD-India, Doordarshan’s satellite channel.

It will be broadcast on DD’s national channel “in a few weeks” and will be dubbed in many regional languages for subsequent telecasts on regional channels, Mr. Krishnaswamy said.

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