By IANS,
New Delhi : About 110 replica of ancient Sri Lankan temple paintings and rock and wall paintings as well as interpretations in traditional style are on exhibition here.
At the inaugural here Friday, High Commissioner Prasad Kariyawasam said Sri Lanka was one of the few countries in South and South-East Asia which can claim an unbroken tradition of wall painting.
The earliest Buddhist images found in Sri Lanka date back to the 1st century, which he said were characteristic of the Indian Amaravati style, a Sri Lankan High Commission statement said.
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.
Kariyawasam said the paintings at Sigiriya, of which some reproductions were on display, were from the same period as those of Ajanta in India.
The exhibition has been 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.