National Databank on Indian Art and Culture:

A Pilot Project sponsored by the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT), was initiated by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in the year 2006 in collaboration with the Archaeological Survey of INDIA, Government of India.

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT:

The main objective of the project is to enhance the accessibility of Indian cultural resources using digital technology. The project includes the digitization of information related to various aspects of Indian art and culture accessible from a single window.

SCOPE OF THE PROJECT:

– Documentation of protected and unprotected Monuments of India

– Digitization of Rare books

– Walkthrough of Archaeological Monuments

– Travelling Exhibition

ACHIEVEMENTS

Over 20,000 monuments from the states of Orissa, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Tripura and Delhi were photographed (digitally) having over one and half lakh digital images and upload for the academic reference to the researchers with their catalogue. Details can be seen at http://ignca.gov.in/online-digital-resources/archaeological-sites/

Digitization of Rare books: About12000 books (estimated to be over 50 lakh pages) on Indian Art and Culture were digitised from the Central Library of Archaeological Survey of India and the same is available at http://ignca.gov.in/divisionss/asi-books/ for public access.

Panoramic view of Archaeological Monuments:  Panoramic view of selected archaeological monuments and sites were created by taking the stills and stitching the images through the software. For example Brhadisvara Temple, Thanjavur, Tamilnadu, Keshava Temple, Somnathpura, Karnataka, Rani-ki-Vav, Patan, Gujarat, Tomb of Sultan Garhi, NalikpurKohi, Delhi, and Jain Temple in Old Delhi etc. This was done in collaboration with the Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi.

This is one of the major source of information on Indian art and culture, which can be accessed by the researchers, students, art historians, archaeologists etc. anytime from anywhere.