Fascinated by the Orient- Life and works of Aurel Stein

Maps, manuscripts and photographs, mostly clicked by Hungarian-British explorer Aurel Stein, who is credited with the unearthing of a civilisation from under the Taklamakan desert on the Silk Road, is on display here.
Taking cue from the successive conquests of Alexander the Great, Stein is believed to have developed interest in what happened to the Greek culture, as Alexander's army penetrated into Afghanistan, Turkestan and finally into India.
The ongoing exhibition at the Indira Gandhi National centre for Arts, documents the adventures of Stein across central Asia through an array of photographs, mostly by Stein himself.
"The purpose of the exhibition is to reach out to the audience who have interest in exploration, archeology, cross - border culture and to highlight the life and legacy of Aurel Stein who like, Xuan Zang - the Chinese monk traveler and scholar, travelled through the inhospitable Silk Route," says Agnes Kelecsenyi who has curated the exhibition said.

There are about 10 dedicated boards illustrating the explorer's interest of the Orient, his family, education background and some of his notable expeditions including the Central Asian, Iranian and the Archaeological Survey of India, she said.
The exhibition is a miniature version of an earlier one hosted in Honk Kong which had almost 176 pictures vis-a-vis 100 odd pictures in this one.

Salman Haider, Former Indian Foreign Secretary, and Former India's High Commissioner to India inaugurated the exhibition along with Szilveszter Bus, Hungarian Ambassador to India.
Calling the project evocative, Haider pointed out the huge cultural diaspora from India that it displays.

"Aurel Stein in one of his memoirs on Central Asian desert describes how he found a pit and found great evidence on how people lived in that era," he said.
Haider also upheld the objective of the exhibition to provide an opportunity for scholars to initiate collaborative research on analogous collection besides getting acquainted with Stein's understanding of great civilizations like those of India, China and Central Asia.
"We have had the benefit of being the repository of rich collection of artifacts from Central Asia and I encourage all to see what India possesses," he said.
Stein has been described as "prodigious combination of scholar, explorer and geographer and archaeologist"

His name and works have become inseparable from the history of the Silk Road, which was not merely an Eurasian trade route linking China with the Mediterranean, but a conduit of ideas, beliefs, styles of art and technologies.