‘Mystic India’ art exhibition in US to display Hindu gods

October 7th, 2009 LONDON - A glittering exhibition exploring the opulence of India's royal courts will bring together more than 250 objects, including thrones, gem-encrusted weapons and a 1927 Rolls-Royce Phantom I. Maharaja: The Splendour of India's Royal Courts: will open at the Victoria and Albert Museum on Saturday, with many objects on loan to Britain for the first time from India's royal collections.

October 6th, 2009 GEORGETOWN - The Hindu Endowment Board of Malaysian state Penang has proposed to convert a site in Balik Pulau as a Hindu burial and cremation ground. Keeping in view the overcrowded Hindu cemeteries in the state, the board had estimated the need 20,334 square metre land.

September 29th, 2009 ABU DHABI - The Abu Dhabi International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition (ADIHEX) will open here Wednesday, WAM news agency reported. Various programmes including folklore dances, art, poetry, handicraft and coffee brewing competitions, among others, will be organised at the event from Sep 30 to Oct 3.

September 10th, 2009 DHAKA - Renowned Indian photographer Raghu Rai's exhibition here narrates the "unending story" of his country through evocative photographs. "They say a good photograph is worth a thousand words.

September 8th, 2009 ABU DHABI - The organisers of the Middle East Workboats exhibition have reported a 60 percent increase in exhibitors compared with the last year, despite the global slowdown, WAM news agency reported Tuesday. "More than 170 exhibitors from 25 countries will be taking part - a 60 percent increase over 2008.

September 7th, 2009 VIENNA - As the largest exhibition of contemporary Indian art to open in the Austrian capital in recent times, "Chalo! India" is certainly making visitors more and more curious about the South Asian giant. "India's impressive economic progress has spurred interest in the artistic developments of the country as well," said professor Karlheinz Essl, founder of the Essl Museum of contemporary art.

July 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Farmers in the drought-stricken Bihar, an eastern Indian state, have asked their unmarried daughters to embarrass the weather gods into bringing the badly-needed monsoon rains by plowing the fields in the buff. According to witnesses, with a little help from elderly female relatives, the nude girls plowed the fields and after sunset, chanted ancient hymns to invoke the gods, reports the China Daily.

July 21st, 2009 CHITTAGONG - India and France have collaborated to organise an exhibition in Bangladesh of photos taken by French lensmen Alain Danilou and Raymond Burnier, who stayed at Shantiniketan in West Bengal at the invitation of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. The duo travelled by road from France to Afghanistan and made India their home between the late 1930s and 1950s, snapping landscapes, various community rituals and ancient cave culture, among other places, at Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh.

July 21st, 2009 LONDON - A major exhibition showcasing a treasure trove of never-seen objects owned by the former royals of India is to be launched at London's Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum, possibly heralded by a procession of elephants and Rolls Royce cars, museum officials said Tuesday. The exhibition, titled Maharaja: The Splendour of India's Royal Courts, is to open in October and include objects that have never been seen publicly in India or abroad, including thrones, a Rolls Royce and gem-encrusted weapons.

July 21st, 2009 LONDON - A major exhibition showcasing a treasure trove of never-seen objects owned by the former royals of India is to be launched at London's Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum, possibly heralded by a procession of elephants and Rolls Royce cars, museum officials said Tuesday. The exhibition, titled Maharaja: The Splendour of India's Royal Courts, is to open in October and include objects that have never been seen publicly in India or abroad, including thrones, a Rolls Royce and gem-encrusted weapons.

June 21st, 2009 KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian students looking to study abroad have been urged by a minister to consider India as an option. Malaysia's Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department S.K.

June 21st, 2009 KUALA LUMPUR - Deputy Minister in the Malaysian Prime Minister's Department, S.K. Devamany, has said that India can be a good option for Malaysian students who want to study abroad, and vice-versa.

June 16th, 2009 LONDON - After being hidden for almost a century within the panelled walls of a library, a naked portrayal of the Mona Lisa will form one of the centrepieces of a new exhibition at the Museo Ideale in the Tuscan town of Vinci, near Florence. The mystifying portrait of a semi-nude woman, looking straight at the viewer with a smile and her hands crossed, bears a stark resemblance to Mona Lisa, which was once attributed to Leonardo da Vinci.

May 27th, 2009 LONDON - The British Museum is to launch a new exhibition of Rajasthani paintings as part of an 'Indian Summer' season opening Thursday, curators said Wednesday. The exhibition, titled 'Garden and Cosmos', displays 54 large paintings - on loan from the royal collection at the Mehrangarh Museum Trust in Jodhpur - that were produced between 1725 and 1843.

May 4th, 2009 LONDON - A private portrait of the Duchess of Cornwall is going on public display this week. The annual exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters had obtained the painting from Prince Charles.