How often does it happen to you that you try to visualise how a monument might have looked in its glory? And you can’t visualise it properly. What if someone; who is an expert in the field of temple architecture and history; could show you how it used to look? Parnavi Bangar is doing exactly that. An architect based in Thane (Maharashtra), Parnavi is on a mission to recreate our lost heritage; Digitally.

It all started with one family visit to Hampi in 2019. As Parnavi was looking at the monuments, her brain was busy creating a visualisation of how the monuments may have looked in the past. And when she tried so share this visualisation with her family, they could not understand the exact design in her head. This was the moment when the apple fell on this Newton’s head. She decided to start a project that will help people visualise the actual glory of the monuments.

Parnavi started an Instagram page with the name Reminiscing_History with this goal in mind. Parnavi’s education in architecture and temple structures helped her in visualizing and scientifically redesigning the monuments accurately. Parnavi started an attempt to digitally recreate a few of the monuments she saw in Hampi.

In the beginning, she would recreate the monuments using paper and pen. And when her first few illustrations were shared on Instagram, there was a widespread positive response to these illustrations. Many heritage lovers shared her designs on Instagram, twitter and facebook. The design images started to be circulated on whatsapp. And through one of these forwarded whatsapp messages, I too got to know about this amazing heritage lover.

Once the content started to be appreciated and shared, it was an inspiration point for Parnavi. She would receive a lot of feedback, both appreciation as well as improvement suggestions, right from the early phase. And this feedback inspired her to elevate the project to a higher level.

In April 2021, when the Free Taminadu Temples movements had gathered momentum, Parnavi played her role in the movement by recreating some of the Tamilnadu temples; (1 , 2 , 3 )giving a visualisation point for the audience about how the temples would look if we take better care of them. This digital recreation of Tamilnadu temples played a pivotal role in making the movement even more popular in heritage lovers and citizen alike.

In later times, she created more such illustrations for various monuments of Hampi, Sarnath, Raigad fort, Martand Sun temple of Kashmir, Bhaktapur monuments and Angkor Wat Temple. With the digital recreations getting noticed and appreciated, Parnavi decided to up the notch another level. Because only creating a few illustrations was definitely not enough.

In March 2022, Parnavi published a paper with the topic “Reminiscing History, Reviving Lost Heritage” in International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology. In this paper, she explained the methodology that she uses to create these illustrations. Along with the process elaboration, she also put forward an idea of using transparent signages at important monuments. This would help the visitors in gaining a better understanding of how the monuments looked in its prime.

She is also in process of making an augmented reality app, that would render us full view of the monument when mobile camera is pointed at the monument or its photo.

Project Reminiscing_History may be in a very initial phase right now. But with time, this project is surely going to change the way we see out heritage. We feel really proud to get connected with temple explorers and heritage lover Parnavi, who is on a mission to change our visualisation of our own monuments.

By Dr Dinesh Soni

Dinesh is an an indologist and is writer of 18 books. He holds a doctorate in cultural studies. He is felicitated by Acedemia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan for his research in mythology. He has received numerous awards including the Lokmat Digital Influencer Award (Heritage). Dinesh is also a speaker who has graced many occasions. He is the main admin of Indian.Temples.

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