Hyderabad's cultural calendar has gained a notable new entry with Living Temples II, a month-long exhibition that seeks to collapse the distance between historical inheritance and present-day artistic practice. Curated and presented by EkChitra, the show is built around a deliberately expansive idea of heritage: not as a static archive, but as a living field of images, forms and remembered rituals that continue to shape Indian visual culture.
The exhibition's centrepiece is K.G. Nagendra Babu's 32-foot scroll, an ambitious work that signals the scale and seriousness of the project. Long-format scroll painting carries a strong lineage in South Asian art, where narrative, devotion and architecture often unfold across time rather than within a single frame. By adopting that format, the exhibition invites viewers to move through the work rather than merely observe it, turning looking into a sequential act. In a contemporary gallery setting, that choice is significant: it restores duration, labour and contemplation to the viewing experience.
Heritage In Motion
The show also includes architectural illustrations of Hampi, one of India's most resonant heritage landscapes and a site whose ruins continue to anchor debates around preservation, memory and aesthetic continuity. Hampi's temples, mandapas and stone corridors have long inspired artists, historians and architects because they embody both grandeur and fragility. Their inclusion in the exhibition broadens the project beyond devotional imagery and into the realm of built heritage, where line, proportion and spatial imagination become tools for cultural interpretation.
What makes Living Temples II especially relevant is the way it treats architecture not as background scenery but as a living language. In the context of contemporary Indian art, heritage-themed exhibitions can sometimes drift into nostalgia or decorative revivalism. This show appears to resist that tendency by foregrounding process, research and visual discipline. The result is less a retrospective tribute than a conversation between disciplines: painting, design, architecture and textile memory are made to speak to one another.
Textiles As Memory
Among the most evocative elements of the exhibition is the recreation of M.S. Subbulakshmi's saris. That inclusion extends the idea of heritage from monumental stone and painted narrative to the intimate realm of dress, performance and public image. Subbulakshmi remains one of the most enduring cultural figures in Indian memory, and her saris are not merely garments but part of a carefully preserved visual identity associated with grace, discipline and artistic authority.
By reimagining those saris within the exhibition, EkChitra draws attention to the role of textiles in cultural transmission. Fabric, weave, drape and colour can carry as much historical meaning as sculpture or architecture, especially in a country where clothing often functions as a marker of region, tradition and social aesthetics. The gesture also widens the exhibition's audience appeal, linking classical music, costume history and visual art in a way that is accessible without being simplistic.
The broader significance of Living Temples II lies in its timing and its method. Across India, heritage institutions and independent art platforms are increasingly seeking formats that can engage younger audiences without diluting cultural depth. Hyderabad, with its layered history of dynastic patronage, Deccani aesthetics and contemporary urban growth, provides a fitting setting for such an experiment. The city's own identity is shaped by coexistence: old and new, courtly and commercial, sacred and secular.
EkChitra's exhibition appears to understand that tension and use it productively. Rather than presenting heritage as a closed chapter, it frames it as an active resource for artistic renewal. The month-long format further suggests an invitation to return, reflect and compare, allowing the works to accumulate meaning over repeated viewings. In that sense, Living Temples II is not simply an exhibition of objects. It is a curated argument for why India's artistic past still matters, and how it can be reinterpreted with rigor, sensitivity and contemporary relevance.