The Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Institute of Indology (LDI) was set up in 1956 by the late Sheth Kasturbhai

Lalbhai at the behest of the reputed and erudite Jain monk and scholar, Munishri Punyavijayji. The
munishri had collected some 10,000 manuscripts on religious matters, ayurveda, tantra, philosophy,
etc., during the course of his travels, mainly in Gujarat and Rajasthan. The manuscripts are in Sanskrit,
Prakrit, Apabhramsa, old Gujarati, Hindi and Rajasthani. Some of them are richly illustrated in colour.
Sheth Kasturbhai Lalbhai was a devoted follower of the munishri, who entrusted him with the task of
seeing to the preservation of these precious documents.

The Institute houses a museum, which displays several archival documents such as pattas and
firmans among other antiquities, some dating back to 200 B.C.E. It also has a library of some 39,000
books and a publications division that has a catalogue of some 140 books. The Kasturbhai Lalbhai
bequest is at the heart of LDI’s manuscript collection. By a process of accumulation around this
centerpiece, this collection is now 75,000 strong. The manuscripts contain several of the 5,500
miniature paintings, largely from the Jaina tradition of Gujarat and Rajasthan, which form part of
LDI’s visual art holdings. For reasons of preservation, the miniature paintings are not made available
to the public at present, although special requests from scholars are entertained. Approximately 150
of the manuscripts, deemed to be extremely valuable, are stored in a strong room. Access to these
materials requires the approval of a full meeting of the board and is accompanied by security
procedures worthy of a state treasury.

This grant supports the digital documentation of the miniatures in the LDI’s possession. These digital
grabs will initially be accessible on low resolution digital media (hard disks, compact disks), leaving
open the possibility of uploading the material onto a website. High resolution versions of the
material will be made available as and when appropriate. Funds will also be used by LDI to provide
brief annotations on the provenance and importance of the miniatures. These annotations will give a
much needed visual arts focus to the materials and hopefully correct the strong textual bias in the
past scholarship on the LDI collection.

In order to ensure the success of the project, IFA has asked LDI to conduct a trial run. The Institute
will document about a dozen miniatures, which will be vetted for the quality of the images as well as
the annotations, before attention is directed to the rest of the collection. IFA’s grant will pay for the
necessary material and personnel costs associated with this documentation project, including the
purchase of a state-of-the-art digital camera and a computer dedicated to the task.

The Institue For Indology building in Ahmedabad was one of Balkrishna Doshi's first public buildings as a solo artist
outside of Le Corbusier's office. At this stage Doshi is deep in the shadow of his previous employer, although some
individual developments are already starting to surface - mainly in the idea to store the collection of Indological
documents in an open-to-outside-air basement, preserving the climatic conditions under which they'd previously been
kept.

Also, the peripheral ambulatory/shade zone is typologically Indian. It can also be thought of, here, as a kind of
thickening of the brise-soleil into occupiable space (as opposed to the bold thickening of the sun-breakers' actual
mass in Corbusier's own Indian buildings). But at that point we're chasing ourselves in circles - wasn't the brise-soleil
itself in some sense inspired by these kinds of interstitial spaces sheltered behind screens. The composition,
meanwhile, is quite familiar - this is a near cousin to the elevation of the unbuilt Governor's Mansion for Chandigarh.
Of course, since Doshi was in the office for that project, it's again hard to say where exactly the idea originated.
Professor Balkrishna Doshi, also known as B. V. Doshi, has been an architect, urban
planner, and educator for 70 years. Throughout his long career, he has been a proactive
advocate of shaping the discourse of architecture in his country, India. Doshi’s
architecture explores the relationships between the fundamental needs of human life,
connectivity to self and culture, and respect for social traditions, with a response that is
grounded in context and exhibiting a localized Modernist approach. It is wholly fitting,
therefore, that he was finally awarded architecture’s highest honor, the 2018 Pritzker
Architecture Prize. Here’s an insight into the design philosophy of one of India’s most
celebrated contemporary architects.
My works are an extension of my life, philosophy and dreams trying to create a treasury of the
architectural spirit. I owe this prestigious prize to my guru, Le Corbusier. His teachings led me to
question identity and compelled me to discover new regionally adopted contemporary expression
for a sustainable holistic habitat,” says Doshi, “I believe Life celebrates when lifestyle and
architecture fuse.'”

Born in Pune, India on August 26, 1927, into a family of furniture makers, it was no wonder
Doshi showed an inclination for art and proportion at an early age. He developed this even more
with his exposure to architecture by a school teacher. He began his architecture studies in earnest
in 1947 at the Sir J.J. School of Architecture Bombay (Mumbai), embarking on a brief stay in
London before proceeding to France to work under the legendary Charles-Édouard Jeanneret,
more commonly known as Le Corbusier, from 1951-1955.

He then returned home to oversee work on Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh plans and Ahmedabad
projects. His next works were with Louis Kahn, who also served as an early adjunct faculty
member of the School of Architecture at Ahmedabad (now Centre for Environmental Planning
and Technology (CEPT) which Doshi established in the 1960s. Their most famous collaboration
is the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad in 1962.

Influenced by masters of 20th century architecture, Le Corbusier, and Louis Khan, Doshi
has been able to “interpret architecture and transform it into built works that is ethical and
personal. His architecture respects eastern culture while enhancing the quality of living in
India, touching lives of every socio-economic class across abroad spectrum of genres
since the 1950s,” cites the Pritzker jury.