BENGALURU: The state’s first digital museum dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi’s life called ‘Mahatmana Payana’ will be inaugurated at Gandhi Bhavan on Friday, offering visitors a digital presentation of his journey from childhood to his final days.
At a press conference on Thursday, Gandhi Bhavan president Wooday P Krishna said, “The museum was conceived and redesigned by Dr A Annamalai, Director of the National Gandhi Museum, New Delhi. It presents a concise account of Gandhi’s life through photographs, documents and digital technology which is QR-enabled.”
He added, “A replica of the Sabarmati Ashram has been constructed on the museum premises, while a thematic photo gallery depicting events from Gandhi’s life has been designed on the lines of the National Gallery in Delhi.”
The museum allows visitors to view original photographs of Gandhi and scan them using smartphones to listen to explanations in Kannada and English through audio technology. A rotating gallery, which will be changed every six months, currently features Gandhi as a journalist, he said.
Among the exhibits are rare letters exchanged by Gandhi with several eminent personalities and photographs of places in Karnataka he visited between 1915 and 1937. A message written by Gandhi in Kannada at the request of R R Diwakar has also been preserved.
The museum also has a rare portrait of Gandhi’s elder brother. One of the prominent exhibits is Gandhi’s letter to Adolf Hitler urging him to stop World War II. Visitors can listen to the letter being read in the voice of actor Amitabh Bachchan.