The Promised Land: A Visual Anatomy of Human Faith by Kounteya Sinha and Aashvi Agarwal

Aashvi Agarwal is thrilled to announce the grand launch of the iconic book “The Promised Land: A Visual Anatomy of Human Faith”. This highly anticipated event will take place on August 3rd in the Grand Ballroom of Bikaner House, New Delhi, starting from 5:45 PM onwards. The book is a visual masterpiece that captures the profound faith and emotions of millions who visited Ayodhya following the inauguration of the Ram Mandir by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Aashvi Agarwal, a 14-year-old student from La Martiniere For Girls School in Kolkata, has created an exhaustive and iconic book on Ayodhya. Her work is a visual documentation of the human emotions and devotion that flooded the small town soon after the temple’s opening. Through over 300 black and white photographs, Agarwal masterfully merges Ayodhya’s architecture, traditions, and heritage with the sea of faith that inundated the town.

Agarwal was mentored by Kounteya Sinha, one of India’s most powerful visual storytellers and a recent recipient of the Nelson Mandela Leadership Award at the University of Oxford. Sinha, a multi-award-winning journalist and photographer, guided Agarwal in capturing the essence of faith and devotion in her photographs.

Agarwal’s work has been praised by Uma Nair, one of India’s top art curators and critics, who described the book as “historic and unparalleled.” Nair commended Agarwal’s ability to capture the raw emotions of faith in a purely human story, devoid of politics or personal agendas. She noted that Agarwal’s debut reveals a unique style, blending traditional narrative techniques with modern human graphics to create a fresh and innovative testimony of the magic of monochromatic, cinematic moments in Ayodhya.

In the preface, Nair highlights the remarkable achievement of a 14-year-old in deciphering the nuances of such a complex and mature subject with supreme storytelling, layering, and humaneness. Sinha added that documenting such a significant human congregation in Ayodhya was a formidable task, but Agarwal approached it with exceptional passion and dedication, resulting in a book that will be remembered as iconic and pathbreaking.