The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has once again demonstrated an extraordinary talent for mistaking administrative housekeeping for institutional achievement. At the very moment excavations at Gharapuri are yielding evidence that could fundamentally reshape our understanding of India's maritime past, the institution has chosen to celebrate the rollout of QR-enabled audio guides and GPS-supported navigation at its monuments. The contrast could not be starker.
On one side are discoveries with the potential to rewrite history; on the other is the projection of a technological feature that should have become standard practice years ago as though it were a landmark accomplishment. Institutional priorities are revealed not merely by what is done, but by what is chosen for public celebration.
The discoveries emerging from Gharapuri deserve to dominate public discourse. Preliminary findings indicate a flourishing maritime settlement dating to around the fifth century, placing the island within an extensive network of trade, navigation and cultural exchange centuries before the Portuguese entered these waters. If substantiated through continued excavation and research, the evidence will significantly deepen our understanding of India's role in the Indian Ocean world, strengthening the historical narrative of a civilisation deeply connected to maritime commerce and cross-cultural interaction long before European intervention.
Yet this extraordinary archaeological story has been eclipsed by institutional publicity surrounding digital visitor amenities. Technology undoubtedly enriches the experience of heritage, but it cannot become a substitute for heritage itself. When administrative upgrades receive greater institutional attention than discoveries capable of reshaping historical scholarship, something fundamental has gone awry.
The irony is compounded by the continued official use of the colonial name "Elephanta." The island's civilisational identity as Gharapuri remains overshadowed by a Portuguese label inspired by a stone elephant encountered centuries ago near its foothills. Every repetition of that colonial name distances the monument from its historical identity and perpetuates a shorthand that has long outlived its relevance. If archaeology seeks to restore historical truth, institutional language should reflect that same commitment.
This is not to dismiss the ASI's latest initiative at Maharashtra's Bhuleshwar Temple. It deserves recognition as an overdue but welcome improvement in public engagement with heritage. The programme introduces QR-enabled, GPS-supported audio guides that allow visitors to access professionally researched narration through their smartphones, even in locations with limited internet connectivity. Similar systems have already been introduced at Kuda Caves, Lohagad Fort, Naneghat, Pataleshwar and several other protected monuments across Maharashtra, signalling that heritage interpretation is finally receiving attention alongside conservation.
For many visitors, particularly those travelling beyond metropolitan museums to remote archaeological sites, such digital interpretation undoubtedly creates a richer and more structured experience than relying solely on weathered signboards. The initiative reflects an institution increasingly willing to embrace technology as part of conservation rather than treating public engagement as an afterthought.
Viewed internationally, however, Bhuleshwar also exposes the limitations of India's digital heritage strategy. The QR-code audio guide represented cutting-edge museum technology a decade ago. Today, many of the world's leading museums are steadily replacing that model with systems driven by artificial intelligence, computer vision, spatial computing and immersive digital interpretation.
The question is therefore no longer whether India should digitise heritage. That debate has been settled. The more important question is whether India is investing in yesterday's digital architecture while much of the global cultural sector is already building tomorrow's.
QR codes transformed museums because they eliminated expensive proprietary audio devices by shifting interpretation onto visitors' own smartphones. But the smartphone itself is no longer the centre of digital heritage. Increasingly, visitors simply point their cameras at sculptures, inscriptions or architectural features and receive immediate contextual information without scanning anything. Artificial intelligence identifies monuments through computer vision. Large language models answer questions conversationally. Augmented reality reconstructs damaged structures in three dimensions. Personalised systems recommend visitor routes based on individual interests, available time and accessibility requirements.
This is precisely where India's present approach begins to show its age. The visitor experience at Bhuleshwar still depends upon a sequence that has remained largely unchanged for over a decade: locate the QR code, scan it, load the webpage, choose a language, press play and repeat the process throughout the monument. It remains a one-way conversation.
The next generation of heritage interpretation is fundamentally different. It is conversational rather than instructional. A visitor standing before Bhuleshwar's intricate carvings should be able to ask why female warriors appear in the sculptural programme, how the temple differs from Hoysala architecture, where its oldest inscription is located, or how its iconography compares with Ellora or Khajuraho. Artificial intelligence should understand those questions and respond in language appropriate for a school student, a tourist or a researcher. The present system speaks. The next generation listens.
Accessibility offers another opportunity for transformation. Audio narration is only the beginning. Truly inclusive heritage increasingly incorporates Indian Sign Language, live captioning, adjustable reading levels, colour-blind friendly interfaces, dyslexia support, multilingual speech synthesis and adaptive narration designed separately for children, researchers and casual visitors. The ASI has begun introducing Indian Sign Language content at selected monuments, but comprehensive accessibility remains an unfinished project.
Artificial intelligence also opens remarkable possibilities for archaeology itself. Visitors could point a phone at a weathered Sanskrit inscription and receive immediate transliteration, translation and historical commentary. Augmented reality could reconstruct collapsed mandapas or damaged sculptural ensembles. AI could compare Bhuleshwar's architecture with monuments across India in real time, making centuries of scholarship instantly accessible to every visitor.
These are no longer speculative technologies. They already exist in museums and research institutions across the world. India therefore has an opportunity not merely to catch up but to leapfrog incremental technological upgrades by integrating AI, computer vision, digital twins, open archaeological datasets and immersive interpretation into a unified national heritage strategy. QR codes should be regarded not as the destination but as the first step towards a far more ambitious digital ecosystem.
The ASI deserves credit for recognising that interpretation is an essential component of conservation and for extending digital engagement beyond metropolitan museums into India's wider archaeological landscape. But it must also recognise that history rarely rewards institutions that mistake the first milestone for the finish line.
More importantly, it must ensure that technological announcements never overshadow archaeological breakthroughs. At Gharapuri, excavations are producing evidence that could compel historians to reconsider long-held assumptions about India's maritime antiquity. Those discoveries deserve headlines because they enrich scholarship, strengthen national historical consciousness and restore one of India's most remarkable heritage landscapes to its rightful place.
Technology can illuminate that story. It should never become the story itself.
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A version of this article was first published in The Draft
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