New Delhi, Sept 20 (IANS) Fifteen centuries of Indian art, classical music and dance will blend with contemporary fashion, food, films and literature in a celebration of a "new India" at the first cultural festival of its kind in Brussels next month.

The four-month old festival of India, to be held at the Palais des Beaux-Arts (Bozar) - the first such cultural spectacular after a gap of 15 years - will be inaugurated by Queen Paola of Belgium Oct 7.

The last festival of India - such cultural extravaganzas were held regularly in the mid-eighties - was held in Germany in 1991. This festival, however, targeted at the whole of European Union (EU). Brussels is the seat of key EU institutions.

The festival, will encircle around an art exhibition entitled Tejas - meaning "intellectual brilliance or spiritual brilliance, denoting the effulgence of Indian culture", in the words of Karan Singh, president of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).

More than a month later, Tejas will be opened by Congress president and United Progressive Alliance chairman Sonia Gandhi in the presence of Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and Queen Paola.

"The festival will showcase India's multi-layered, multi-dimensional culture. India has made tremendous strides in recent years. There is a much more interesting India around," Karan Singh told reporters Wednesday, while delineating the new image of a vibrant, resurgent India that is glowing in the global spotlight these days.

"We hope to present India as a great cultural centre for the world. Indian civilisation has had an unbroken history of over 5,000 years," said Singh, scholar and politician known for his knowledge and mastery of ancient Sanskrit texts and Hindu philosophy.

It's not just art, but an entire spectrum of Indian contemporary culture that will be showcased in this festival. Writers like V.S. Naipaul and Amit Chaudhary will compete for attention from ace fashion designers like Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Raghavendra Rathore.

There will be other delicious distractions also, literally. A food festival is being organised from Oct 4 to Oct 16. Two chefs from Hotel Ashok straddling the north and south of the country will give the Europeans a composite taste of India as it were.

A film festival that will showcase works of legendary Indian filmmakers like V. Shantaram, Bimal Roy, Vijay Anand, Shyam Benegal and others will also be held as part of the four-month festival.

The literati can also expect an intellectual feast. Five Indian writers, among the lot who are going to the Frankfurt Book Fair next month, will be discussing the master theme of unity and diversity at Bozar.

"Our idea is that when they look at India, they don't look at India merely in terms of growth percentages. India has a deeper civilisational dimension," Karan Singh said.

The festival will have many firsts to its credit.

"It is the first festival in which uniquely Indian artefacts - all from one country - are coming to Europe. Most of such festivals in Europe have contributions from other countries as well," said Jan Van Alphan, the Belgian Indologist who, along with Indian curator Ranesh Ray, has curated Tejas.

A set of 47 exquisite Nal and Damayanti paintings made in the inimitable Kangra style of Indian miniature paintings from the 18th century will be travelling outside India for the first time.

The paintings, which visually narrate the love story of Nal and Damayanti through an entire range of moods and settings, were originally part of Karan Singh's private collection, but have been taken over by the National Museum.

"Cultural diplomacy is becoming increasingly important in today's world. Cultural diplomacy gives a certain aura, ambience and gentleness to Indian diplomacy," said Karan Singh as he compared cultural diplomacy to the invisible river Saraswati, which together with Ganga (political diplomacy) and Yamuna (economic diplomacy) forms the 'triveni' (the confluence of three sacred rivers in Hindu mythology.)