Manasara Series (I. A Dictionary of Hindu Architecture; II. Indian Architecture according to Manasara-Shilpashastra; III. Manasara on Architecture and Sculpture: Sanskrit Text; IV. Architecture of Manasara: Translation; V. Architecture of Manasara: Illustrations; VI. Hindu Architecture in India and Abroad; VII. An Encyclopaedia of Hindu Architecture) v6.c41.s12.15

v6.c41.s12.15

The wall-paintings are all executed *in tempera*. 'It is in this modified, technically inaccurate, sense that the term 'fresco' must be understood. The mural decoration in the passages and ante-chapels ordinarily represents rows of large Bodhisattvas moving in procession, or else seated in tiers. Diapers of small figures of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas . . . covered the walls in numbers of small cellas. Along with elaborate floral designs and tracery they had often been used also for the adornment of the ceiling in the large cellas. But it was on the walls of these last that the wonderful richness and variety of this pictorial art had found room to express itself fully. There the frescoes generally filled large panels, bordered by floral scrolls of striking beauty. They were arranged either singly or in a series. Painted dados, often representing figures of worshippers, in some cases monks or nuns, served to raise these panels to an appropriate height above the floor and the statue-bearing platform. Panels were almost invariably filled by elaborate compositions containing a large number of figures. Varied as the subjects were in details, two main classes could readily be distinguished among them. In one there appeared figures of Buddhas, surrounded by symmetrically grouped hosts of Bodhisattvas, saints, and other divine attendants, all shown in a carefully arranged architectural setting of pavilions, platforms, lotus tanks, etc. These panels were meant to represent scenes in Buddhist heavens. The other class of fresco panels displayed, in close juxtaposition and often bewildering variety, scenes which looked as if taken from mundane life, but often with sacred figures moving among them.' Sir Aurel Stein felt assured that 'these scenes in the mural paintings illustrated Buddhist Jātaka stories.'²