Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c10.s3.4

c10.s3.4

It is unfortunate, however, that such understanding of nature as we have described above is not found in the rare examples of Indian painting which have survived. In Ajaṇṭā painting, architecture dominates the scene, though decorative motifs have been borrowed from nature. The landscape rarely represented at Ajaṇṭā may be classified into two groups. (1) The elements which appear separately, such as trees, flowers, plants, etc., which are represented in a realistic manner. The rocks, however, are represented conventionally. (2) Their artistic groupings in the interest of the composition and perspective show that the painters at Ajaṇṭā were already acquainted with the problems of three-quarter dimension in relation to space. The architectural details are introduced to bring coherence in the groupings, and at Ajaṇṭā they may be called “architectural landscape.” All these architectural details are represented, as if they were to be seen by a person from the housetop. This point of view in perspective gave liberty to the artists even to represent the details which, according to the laws of ordinary perspective, should be hidden from view.