Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c77.102

v2.c77.102

This observation about of the antiquity of the use of gold in Indian paintings is open to controversy. Dr. Motichand on the basis of archaeological evidence, i.e. absence of the use of gold in the paintings of Ajanta, Ellura, Bagh and Badami, traced its influx in india from Persia. This, I contend, is confusing the artistic creations with the canons of Art. All this pictorial heritage of India as illustrated in the cave monuments is a direct outcome of the religions upsurge of the time. Painting, a palace-culture, must have been more refined and grander in the courts (with the use of gold in it) and simple yet sublime in the religious establishments like the cave-temples as referred by the learned Doctor. In pictorial canons of the V. D. (belonging to the early Gupta period) if the use of gold is there, its artistic representation in pictures must have also been there which unfortunately are lost to us. All the principal texts headed by the V. D. echo this tradition of the old. Hence in my humble opinion the scholars should reconsider this point and revise their opinions.