A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c14.s3.3

c14.s3.3

But the paintings are so much decayed that the prospects of any considerable success in copying seem to be remote, and our knowledge of the work at Bāgh must depend mainly on the descriptions recorded by four writers. The caves were first visited in 1818 by Captain Dangerfield, whose account, published in 1820, was corrected and amplified in 1854 by Dr. Impey. His illustrations, which were used by Fergusson, and ought to be in the India Office Library, cannot now be found. In 1879 Dr. Burgess devoted two pages to a summary description of eleven sections of the paintings, and expressed the opinion that ‘it would be well worth while if Mr. Griffiths could be spared with a few students for some months to preserve a pictorial record of these remains, before they are for ever lost’. Nothing, however, was done, and the full account of the caves recently published by Major C. E. Luard shows that very little of the painting is now discernible.¹