Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v1.c4.42

v1.c4.42

We have noted above the sympathetic drawing of animals and birds in the frescoes; a kind of drawing which seems to owe its particular quality not to acute observation from outside but to a deep sense of kinship with non-human life. No doubt the beliefs of Buddhism operated strongly here. According to the *Jātakas*, the Buddha had in previous existences been a deer, an elephant, a goose—who could tell what spirit might not be enclosed in any animal or bird one met?