Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v2.c8.s12: Dragons, Geese, and Other Decorative Motifs

Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v2.c8.s12

Language: English

Dragons, Geese, and Other Decorative Motifs

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*The panel containing these devices is in the middle of the ceiling of the chapel to the left of the antechamber. As the colours have become dark, the subject is reproduced in monochrome only.*

THE delineation of dragons has been a favourite theme with the artists of Ajanta, who have given them highly decorative forms. In the present panel, the artist has drawn figures at the four corners, based on tigers’ and crocodiles’ heads, though the additions of tusks and horns have given them rather a mythical effect. The artist has given further play to his fancy, and the grotesqueness of these creatures has been accentuated by foliated terminations of exquisite workmanship. The colours and drawings of two of these designs have faded to a great extent, but the remaining two are fairly intact, and in one we see a monster with a grinning face. The ornamentation of the teeth, eyebrows, and horns, show the artist's play of imagination, which is further demonstrated by the floriated scrolls. It will be interesting to note that the whole design is worked out on a dark background by white dots and lines. Red colour has been added afterwards only here and there to give warmth and vivacity to the subject.

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The second design represents a dragon attacked by another mythological beast. The intricate design of the conventional foliage is in keeping with the wild grin of the two monsters.

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The remaining part of the panel consists of concentric circles divided by bands containing jewellery patterns, foliage designs, and a procession of geese. The last represents twenty-three birds in a variety of characteristic movements, showing the artist's close study of the habits of geese. Some have their necks sharply curved as if they were in an angry mood, some have stretched them forward to show their determination to attack, some have bent them down low to preen their feathers in an attitude of languor, some have turned their heads gracefully to one side to look amorously at their mates, and some have turned them with a romantic curve upwards to show their feeling of ecstacy. The fine brush work of the artist in the delineation of the feathers of the birds also deserves close study.

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The subject both as regards ingenuity of design and perfection of technique plainly shows the skill of the Ajanta artists in decorative art.¹

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¹ On the back wall of the chapel, between the sculptures of two majestic *Yakshas*, are the figures of two hermits shown in outline only. Farther to the right, near the *chaurī*-bearer, is the figure of a Buddha in the teaching attitude, with dark green and white clouds in the background. These figures, although unfinished, are interesting as showing the process of the artist in first marking out the outline, then strengthening it by washes to produce the effect of roundness, and afterwards adding colours.