Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v2.c9.3

v2.c9.3

THERE are a number of inscriptions written on the paintings in Cave II. Several are quite short: others have been of some length but are now in too fragmentary a condition to be restored. With the exception of no. 7, a comparatively modern Kanarese inscription, they are all in Sanskrit in Brāhmī characters and contemporary with the paintings. We have no similar written dated inscriptions elsewhere for comparison, but comparison with rock-cut inscriptions suggests that the date of these inscriptions is the first half of the sixth century. No. 11 may possibly be a trifle earlier, but it is improbable that any are later. These inscriptions have already been published from Paṇḍit Bhagvānlāl Indrajī’s readings by Dr. James Burgess in Memoir no. 10 of the Archaeological Survey of Western India: *Inscriptions from the Cave Temples of Western India*, 1881, pp. 80-2. Some portions of the inscriptions have decayed since he copied them, but they were already very incomplete in his time. They were discussed by Professor H. Lüders in the *Nachrichten von der Königl. Gesellsch. d. Wissenschaften of Göttingen*, Phil.-Hist. Klasse, 1902, pp. 758-62, in an article which Burgess translated for the *Indian Antiquary*, 1903, pp. 326-8.