Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v3.c12.s17: The Royal Party Passing Through a Gateway: Not Identified

Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v3.c12.s17

Language: English

The Royal Party Passing Through a Gateway: Not Identified

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*The scene is painted on the left wall of Cave X, behind pillars 11 to 15.*

THE present subject is a continuation of the last, although it begins after a large gap in the fresco, wherein only one head is left, the rest of the figures representing the royal party having completely decayed. The portion in which the drawing can be made out with certainty first shows an umbrella, and close to it a mango tree. Below the latter are four heads, one of the guard with the special headgear which has been described above (*supra*, p. 25). The two heads below this are probably those of the rājā and of his minister, or of his son. The fourth head is just in front of the trunk of the tree, and can be made out from the turban; otherwise it has almost perished. To the right of these figures is an areca-nut tree, of which the slender trunk and cluster of branches at the top have been painted quite realistically. The mango tree is shown laden with fruit of a round variety.

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Farther to the right is a *toraṇa* through which the rājā and his party are shown passing. The design of the *toraṇa* is the same as that of the gateways of Sanchi, but the cross-bars supporting the horizontal curvilinear beams at the top have not all been fixed to the latter vertically. Two of them, one at each end, have a slant, evidently to add strength to the wooden frame of the *toraṇa*. At Sanchi the middle bars are arranged vertically, perhaps to keep openings of uniform size for the insertion of the figurines which are to be seen there. One of the royal party is just passing through the gateway,¹ while several others are seen outside it, one of whom holds a double-edged sword in his right hand and a shield or a crown in the left. Shields of a rectangular form with a curve in the middle are painted in several caves at Ajanta, but the purpose of the trefoil design at the back is not clear; it may represent the conventional coils of the string for hanging the shield round the arm and back (?). Swords with double edges and a broad end were used in the Deccan up to quite recent times, and several specimens of them are in the Hyderabad Museum. They are called *qam'a*, the weapon of destruction. The painting of the sword and the other weapon in such a prominent manner may indicate the resumption of the kingly role by the rājā on his coming out of the sacred precincts of the *stūpa*. Another attendant, to the right proper of the one bearing the sword and shield, has raised his hand and made a loop with his thumb and forefinger, perhaps to indicate to the crowd awaiting the return of the rājā outside the *stūpa*, that he has been initiated into the Doctrine, or performed his religious mission successfully. To mark the boundary of the sacred precincts of the *stūpa* the artist has painted an upright stone of an irregular shape and also a mango tree. Below the latter an elephant may be seen, which has raised its trunk to salute the rājā. The head of the elephant has been finished in an artistic PLATES XXIVc, XXVIIIb & XXIXa-b manner, the hair on its skull being shown by fine brush-lines. The figure riding on the elephant holds a goad in its right hand.

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¹ Only the top part of his headgear is visible; the rest of the figure has disappeared with the peeling away of the fresco.

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The grouping of the figures in the right half of the fresco appears to be somewhat confusing. There are two processions, one approaching the stūpa and the other returning from it. In both of them are seen royal personages, riding on elephants and accompanied by umbrella- and chaurī-bearers. The presence of the guard with the special headgear (supra, p. 28) in both the processions, as the bearer either of the chaurī or the umbrella, leads to the surmise that they represent the arrival and return of the same rājā, who may be identified with one of the Andhra kings of the second century B.C. (Śrī-Śātakarṇi¹). Such a visit to Gaya, the place of the Buddha’s enlightenment, or to Sanchi, where, according to a contemporary inscription, the southern gateway was built by the sculptors of Śrī-Śātakarṇi, cannot be regarded as improbable. A close study of the fresco further reveals that the rājā near the right end of the painting has in front of him, on the head of the elephant on which he is riding, a vase with a leaf or a branch of a tree rising from it. Will it be too much to fancy that the rājā is carrying a branch of the Bodhi-tree with a view to planting it at his own capital? There is no doubt that the figure holding the vase is that of the rājā, for the guard with the special headgear is seen with an umbrella behind his royal master (Plate XXIVc).

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¹ This king was contemporary with Khāravela, king of Kalinga. ‘Twice, it appears, had Çātakarṇi proclaimed his suzerainty by the performance of the horse-sacrifice; and on one of these occasions at least, the victory thus celebrated must have been at the expense of Çuṅgas, if we are right in supposing that the appearance of the Andhras of South India in the dynastic lists of the Purāṇas indicates that, at some period, they held the position of suzerains in Northern India’, Cambridge History of India, vol. i, pp. 530-1.