Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v3.c13.20

v3.c13.20

inscription (No. 1), of which unfortunately only a few letters now remain. They, however, show that the record is to be dated at an earlier period, probably about the middle of the second century B.C., as the script seems to be of a time only slightly later than that of the inscription of Kaṭahādi, which on palaeographic grounds should be ascribed to the beginning of the second century B.C.¹ The painting on which this inscription is found seems undoubtedly to be coeval with the inscription and should therefore also belong to the second century B.C. If this dating is correct, the art of mural painting must have been very well developed in the Deccan long before the commencement of the Christian era.