Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v4.c15.28

v4.c15.28

The Chālukyas who succeeded the Vākāṭakas in the sovereignty of the Deccan during the first half of the sixth century A.D. were perhaps not as favourable to the Buddhist religion as their predecessors, although the shrines which the Chālukyas built at their capital in Bādāmi are largely copied from the Buddhist *vihāras*. Through lack of royal patronage, art at Ajanta began to decline rapidly in the latter half of the sixth century A.D., and there is no *vihāra* or *chaitya* at Ajanta which can be assigned with certainty to the seventh century A.D. The Buddhist shrines of Ellora excavated during the seventh century A.D. show clear influence of the Brahmanic architecture of South India; and in regard to painting, the art shown in the specimens preserved there is not only conventional but actually effete and etiolated. The apparent cause of the decline was the fact that master-painters professing the Buddhist faith were for theological reasons not employed on the adornment of the Brahmanic shrines, and the art of painting, which had reached its climax through local Deccan genius, stimulated of course by the rich tradition and glorious visions of the Buddhist religion, fell to the position of a decorative craft when practised by Brahman artisans, notably those of South India. This view may startle those academicians who consider the paintings of Ajanta to be representative of Gupta art, and date them between the sixth and seventh centuries A.D., although there are in fact specimens of painting in Cave X at Ajanta with inscriptions which, according to expert epigraphists, have been unanimously assigned to the middle of the second century B.C. The art of painting even in these early examples is fairly well developed, and indicates practice and a continuity of tradition over hundreds of years. There are specimens in Caves IX and X which tell a continuous story of the development of technique from the second century B.C. to the fifth century A.D. For instance, the subject painted on the wall of the left aisle of Cave IX, in which a group of votaries is shown approaching a *stūpa* bedecked with umbrellas, is not far removed in period from the group of votaries painted on the left wall of Cave X, since the same colours—red ochre, yellow ochre, terra-verde, lamp-black, and the white of lime—have been used in both subjects. There is a complete absence of blue, which does not appear at Ajanta until the fourth or fifth century A.D. The surface had been prepared by first placing on the rock-wall a layer of clay,¹ which was subsequently covered with a coat of fine lime. On this ground the outlines of figures were drawn in black or red tints, and afterwards colours were filled in. The colours in the early painting are flat, with no washes to indicate depth or volume such as are to be noticed in later paintings.