Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v4.c15.36

v4.c15.36

In Cave X on the back wall of the *chaitya* there are some paintings representing a few scenes from the life of the Buddha which may be assigned to the fourth or fifth century A.D., but for the art of this period it will be best to study the paintings of Caves I, II, XVI, and XVII. The latter two caves contain inscriptions of the Vākāṭaka king Hariṣeṇa, of the Basim branch, and Cave I is a replica of the *vihāra* at Ghaṭotkacha, both in plan and in the identity of certain sculptures, notably the one representing four deer with a common head, which subject is not to be found in any other Buddhist *vihāra*. According to a contemporary inscription, the *vihāra* at Ghaṭotkacha was cut in the rock by Varāhadeva, the minister of Devasena (*c.* A.D. 455-75). The interest of these kings and their ministers and feudatory chiefs in the Buddhist faith and the art of painting, as it then flourished at Ajanta, would have familiarized the painters of Ajanta with court life, because such royal personages and their entourage would have frequently visited Ajanta to pay their homage to the sacred shrines and the holy persons who resided there. It is also likely that some of the holy monks may have been invited to the royal courts to teach the Law, and they may have been accompanied by artists belonging to the Order for the purpose of embellishing with paintings the shrines which existed at the capital towns. This surmise gains support from the fact that the paintings at Bāgh appear to have been copied from the paintings at Ajanta, since not only is there similarity in technique and in poses and dresses, but the dance-scene of the *Mahājanaka Jātaka* painted on the left wall of Cave I at Ajanta is reproduced with almost identical figures on the rock-wall at Bāgh.¹ The influence of the Gupta kings, according to eminent historians, did not penetrate as far as the Deccan in the fourth century A.D., but the art of Ajanta during this century and the fifth made tremendous progress and its fame reached distant countries. Votaries from Ceylon, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and China visited Ajanta, and, after learning the art practised there, adorned the walls of the shrines in their motherlands with similar paintings when they returned to their own countries. The frescoes of Sigiri in Ceylon,² Bāmiyān in Afghanistan,³ Turfān in Central Asia,⁴ and Tun Huang in China,⁵ show unmistakably the influence of the art of Ajanta. Some of these paintings are assigned to the fifth century A.D., so that their painters must have visited Ajanta in that century or even earlier (fourth century A.D.). Kālidāsa mentions ‘the hall of painting’ in the *Mālavikāgnimitra*, and it is not unlikely that he may have visited Ajanta, familiar as he was with the court of the Vākāṭaka kings.⁶ The *Viṣṇudharmottara* was compiled in the seventh or eighth century A.D., but its