Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v4.c15.48

v4.c15.48

Religious zeal and ardour, and noble qualities of the heart such as sympathy for the oppressed, charity towards the indigent, mercy even involving personal sacrifice by the bestower, love for the entire creation, human beings as well as animals, even reptiles, are most effectively delineated in the art of this period. Royal pomp and splendour are regarded with indifference as compared with the higher glory of enlightened being or spirit. The influence of the priestly class at the royal courts is shown with respect, but in certain cases also with a touch of irony. On the right wall of Cave XVII, the head of the Brahman who warns the rājā not to be lured by the charm of the disguised ogress, in the *Siṃhala Avadāna*, exhibits the artistic skill of Rembrandt in character-painting.³ In another subject painted in Cave I on the wall of the back corridor, in which two princesses are bringing trays of offerings to the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, the head of the elderly minister accompanying the rājā is a masterpiece of art both for expression and realistic treatment of features.⁴ And who would not be impressed by the ugly features and the devilish grin of Jūjaka, the avaricious Brahman in the *Viśvantara Jātaka*, when he receives the ransom-money for restoring to the father of Viśvantara his two children, who, having been given to the wily Brahman as a gift, had been maltreated by him in order to extort a large sum as ransom from the rājā? This scene is painted on the wall of the left aisle in Cave XVII.⁵ In the representations of the priestly class we notice people from all parts of India: those with a tuft of hair on the crown of the