Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v4.c15.56

v4.c15.56

In addition to people from various parts of India, the inhabitants of Afghanistan, Bactria, and China are also represented in the paintings of this period (fourth to fifth centuries A.D.). For instance, the group of rulers and chiefs who are shown coming riding on horses and elephants to listen to the First Sermon of the Buddha, painted on the left wall of the ante-chamber of Cave XVII, includes figures whose features, headgear—the fur-brimmed conical caps—and embroidered coats resemble those of the people of the Frontier Province and Afghanistan today.³ These districts constituted the province of Gandhāra, the people of which embraced Buddhism from a very early period, and the reputation of the sacred shrines of Ajanta will have prompted the votaries of the Buddhist faith in the former province to visit this shrine as pilgrims. Further, the Malwa and the entire zone of Western India, comprising Kathiawar, Surāshṭra, and the Konkan, had been governed by Śaka princes, styled the Western Satraps in history, from the first century B.C. or A.D. to the end of the fourth century A.D.; and as several of these princes were ardent supporters of the Buddhist faith, the familiarity of the Ajanta artists with Śakas or people of Western Asiatic countries is not surprising. The Bacchanalian scene painted in several places on the ceiling of Cave I, and the quaint figure in the veranda of Cave II,⁴ with sunken cheeks and a tuft of hair on his chin, wearing a skull-cap and a striped pair of socks and drinking wine with his boon companion, probably an Indian as his physiognomy shows, confirm the above view.