Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v4.c16.s32: The Story of a Benevolent Bear: Not Identified

Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v4.c16.s32

Language: English

The Story of a Benevolent Bear: Not Identified

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*The story is painted on the wall of the front corridor, between the two windows to the right of the door in Cave XVII.*

THE painting represents another deer-story in which a bear out of reverence and affection for the sacred deer helps in his release from a trap laid by a hunter. The hunter in revenge causes the death of the bear by inducing two fellow hunters to shoot arrows at the beast. There are many stories in the *Jātaka* regarding the birth of the Bodhisattva as a deer and his betrayal by the man whose life the Bodhisattva had saved from one peril or another, but there is no story in which a bear comes to the help of the Sacred Being. The fresco is much blackened by the passage of time and other causes, and the figures represented are not very clear, but an artist's eye can trace the main incidents of the story (Plate LXIX *a-b*). For instance, in the lower part of the fresco, on the right side of the painting, the figure of a man with a fair complexion and long, unkempt hair may be descried. He is probably the hunter. In front of him is a stag lying trapped in a snare laid by the hunter, and close to the stag, whose head is clear, a bear may be noticed hugging a man (Plate LXIX b).¹ This man has a fair complexion, and he is probably the hunter who had laid the snare. Towards the left is a pair of deer, one of whom is apparently the stag who has escaped from the snare by the timely help of the bear, who held the hunter in the embrace of his forepaws. The hunter, being foiled in his attempt to capture the sacred deer, asks two of his fellow hunters who are armed with bows and arrows to shoot the bear. These hunters may be noticed a little above on the right side of the painting. One of the hunters has evidently drawn his bow and shot an arrow, because on the opposite side of the picture the bear is lying wounded by an arrow which may be seen stuck into his body.²

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¹ Griffiths has given a reconstruction of this subject in *Ajanta Paintings*, vol. i, p. 13, Fig. 28.

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² The figure of the bear can be made out in the reproduction (Plate LXIX b), but it is much clearer in the original fresco.

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Higher up (Plate LXIX a) is the figure of the hunter, who has been deprived of his hands as a punishment for his evil deed. Close by is the dead body of the bear, whose muzzle and exposed teeth represent a fine piece of realistic work. Below, on either side of the dead bear, are men who are expressing their sorrow at the incident, as is suggested by the gestures of their fingers. One of them, as a further mark of grief, has placed his hand on his head. Behind the hunter who has lost his hands two of his accomplices may be seen running away through fear of punishment. Above, on the left side of the fresco, there are two more figures of men, one of them of a large size, because it is represented as standing near the principal characters of the story, and the other comparatively small, being supposed to be at some distance from the main scene. The large figure, who has a ruddy complexion, probably represents some wayfarer in the forest, and is shown carrying a bamboo across his shoulders from which a log is hung. The other figure represents another wayfarer, who is armed with a bow and arrow and is carrying faggots on his head.