The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c16.s2.1

v2.c16.s2.1

IT is difficult to state precisely when painting as an art began in the Deccan, but the specimens of wall painting which exist on the left wall of the *chaitya*-cave X at Ajanta show a fairly well-developed craftsmanship. This *chaitya*, according to two contemporary Brāhmī inscriptions, was cut in the rock about the end of the second century B.C.¹ The paintings on the left wall of cave IX, which is also a *chaitya*, are similar in style to those of cave X and may be at the most fifty to a hundred years later than their prototypes in the latter cave. They represent aboriginal people with long hair, which is tied with ribbons in the form of crests of serpents' hoods on the crowns of their heads. They have scanty clothing but elaborate jewellery, the latter comprising large ear-rings and metal necklaces of various designs. The features of the women and of some of the men resemble those of the Marāṭhas of the present day, with oval faces, short noses, fairly thick lips, and medium stature. These paintings apparently represent contemporary people, a hybrid race, i.e. a mixture of the aboriginal Dravidians (or the pre-Dravidians) and the Scythians, who seem to have entered the Deccan in the early centuries of the first millennium B.C., if not earlier. Men wear narrow loin-cloths to cover their bodies; women have a similar garment for the lower part of the body, but they also wear a brassière (*choli*) and have a scarf (*oṛhṇī*) to cover the head in the present Indian style.