TRADITIONAL INDIA - Mural, of Ajanta Caves by Souparna Basak

Murals on Ajanta Cave: 'Birth of Indian art'

The murals of Ajanta are recognised as some of the greatest art produced by humankind in any century. As well as the finest picture gallery to survive from any ancient civilisation. The walls told the Jataka stories, of the lives of the Buddha in images of such extraordinary elegance and grace that they clearly represented a fragment of a lost golden age of Indian painting. These are Buddhist legends describing the previous births of the Buddha. These fables embed ancient morals and cultural lores that are also found in the fables and legends of Hindu and Jain texts.

               

i) Buddha as the golden goose in his previous life                                               ii)Buddha’s Paining

                                              Some Paintings of Ajanta Caves, Source: Wikipedia

Ajanta Caves' Re-Discovery

Ajanta Caves were rediscovered in 1819, by a team of British hunting party headed by Captain John Smith, in the forest of Aurangabad, Maharashtra. By looking the cave from outside, Smith understood, it was not any natural edge or natural cave, it was clearly a work of great sophistication. Which had been abandoned for centuries. Later groups of Orientalists, archaeologists and Indologists followed in Smith's footsteps through the jungle to Ajanta as word spread. They found it is the group of some 31 caves that was excavated between the 1st century BCE and the 7th century CE.

Ajanta Caves in Panorama, Source: Wikipedia

Paintings on the Cave Wall

The caves include paintings and rock-cut sculptures described as among the finest surviving examples of ancient Indian art, particularly expressive paintings that present emotions through gesture, pose and form. Even today, the colours glow with a brilliant intensity: topaz-dark, lizard green, lotus-blue. The paintings are in "dry fresco", painted on top of a dry plaster surface rather than into wet plaster.  The ceilings are also painted with sophisticated and elaborate decorative motifs, many derived from sculpture.

Ceiling with decorative motifs and painting, Source: Wikipedia

                                              Painted ceiling depicting Life circle of Lord Buddha, Source: Wikipedia

They are universally regarded as masterpieces of Buddhist religious art. The Ajanta Caves constitute ancient monasteries and worship-halls of different Buddhist traditions carved into a 75-metre wall of rock. The caves also present paintings depicting the past lives and rebirths of the Buddha, pictorial tales from Aryasura's Jatakamala, and rock-cut sculptures of Buddhist deities.

Link of Ajanta Caves Painting- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgu6vcNLEC0

One of four frescos for the Mahajanaka Jataka tale: the king announces his abdication to become an ascetic, Source: Wikipedia

Conservation and Protection

The site is a protected monument in the care of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), since 1983, the Ajanta Caves have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 1999, Rajdeo Singh, the Archaeological Survey of India's (ASI) chief of conservation and head of science at Aurangabad, began work on the restoration of these murals.

Impact of Ajanta Caves' Painting on later Painting

The Ajanta paintings, or more likely the general style they come from, influenced painting in Tibet and Sri Lanka. Artist like Abanindranath Tagore and Syed Thajudeen also used the Ajanta paintings for inspiration. Nandalal Bose experimented to use this old style, and developed his own unique style of paining.

 

Some of the Nandalal Bose painting in Ajanta cave style paining, Source: Wikipedia