Visit: Art Gallery
Art is the reshaping of reality by man to present it understandably. As the artist recreates the world around him, it is shaped by how he sees it and what he believes in. The Indian artist did not attempt to depict only the material reality around him. He wishes to share the complete experience of the moment, not just the photographic presentation of the shapes around him.
The Exhibition of Ajanta Caves was opened to the public at Khodidas Art Gallery Sardar Nagar on 25th and 26th September 2021. In this art exhibition, they represented the murals from the Ajanta Caves. The opening ceremony was held at the beginning of the exhibition. The peculiarity of this was that to make people see the paintings in the same way as they do in the caves of Ajanta, a unique inauguration ceremony was held in this art gallery by showing the pictures to the guests with a candle in hand. The guests present and the art lovers were made to feel as if they were in the cave of Ajanta.
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| Padmapani |
The caves of Ajanta are very famous all over India for their paintings. To see those pictures, art lovers come from all over the country. The paintings are just as fresh today, and the subject matter is captivating. A replica of those paintings has been painted on his canvas by 38 accomplished painters, including Khodidasbhai Parmar of Bhavnagar, who has made about 51 paintings. This painting here is a replica of the painting Bodhisattva Padmapani, located in cave 1 at Ajanta monastery.
Location of the Ajanta Caves:
History of the Ajanta Caves:
The Buddhist Caves in Ajanta are approximately 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments dating from the 2nd century BCE to about 480 CE in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state in India. 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.
They are universally regarded as masterpieces of Buddhist religious art. The caves were built in two phases, the first starting around the 2nd century BCE and the second occurring from 400 to 650 CE, according to older accounts, or in a brief period of 460–480 CE according to later scholarship. The site is a protected monument in the care of the Archaeological Survey of India, and since 1983, the Ajanta Caves have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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| UNESCO World Heritage Site, The Ajanta Caves |
The Ajanta Caves constitute ancient monasteries and worship halls of different Buddhist traditions carved into a 75-metre (246 ft.) 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. Textual records suggest that these caves served as a monsoon retreat for monks, as well as a resting site for merchants and pilgrims in ancient India. While vivid colours and mural wall-painting were abundant in Indian history as evidenced by historical records, Caves 16, 17, 1 and 2 of Ajanta form the largest corpus of surviving ancient Indian wall-painting.
The Ajanta Caves are mentioned in the memoirs of several medieval era Chinese Buddhist travellers to India and by a Mughal-era official of the Akbar era in the early 17th century. They were covered by jungle until accidentally "discovered" and brought to Western attention in 1819 by a colonial British officer Captain John Smith on a tiger-hunting party. The caves are in the rocky northern wall of the U-shaped gorge of the river Waghur, in the Deccan plateau. Within the gorge are several waterfalls, audible from outside the caves when the river is high.
Caves of the Hinayana Period:
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| Cave 9, Chaitya worship hall with Stupa but no idols |
The Hinayana Buddhists did not believe in making any figures of Buddha, instead, they worshipped symbols of him like the Stupa.
The painting and sculptures in the caves are of Buddhist origin; Gautama Buddha was against painting and Sculpture. He forbade an image of himself. Also, he was against the use of colourful clothes such as may excite desire he did not admit women to the order of nuns. He felt that all life was pain. The best way to attain salvation (Nirvana) was to suppress all for happiness.
Caves of Mahayana Period:
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| Buddhist monks praying in front of the Dagoba of Chaitya Cave 26 |
The second phase is attributed to the theistic Mahayana or Greater Vehicle tradition of Buddhism. Caves of the second period are 1–8, 11, 14–29, some possible extensions of earlier caves. Caves 19, 26, and 29 are chaitya-grihas, the rest viharas. The most elaborate caves were produced in this period, which included some refurbishing and repainting of the early caves.
The second phase of construction at the Ajanta Caves site began in the 5th century. For a long time, it was thought that the later caves were made over an extended period from the 4th to the 7th centuries CE.
The Mahayana Buddhists started making and worshipping paintings and sculptures of Buddha.
To sum up the difference between the Hinayana and the Mahayana phases of Buddhism, we may say:
Hinayana Buddhism asked the people to rely on themselves and practise the eightfold path of right behaviour. The Buddha was not like Hindu God, Whom the worshipper could ask for help.
The Mahayana made the Buddha almost into gods perhaps under the influence of Hinduism, by the time this more liberal faith emerged, Buddhism accepted women in the Sangha, or the order of monks and nuns, and promised to help people to attain Nirvana by practising certain rites. By the time the Ajanta caves were carved, the Buddhists had evolved imagery almost parallel to the Hindus.
Paintings:
The paintings in the Ajanta caves predominantly narrate the Jataka tales. 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. The Jataka tales are exemplified through the life example and sacrifices that the Buddha made in hundreds of his past incarnations, where he is depicted as having been reborn as an animal or human.
The paintings are in "dry fresco", painted on top of a dry plaster surface rather than into wet plaster. All the paintings appear to be the work of painters supported by discriminating connoisseurship and sophisticated patrons from an urban atmosphere. We know from literary sources that painting was widely practised and appreciated in the Gupta period. Unlike much Indian mural painting, compositions are not laid out in horizontal bands like a frieze but show large scenes spreading in all directions from a single figure or group at the centre. The ceilings are also painted with sophisticated and elaborate decorative motifs, many derived from the sculpture. The paintings in cave 1 concentrate on those Jataka tales which show the previous lives of the Buddha as a king, rather than as a deer or elephant or another Jataka animal. The scenes depict the Buddha as about to renounce the royal life.
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| Cave 17 Buddha as the golden goose in his previous life |
In general, the later caves seem to have been painted on finished areas as excavating work continued elsewhere in the cave, as shown in caves 2 and 16 in particular. According to Spink's account of the chronology of the caves, the abandonment of work in 478 after a brief busy period accounts for the absence of painting in places including cave 4 and the shrine of cave 17, the latter being plastered in preparation for paintings that were never done.
This painting can be found to the left of the main shrine. It depicts one of the most beloved bodhisattvas, Avalokitesvara. The term “bodhisattva” refers to a person that has been awakened by the Buddhist spirit. According to Mahayana doctrine, Alavokitesvara postponed his ascension into Buddhahood until he assisted every being in achieving Nirvana. Avalokitesvara takes the largest number of forms across Asia. Originally, a masculine form, Avalokitesvara is also known as the feminine Guanyin in China and Kuan Yin in Japan.
In the painting, his tan body, darkened only by the locks of curly hair, is delicate and elegant. He is adorned with pearls, amethyst, and other attributes of traditional Indian jewellery. On his head sits a magnificent crown, which at some point was most likely coloured in extreme detail, but over time has faded. His eyes are lowered in a meditative state. His calm, spiritual face sets the tone and mood of the room. In his right hand, he holds a lotus blossom, which may represent his spiritual awakening.
If you look up from the beautiful wall paintings you see the geometric designs and motifs that adorn the ceiling. There are also images of peacocks, subtly decorated in blue paint made from lapis lazuli. One of the panels shows a decorative vegetable motif that looks similar to our modern-day green bell pepper. In addition to this, there is a creature with a bull’s head whose body transforms into swirling curvaceous lines that blend into the floral decoration of the next panel.
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| Ajanta Stamp, 1949 |
The ceiling paintings are so beautiful that one of the panels, which depicts a running elephant surrounded by flowers, was chosen as the official logo of India’s Department of Tourism. The elephant is shown playfully galloping, as his trunk swirls close to his body.
One of the many doorway paintings in Ajanta caves, this one depicts scenes of kings and communities enjoying each other's company eating and drinking wine in merriment. And as we can see from this image of the painting these murals and sculptures are started getting in worse condition with the passes.
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| Decayed Doorway Painting |
[Word Count:1681]
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