the story behind Ajantas parade of Jataka tales on the walls and

artworks on the ceilings of caves carved out of rock around 2,000 years ago.
THE painted ceilings of the Buddhist caves at Ajanta have not drawn as much
international attention as the murals. A reason could be that the paintings on the
walls deal with incidents from the Buddhas life and episodes from the Jataka
tales, which have a human appeal, whereas the ceilings have geometrical and
floral motifs and images of creepers, animals and birds, celestial beings, clowns
and so forth. The care for detail that is evident in these paintings is striking. The
brilliant portrayal of animal figures, such as a charging bull or elephants, and a
flock of geese shows the Ajanta artists knowledge of animal anatomy.
An amazing example of ingenuity is the lotus painted in a depression in the
ceiling above the seated Buddha in the sanctum sanctorum of Cave 6. It looks as
if a lotus in full bloom is hung from above.
A.M.V. Subramanyam, Superintending Archaeologist, Aurangabad Circle,
Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), is certain that the artists painted the
ceilings lying on their backs on a scaffold. As with the walls, the artists used the
tempera technique on the ceilings: they prepared the rock surface elaborately
with two coats of mud plaster, applied a thin coat of lime wash over it, and
allowed it to dry before painting on it.
For unknown reasons, the Ajanta artist did not paint religious themes on the
ceilings, notes Professor S. Swaminathan, a specialist on Ajanta paintings.
But on the ceilings, the colour scheme and delineation are rendered with equal
craftsmanship. Spontaneity of movement is evident in all these. The drawings
have taken on the texture of a carpet, brilliantly woven, immediately captivating
the eyes and filling the senses. The ceilings are filled with geometric designs,
flower decorations, animals and birds, and scenes in a lighter vein.
In his book Ajanta Paintings, A Laymans Guide, Swaminathan says one of the
themes recurring on the ceiling is the huge concentric circles enclosed in a
square, with a number of flowery bands within it, as are usually to be found in
the centre of the ceiling, main hall, antechamber and inner shrines. Another
equally cherished theme consists of a number of rectangular panels filled with
decorative motifs framed by smaller squares or rectangles with representations
of fruit and floral forms. The overall effect is that of an enormous printed textile
spread over the sanctuary.
The walls and ceilings of Caves 1, 2 and 17, all viharas (monasteries), are full
of paintings. Of these, Cave 17 is the most magnificent monastery at Ajanta,

with a parade of paintings of Jataka tales on its walls. The cave consists of a
veranda, halls, sanctum sanctorum with an antechamber, and chapels. The
sanctum sanctorum has a big sculpture of the Buddha, flanked by Bodhisattvas
and flying celestials. The window sills, door frames and the 20 octagonal pillars
supporting the roof of the hall in Cave 17 abound with paintings. It is popularly
known as the zodiacal cave because of a gigantic wheel painted on the walls of
the veranda.
Above the main door, which leads to the hall, are paintings of the seven
Manushi Buddhas who have incarnated on the earth, and the eighth, Maitreya
Buddha, who will appear in future. Below them in a panel are eight happy
couples in amorous poses.
Tejas Garge, Assistant Archaeologist, ASI, Aurangabad Circle, differentiates
between the Buddhas who remain in heaven and do not take part in worldly
affairs and the Manushi Buddhas. The seventh Manushi Buddha is Sakhya Muni
(the sage from the Sakhya clan), that is, Gautama Buddha. Each Manushi
Buddha in the panel has a different complexion, Garge points out.
On why amorous couples were painted in Buddhist caves, Garge explains:
Unless there is a union of man and woman, there cannot be continuity of life.
That is the reason mithunas are considered auspicious.
Intriguingly, as Swaminathan notes, most of the main female characters in the
paintings at Ajanta have been painted nude or semi-nude, while the maids in the
same scenes are fully clothed. For instance, the Dying Princess, Nandas wife, is
painted nude in the mural depicting Nandas conversion in Cave 16.
Further, we may have no explanation for the fact that most of the heroines of
Ajanta are dark complexioned. The Black Apsaras wearing a beautiful necklace
in Cave 17 and the Padmapanis Consort [Cave 1] are two such examples,
Swaminathan says.
How the caves were cut
How were the caves excavated from hard rock nearly 2,200 years to 1,500 years
ago? From the 2nd century BCE to the 7th century C.E., the sound of chisel
being hammered into the Sahyadri hill ranges at Ajanta must have echoed every
day. The sculptors took so many centuries to carve out the Ajanta caves, build
them into chaityas and viharas, and fill them with outstanding paintings and
sculptures, says Subramanyam.

The enormity of the artistic work in the caves raises a lot of questions. How did
the sculptors draw up the caves plan in order to decide where the pillars, the
sanctum sanctorum, the antechamber, the stupas, and the cells for monks should
be? How did the blacksmiths churn out thousands of hammers, chisels and other
tools needed to carve out the deep caves? Did the artists use oil lamps in the
darkness while painting? How did they prepare the rock surface before
painting? From where did they get the pigments for their masterpieces? The
answers are not easy to find.
In terms of sheer numbers, the rock-cut monuments of western India surpass
the rest of India together, says Subramanyam. Aurangabad district of
Maharashtra houses the Ajanta, Ellora, Aurangabad and Pitalkhora caves. Ellora
has 34 caves, Aurangabad 12 and Pitalkhora 14. While the caves at Ajanta,
Aurangabad and Pitalkhora deal with Buddhist themes, those at Ellora have
sculptures that belong to Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism. There are also
centres such as Kanheri and Junnar, which have 100 caves each. They too are
Buddhist caves.
These man-made caves were strategically located on trade routes. It is no
surprise that trade guilds, merchants and local chieftains financed their
excavation. The caves provided shelter to wandering monks during the rainy
season and promoted the cause of their faith. They served as education centres
too.
The Sahyadri hill ranges are made of trap rock, or basalt rock, which lends itself
to carving. Vertical rock surface was preferred for chiselling out the cave
temples. It was a totally new idiom for artists and it seems that they made
remarkable progress in a short period of time, Subramanyam says. The viewing
point near the Ajanta caves offers the visitor a good idea of how the sculptors
first cut the horseshoe-shaped gorge vertically from the top in order to study
how the basalt rock formation ran from top to bottom. If there was any
disturbance or any thick soil layer running through, they avoided that area. Only
when there was uniform rock formation from top to bottom, did they start
cutting the caves there. That is why all the caves are not situated in the same
alignment or at the same elevation, Subramanyam says.
The sculptors did encounter loose soil in the rock formation while excavating
Cave 1 of the Aurangabad caves, and they abandoned it. The original plan was
to scoop out a vihara from Cave 1. After they had cut the front porch, they
encountered loose soil when they ran inside. However, in Ajanta, the rock
formation was so good and uniform from top to bottom, letting the sculptors cut

the caves the way they wanted. Despite the care they took, they encountered
lava flow in the ceiling of Cave 4 at Ajanta.
Interestingly, the influence of wooden architecture is clearly visible in the early
rock-cut caves at Ajanta. For instance, Cave 10, which is a chaitya and belongs
to the 2nd century BCE when Hinayana Buddhism flourished (during the time
of the Satavahanas), has evidence of wooden rafters used for supporting the
roof. The wooden rafters perished over time, but their impressions still remain
on the ceiling. In Cave 10 at Ellora, called the Viswakarma cave, the sculptors
improvised and used stone ribs to support the roof. These stone ribs resemble
wooden rafters. This cave belongs to a later period, that is, the 5th/6th century
C.E. when Mahayana Buddhism was popular (during the Vakatakas rule). So
you can see the advancement of Ellora, which belongs to a later period, says
Subramanyam. They imitated wood in stone.
Conservation
To conserve Ajantas treasures, the ASI has to battle nature. During the rainy
season, from July to October, water seeps into the caves from the hilltop.
Besides, the basalt rock, from which the caves were chiselled out, has voids,
cavities and veins, which allow water into the caves.
A big problem we face is seepage of water from the rock mass above the caves.
There is no technology to find out the exact source of the water seepage, says
Danve D.S., Ajanta Caves In-Charge, ASI, Aurangabad Circle. So we have
built four contour drains on the rock mass to collect the rainwater and we drain
out the water from the caves, he says. They are called contour drains because
they follow the undulation of the rock mass. Danve was a member of the ASIs
team that helped conserve the Ta Prohm temple in Cambodia.
According to Subramanyam, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) did
geotechnical studies of the rock mass at Ajanta and suggested that the ASI build
these contour drains.