AJANTA & ELLORA ( WORLD FAMOUS HERITAGE)

  AJANTA &ELLORA ( WORLD FAMOUS HERITAGE)

                                                                 AJANTA

 






Ajanta caves, excavated between the 2nd century B.C and the 6th century A.D are renowned for Buddhist paintings. Ajanta represents the most perfect example of Indian wall paintings. At the end of the seventh century, Buddhism began to decline in the land of its origin and its shrines fell in to desolation and ruin. For a thousand years, Ajanta lay buried in the jungle clad slopes of the western mountain range until in 1819 it was discovered accidentally.
   The isolated scrap of horse shoe shaped rock rising over a ravine to a steep height of 76.20 meter (250 fir) made an ideal site for the monastic sanctuary. Most of the caves were an earliest date, the oldest belonging to pre- christian times. The addition of third art form, painting, which,more than all else, has given Ajanta its world fame.
   Having seen these cave temples the visitor will perhaps wonder. There the thirty caves, some of them unfinished and negligible. Sixteen contain Mural paintings, but the best work is to be found in caves 1,2,16,17 and 19. The best sculptures are in caves 1,4,17,19,24 and 26. The numbering of the caves has been done in consecutive order and has no relation to their chronological sequence. It starts at the western extremity of the rock, near the entrance.
   Five of the caves 9,10,19,26 and 29 are Chaitya halls. The others are Vihars. The technique employed by the painters in the ancient India has been described in contemporary works on Aesthetics, First, a rough plaster of clay, cow-dung and rice-husks were laid upon the selected rock surface and thoroughly pressed in.  It made a layer about one and half centimeter in thickness. One this a coat of fine lime was spread in order to attain a smooth surface. The outline were drawn with brush and then colour was applied. The pigments used were of the simplest kind of materials such as yellow earth, red ocher, green vock crushed in to burnt dust brick, lamblack and copper oxide. A second was then applied. Through this the outlines were dimly visible other brushes were used to fill in colour until the picture, in the language of ancient Aesthetics' bloomed' Finally,plastic relief was attained by shading with darker lines and toning down the highlights

 The paintings on the ceiling unlike those on the walls, are mainly decorative patters. They include geometric designs, floral and ornamental motifs, flying figures of celestial beings, animals,birds,plants, the grouping in panels or compartments, with adequate variation in colour schemes.

          Prof. John Kurakar & family visited Ajanta & Ellora caves on14th,15th May,2011.

                                                                        Prof. John Kurakar