DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0304
282 EARLY BUDDHIST CAVE-TEMPLES.
In consequence of the interest this created in the subject, and
representations addressed by him to the Court of Directors of the
East India Company, Captain Gill, of the Madras Army, was appoin-
ted, in 1845, to copy the paintings in these caves, and for several
years afterwards sent home a series of extremely beautiful facsimile
copies of the principal subjects on the walls and roofs of these caves.
These paintings, all except in three or four, were unfortunately lent
the Crystal Palace Company for exhibition at Sydenham, and were
destroyed in the disastrous fire in 1860. Fortunately before that,
tracings of several of them were made by Mr. Geo. Scharf, and repro-
duced as woodcuts in Mrs. Speir's " Life in India," and are reproduced
further on, woodcuts 54 to 61.
Ajanta was not visited by Hiwen Thsang, the indefatigable
Chinese pilgrim of the seventh century, but after visiting Pulikesi,
the king of Maharashtra, at his capital, probably Badami, he says,
—" Sur les frontieres orientales du royaume, il y a une grande mon-
taigne qui offre des sommets entasses les uns sur les autres, des
chaines de rochers, des pics a double etage, et des cretes escarpees.
Anciennement il y avait un couvent qui avait ete construit dans une
sombre vallee. Ses batiments eleves et ses salles profondes occupaient
les larges ouvertures des rochers et s'appuyaient sur les pics: ses
pavilions et ses tours a double etage etaient adosses aux cavernes et
regardaient la vallee.
" Ce couvent avait ete bati par le Lo-Jian 'O-tche-lo (lArhat At-
chara).
" Le ViMra du couvent a environ cent pieds de hauteur. Au
centre, s'eleve une statue en pierre du Bouddha, qui a environ soix-
ante et dix pieds. Bile est surmontee de sept calottes en pierre, qui
sont suspendues dans Fair, sans aucune attache apparente. Elles
sont separees chacune par un intervalle d'environ trois pieds. D a"
ment as Notes on the Bauddha Rock Temples of Ajanta, their Paintings and Sculptural
Sfc. During the dry seasons of 1872-73, 1874-75,1875-76, and 1877-78, Mr. Griffiths,
of the Bombay School of Art, was engaged with a staff" of students recopyiDg *«e
frescoes, and finished most of what is left of them in Caves I. and IL, with some par's
of those in Caves VI., IX., and XVI., (Ind. Ant., vol. i. p. 354; vol. ii. p. 152; vol. Hi-
pp. 25 ff.; vol. iv. p. 253). Two papers have appeared on some of these paintings,
one by Rajendralala Mitra, LL.D., " On Kepresentations of Foreigners in the AjaW*
frescoes" (Jour. A. S. Ben., vol. xlvii. pp. 62 ff.) ; and the other by J. Fergusson, P.CJ*>
F.RS., "On the identification of the portrait of Chosroes II. among the paintings in
tne caves of Ajanta " (J. R. As. Soc. N.S., vol. xi. pp. 155 ff.)
In consequence of the interest this created in the subject, and
representations addressed by him to the Court of Directors of the
East India Company, Captain Gill, of the Madras Army, was appoin-
ted, in 1845, to copy the paintings in these caves, and for several
years afterwards sent home a series of extremely beautiful facsimile
copies of the principal subjects on the walls and roofs of these caves.
These paintings, all except in three or four, were unfortunately lent
the Crystal Palace Company for exhibition at Sydenham, and were
destroyed in the disastrous fire in 1860. Fortunately before that,
tracings of several of them were made by Mr. Geo. Scharf, and repro-
duced as woodcuts in Mrs. Speir's " Life in India," and are reproduced
further on, woodcuts 54 to 61.
Ajanta was not visited by Hiwen Thsang, the indefatigable
Chinese pilgrim of the seventh century, but after visiting Pulikesi,
the king of Maharashtra, at his capital, probably Badami, he says,
—" Sur les frontieres orientales du royaume, il y a une grande mon-
taigne qui offre des sommets entasses les uns sur les autres, des
chaines de rochers, des pics a double etage, et des cretes escarpees.
Anciennement il y avait un couvent qui avait ete construit dans une
sombre vallee. Ses batiments eleves et ses salles profondes occupaient
les larges ouvertures des rochers et s'appuyaient sur les pics: ses
pavilions et ses tours a double etage etaient adosses aux cavernes et
regardaient la vallee.
" Ce couvent avait ete bati par le Lo-Jian 'O-tche-lo (lArhat At-
chara).
" Le ViMra du couvent a environ cent pieds de hauteur. Au
centre, s'eleve une statue en pierre du Bouddha, qui a environ soix-
ante et dix pieds. Bile est surmontee de sept calottes en pierre, qui
sont suspendues dans Fair, sans aucune attache apparente. Elles
sont separees chacune par un intervalle d'environ trois pieds. D a"
ment as Notes on the Bauddha Rock Temples of Ajanta, their Paintings and Sculptural
Sfc. During the dry seasons of 1872-73, 1874-75,1875-76, and 1877-78, Mr. Griffiths,
of the Bombay School of Art, was engaged with a staff" of students recopyiDg *«e
frescoes, and finished most of what is left of them in Caves I. and IL, with some par's
of those in Caves VI., IX., and XVI., (Ind. Ant., vol. i. p. 354; vol. ii. p. 152; vol. Hi-
pp. 25 ff.; vol. iv. p. 253). Two papers have appeared on some of these paintings,
one by Rajendralala Mitra, LL.D., " On Kepresentations of Foreigners in the AjaW*
frescoes" (Jour. A. S. Ben., vol. xlvii. pp. 62 ff.) ; and the other by J. Fergusson, P.CJ*>
F.RS., "On the identification of the portrait of Chosroes II. among the paintings in
tne caves of Ajanta " (J. R. As. Soc. N.S., vol. xi. pp. 155 ff.)