DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0306
284 EARLY BUDDHIST CAVE-TEMPLES.
The remaining 23 belong as distinctly to the second division, and
possess all the imagery and exuberance of the latter school.
Paintings.
Another characteristic of these caves is that they still possess
their paintings in a state of tolerable completeness. From the
fragments that remain there is very little doubt that all the Buddhist
caves were originally adorned with paintings, but in nine cases out of
ten these have perished, either from the effects of the atmosphere,
which in that climate is most destructive, or from wanton damage
done by ignorant men. Forty years ago those at Ajanta were very
tolerably complete, and their colours exhibited a freshness which was
wonderful, considering their exposure to the vicissitudes of an
Indian climate for from 15 to 18 centuries. Since that time, how-
ever, bees, bats, and barbarians have done a great deal to obliterate
what was then so nearly perfect. Enough, however, still remains or
has been copied, and so saved, to show what was originally intended,
and how it was carried into effect. As no such series of pictures
exists now in any other series of caves, its being found here adds
immensely to the interest of this group. Besides this it affords an
opportunity, not only of judging of the degree of excellence to
which the Indians reached in this branch of the fine arts, but presents
a more vivid picture of the feelings and aspirations of the Buddhists
during their period of greatest extension in India than we can
obtain from any other source.
In Western India the older caves seem as a rule to have been
decorated with painting,* while sculpture was as generally employed
in the Bast. To receive these paintings the walls were left somewhat
rough on the surface, and were then covered with a thin coating o
plaster composed of fine dust, in some instances at least, of pounde
brick, mixed with fibres and the husks of rice. This was smoothed ana
covered with a coating of some ground colour, on which the design8
were drawn and then painted. The pillars being smoothed with
chisel seem to have received only a heavy ground coating to prep*
them to receive the scenes or figures to be drawn on them.
In about half the Ajanta caves there are no remains of painting.
and in those that are unfinished there perhaps never wTas any»
1 A somewhat detailed account of these paintings will be found in my J*0
Bauddha Rock- Temples of Ajanta, their Paintings and Sculptures, #C; Prm
the Government of Bombay, 1879 (112 pp. 4to., with 31 plates).
The remaining 23 belong as distinctly to the second division, and
possess all the imagery and exuberance of the latter school.
Paintings.
Another characteristic of these caves is that they still possess
their paintings in a state of tolerable completeness. From the
fragments that remain there is very little doubt that all the Buddhist
caves were originally adorned with paintings, but in nine cases out of
ten these have perished, either from the effects of the atmosphere,
which in that climate is most destructive, or from wanton damage
done by ignorant men. Forty years ago those at Ajanta were very
tolerably complete, and their colours exhibited a freshness which was
wonderful, considering their exposure to the vicissitudes of an
Indian climate for from 15 to 18 centuries. Since that time, how-
ever, bees, bats, and barbarians have done a great deal to obliterate
what was then so nearly perfect. Enough, however, still remains or
has been copied, and so saved, to show what was originally intended,
and how it was carried into effect. As no such series of pictures
exists now in any other series of caves, its being found here adds
immensely to the interest of this group. Besides this it affords an
opportunity, not only of judging of the degree of excellence to
which the Indians reached in this branch of the fine arts, but presents
a more vivid picture of the feelings and aspirations of the Buddhists
during their period of greatest extension in India than we can
obtain from any other source.
In Western India the older caves seem as a rule to have been
decorated with painting,* while sculpture was as generally employed
in the Bast. To receive these paintings the walls were left somewhat
rough on the surface, and were then covered with a thin coating o
plaster composed of fine dust, in some instances at least, of pounde
brick, mixed with fibres and the husks of rice. This was smoothed ana
covered with a coating of some ground colour, on which the design8
were drawn and then painted. The pillars being smoothed with
chisel seem to have received only a heavy ground coating to prep*
them to receive the scenes or figures to be drawn on them.
In about half the Ajanta caves there are no remains of painting.
and in those that are unfinished there perhaps never wTas any»
1 A somewhat detailed account of these paintings will be found in my J*0
Bauddha Rock- Temples of Ajanta, their Paintings and Sculptures, #C; Prm
the Government of Bombay, 1879 (112 pp. 4to., with 31 plates).