BEAUTY OF INDIA’S AJANTA CAVES

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32253, 23 March 1970, Page 13

BEAUTY OF INDIA’S AJANTA CAVES

(By

GUY MORRISON)

Outside cave 10 at Ajanta an elderly Ameri-' can rests on a rock ledge carved by Buddhist artisans centuries ago. He is winded by the heat and the climb from the foot of the gorge. His bluerinsed wife corks her vacuum flask and waits impatiently for the, ordeal of the tour to proceed. Twenty caves to go and so much to see. Don’t skip Cave 10. This is; where it all began. Here, in the second century 8.C., Buddhist monks and lay craftsmen began their mighty work of excavation, sculpture and painting which stands today as one of the world's greatest artistic achievements. Here too. at Cave 10, their work was rediscovered after it had lain buried for 1000 years. My guide Saleem tells the story. He is an arts undergraduate employed by the Government of India Tourist Office, and at any other time would prefer to discuss Jane Austen, but today he has a job to do . . . In 1819 some British officers were hunting in the hills 200 miles inland from Bombay. One wounded a tiger, which fled up the cliff bank of a mountain torrent. The officer followed, and stumbled upon the entrance

of a temple almost buried |s 'under earth which had fallenil from the mountain above. Is . ■ In Cave 10 you can still < read the officer’s inscription, i on the surface of a < . mural painting. It /ohn Smith L Cavalry L April, 1919 t J Instant vandalism. c I Cave after cave was dis-1J ■ interred until an entire ’ , complex of cathedrals and ‘ | monasteries was revealed, . ; high in an Eastward-facing i ; , elbow of the gorge. Here was:‘ ' preserved the full splendour I > -of Buddhist art, spanning' eight centuries from its birth ' Ito its decline. Here Buddhist missionaries a .'had made a holy place that t ’ would last for ever, a place < '.to study the Buddha's j] ’ teachings and to instruct -1 \ novitiates, a base for prosely-;] ' tising journeys and a refuge i ; from the monsoons. ! < ! Each cave is a monolith, a j ’ single sculpture-in-space. The t " monks and their craftsmen < began at the cliff face and < r worked from the top top r obviate the need for scaffold-11 3 ing. Using only chisel, ham-:* mer and crowbar, they cut » and levelled, leaving what 1 - stone was needed to stimu- I e late the built-up structures of 1 t their day. When they reached ’ » a line where a row of ’ e columns must support the ' a cave roof, they left stone J standing for the columns and \ n carved forward between : e them. j 11 j a Spacious Hall T, , ■ | In this way they excavated j a lofty spacious hall divided e into aisles by parallel rows of , - columns. Meanwhile sculptors , were at work embellishing, porch, columns and walls. No stone was to be added to , what had been left standing.l, Thus, when the job was finished, each filigree detail , on a column or its capital, each garland trailing from an urn of plenty, was one with the figure of Buddha seated in the shrine. Walls and ceilings to be painted were first covered with a plaster made of clay and cow-dung mixed with chopped rice-husks in a layer half an inch thick. A smooth coat of lime was apf plied to this plaster, and then I the painter began work—an outline in red, then an undercoating, then colour. He gathered his pigments from ■ the local countryside: red 11 ochre, burnt brick, copper I oxide, lamp black, crushed I green rocks. After applying I colour, the painter accentuI'ated outlines, moulded I shadows, emphasised highI lights, then polished the surI face and the work was comIjPlete. Sealed Caves I The paintings survive only in those caves fortuitously sealed by earth falls and thus protected from the weather. Those in the cave now labelled “10” are compara- ■ tively austere. They were (executed by Buddhists of the Hinayana (lesser vehicle)

school. These Buddhists beliewed Nirvana could be attained only by ascetics who completely subjugated the ego. Less austere paintings are waiting in the later: caves. Saleem and I walk on through the heat, exploring! the development of Buddhist; art, surveying not only inci-! dents in the Buddha's life! (his birth, his enlighten-! ment, his miracles, his temptations, his death), but also the secular life of India long ago (princes receiving visitors, ladies at toilet, herdsmen rounding up cattle, retinues of soldiers, dancers and musicians). Up ancient stone staircases and down again. We overtake' the American couple, and are overtaken in turn by two Air: India stewardesses, whom Ij had met on the plane to' Bombay (one wears a dia-| mond on a dusty toe). They: are on holiday and seeing! Ajanta for the first time. In! this great heat both look as cool in their off-duty saris*] as they could be expected to; look in a patch of severe air turbulence over the Indian] (Ocean. I I feel like asking for a! double whisky, and am grunted, unasked, a smile of recognition. Even so, the women on the walls claim first attention, for now we stand in Cave 17, executed in the late sixth century A.D., a masterpiece of the Mahayana (greater vehicle) school of Buddhism, whose patrons offered salvation to the masses and whose artists achieved a sensuous freedom not realised in Europe much before Botticelli. Ogresses in the guise of beautiful women tempt al shipwrecked prince and his! company, another prince offers a cup of wine to his! wife, angelic damsels flyl overhead while, below, the Buddha subdues a charging elephant A European critic once said the woman-worship of Ajanta had no parallel in art. Debatable? What does seem unique in ancient Indian art is the harmony of spirit and flesh . . . beatific smile and voluptuous hips . . . serene withdrawal and delight in the variety of nature. —Associated Newspapers’ Feature Service.