Page 7 - Jan-Mar 2016

VOl. 13 No. 1

AMAZING AJANTA TEMPERA PAINTING

The tradition of cave paintings in a more evolved form continued Tempera painting is the most popular
during the later ancient period. This was done in tempera style. technique of painting a mural in caves. here
the unpolished walls are coated with two
“There was a mountain range, ridges one above another in succession,
tiers of peaks and sheer summits. here was a monastery… its lofty layers of mud, plaster and then overlaid by
lime wash. Pigments are then applied with
halls and deep chambers were quarried in the cliff”.
a binding medium (gum) on this prepared
This is how hiuen Tsang, the famous Chinese traveller, described ground. The murals done in tempera style
the ajanta caves on his visit to india. he also noted that Dignaga, in the caves of ajanta, ellora, bagh and
a celebrated buddhist philosopher and writer lived at ajanta in the sittanavasal have stood the test of time, are
5 century aD. an example of this artwork.
th
Arun Choudhary, XIA, N.P. Co-ed Sr. Sr. Sec. School, Delhi

TIMELESS TALES
The caves got its name The ajanta paintings depict the incarnations
from a nearby village of lord buddha. One of the interesting
Ajanta located about 12 paintings depicts the mythical story of King
km from the caves.
sibi. it is about a pigeon which flees from a
hawk to King sibi. The king readily provides
protection to the pigeon and offers himself to
These caves were carved the hawk. Cave 16 shows the famous Dying
out of a horseshoe-shaped Princess, capturing the pathos of sundari,
cliff along the Waghora the deserted wife of buddha’s cousin Nanda.
River. Each cave was Cave 17 is about buddha seeking alms from
connected to the river by
a flight of steps. his wife and child.

In 1983, Ajanta
These caves were RECREATE THE MAGIC…
discovered by an Army Caves got the
Officer of the British prestigious tag of a Ajanta paintings are colourful and beautiful.
Army in 1819 during World Heritage site Now you can recreate the magic. Sketch an
one of his hunting from UNESCO.
expeditions. image of the Buddha (in the box below) using
the same style as the Padmapani painting.

There are 30 caves in Ajanta
of which five are chaitya-grihas
(sanctuaries/stupa monument halls)
and the rest are vihara (monasteries
with residence halls).

All paintings show influence
of Buddhism and are
masterpieces of Buddhist The artistic works of
art depicting Bodhisattvas, these caves belong to
and incidents from the life different periods, i.e.
of Buddha and scenes from from 2nd century BC to
Jatakas.
6th century AD.

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