South Indian Inscriptions

ARCHITECTURE SCULPTURE AND PAINTING

show some deviation from it. Further, on the right wall of the front corridor is painted the story of the Śibi Jātaka¹ and on the front wall of the same corridor to the left of the main entrance are painted those of the following Jātakas, viz., the Ruru Jātaka , the Ṛiksha Jātaka and the Nyagrōdhamṛiga Jātaka.²

... Besides, the ceilings of the Hall and the right and left corridors are decorated with painted designs of various kinds. The ceiling of the Hall has, inside a large square seven concentric circular bands with a circular pattern in the centre. The bands have various decorative designs such as those of jewellery, creepers with leaves and flowers, pearl strings, etc. The space at the corners of the square is filled with flying figures with offerings of flowers. In the decorative designs round the large circle and elsewhere on the ceiling of the Hall the heads of animals such as lions, elephants, horses, buffaloes, deer, etc. as well as some fabulous creatures are ingeniously interwoven in the scrolls of creepers³. As Mr. Yazdani has observed, ‘the colour-schemes of these subjects also show a highly developed art, since the different colours are most harmoniously blended and are most pleasant to the eye’⁴. In view of the magnificent architecture, sculpture and painting in this cave there is hardly any exaggeration in the description in its inscription that ‘the Vihāra cave is such as cannot be even imagined by little-souled persons⁵’. It is undoubtedly ‘the finest monument of its kind in India, and perhaps in the whole world⁶’.

... Like Cave XVII, Cave XIX at Ajaṇṭā was excavated by the ruler of Ṛishīka who was a feudatory of the Vākāṭaka Emperor Harisheṇa. It is one of the four Chaitya caves at Ajaṇṭā and is referred to as Gandhakuṭī in the inscription in Cave XVII⁷. It is regarded as ‘one of the most perfect specimens of the Buddhist art in India’. In front of it was an enclosed court, 33 ft. wide by 30 ft. deep, but the left side of it has now almost entirely gone. It has an elegant porch in front supported on two pillars which are decorated with horizontal bands of the lotus motif, and have finials of the āmalaka type⁸. The lintel over them is decorated with two horizontal bands of chaitya windows, with another of kītimukhas between them. The whole facade of the cave is covered from top to bottom with figures of the Buddhas in various attitudes, standing or seated, single or in pairs, as also with floral designs and chaitya windows with pairs of lovers (mithunas) dallying with each other In the centre there is a large horse-shoe arch, with horizontal ribs carved in stone, which lights the interior of the Gandhakuṭī. On each side there is a yaksha-Pañchika on the left and Pūrṇabhadra on the right. They are dressed in transparent garments and have beautiful
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¹ Ajanta, Part IV, plates LXVC-LXVII.
² Ibid., Part IV, plates LXVIII-LXXX.
³ Ibid., Part IV, plates LXXXI-LXXXIV.
⁴ Ibid., Part IV, p. 107.
⁵ No. 27, v. 25.
⁶ Ajanta, Part IV, p. 11.
⁷ This cave lies to the west of Cave XVII and thus answers to the description of the Gandhakuṭī mentioned in the inscription. Mr. Yazdani doubts this identification and suggests that the Gandhakuṭī may have been ‘ an insignificant chapel’ which has now disappeared owing to the disintegration of the rock above Cave XVIII. This is, however, in direct opposition to the description in the inscription that the Gandhakuṭi was udāra or magnificent. We have no reason to suppose that there was exaggeration in this. As for the argument that this cave appears to be later than Cave I on the evidence of the decorative features of the triforium, we may cite the opinion of Burgess- ‘From its position and its style of architecture, there can be little doubt that it is of about the same age as the two Vihāras XVI and XVII which are next to it’. C.T.I., p. 317.
⁸ See Plate N.