Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Ajanta Caves
07 February 2016 22:10
Describe the nature and form of wall paintings of Ajanta caves. (200
Words)
The wall paintings of Ajanta caves belong to period from 2nd century BCE to 7th
century CE.
NATURE: they are mainly religious in their content depicting Buddhist
scriptures
(especially jatakas) except few places where Hindu religious gods are
represented.
FORM: As they are drawn over many centuries and by artisans belonging to
various guilds they show great stylistic variation along with maintaining certain
common
features.
The common features are...
Centrality
perspective drawing
common physical features such as half closed eyes
black outline with various body colours
Early paintings are naturalistic without over stylisation whereas later ones are
more sophisticated and fluid. Their evolution was parallel and similar to the
evolution of Buddhist sculpture...ex: sanchi and vengi sculpture
The greatness of these paintings lies in their success in bringing out the
philosophy of Buddhism in paintings ex: Padmapani painting showing bitterness
of renunciation of life and hope for future happiness.
They were the inspiration for paintings in southern region. They also attained the
status of World heritage site status and continue to inspire present generations.
https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?cid=4cdcd8b94bde3e47&id=documents&resid=4CDCD8B94BDE3E47%21108&app=OneNote&authkey=!AJZWcZuj4... 1/1