Asian Art and Architecture: Art & Design 382/582

Lecture 11 Gupta Period India Lee 110-112, 121-129 A Last time we were discussing the art of the Kushan era, the first time, along with that of the Later Andhra era in the south, that we get images of the Buddha. B This discussion is focused on the "golden age" of Indian culture. One vaunted as the eternal ideal by Brahmanical tradition. And one most loved by the Western collectors and historians. C A good number of studies of Buddhisms spread through Asia read two great waves of Indian Buddhist influence. The first Kushan impulse in the north and the comparable Andhra style emanating from the south in the first centuries of the common era, and then a second wave from the Gupta art of north India in the fifth century or so. Gupta Era 320 - c 500 Vakataka Ajanta later 5th century Design List [147] Yashadinnas Buddha Mathura Gupta c 425 148 First Sermon Buddha Sarnath Gupta c 475 146 Temple 17 Sanchi Gupta c 425 Platos C Vishnu Temple Cezerla 3rd c 149 Eight Great Events Sarnath Gupta c 500 150 Sangarama Ajanta Vakataka 1st BCE & 5th CE 151 & Ps C Chaitya griha, Cave 19 Ajanta Vakataka c 475 155 Nagaraja, Cave 19 Ajanta Vakataka c 475 152 & Ps C Chaitya griha, Cave 26 Ajanta Vakataka c 500 153 Vihara, Cave 17 Ajanta Vakataka c 475

154 Apsaras and Gandharva (16) Ajanta Vakataka c 475 Platos C Vihara, Cave 1 Ajanta Vakataka c 500 158 Black Princess, Cave 1 Ajanta Vakataka c 500 CP 8 Padmapani, Cave 1 Ajanta Vakataka c 500 CP 7 Vishvantara Jataka, Cave 17 Ajanta Vakataka c 475 157 Hariti and worshippers, Cave 2 Ajanta Vakataka c 475 The Gupta Period 320 - c 500 The Gupta empire was not a conqueror of the Kushan or Andhra empires, but their successor in north India. It rose and expanded from the Ganga plain to dominate a state eventually extending from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea. Though its power never extended into southern India or even Rajasthan in the west, much less the Indus region. Still, controlling the Brahmanical heartland, of the Ganga-Jamuna doab and the full length of the Ganga, it was a great dynasty recognized in the Puranic lists, and has been taken by modern art historians as the high point and classical model for later Indian sculpture. Whats much more important, the period and court of the Gupta kings of it has been taken by the Brahmanical tradition as its ideal, or golden age. It is the period esteemed to have the greatest, and indeed the model Sanskrit literature and culture. Though the visual arts are not mentioned in this reference, they have been accorded the same focal admiration by art historians. That is largely Western art historians. Whether or not Indian art historians would have chosen to do so on their own will remain a question for some time. But since most have been trained in English and in the British tradition of art history, most north Indian specialists seem to have agreed. Though, south Indias historians have turned to their own, southern, somewhat later, Pallavas and Cholas for their ideal. Islamic specialists have crowded around the Mughals. Our author has followed the Western standard. However one responds to the Brahmanical ideal, the period seems one of model royal support for traditional Brahmanical religion and Buddhism as well. It is commonly taken as the high point of Buddhist cultural achievement in India. The Chinese pilgrims who have left us our most detailed accounts of Indias Buddhist institutions agree. It was a time of relatively peaceful and prosperous continuity in which all the arts seemed to have flourished. And in which the Buddhist sangha and monuments associated with them flourished as well. The Chinese Bhikshu Fa-Xian (Fa-hsien) traveled in South Asia from 405 to 411, during this era. Xuan-Zang (Hsuan-tsang) was throughout north and much of southern India [early 7th]; Ijing (I-tsing) traveled by sea throughout

Indonesia to Nalanda and back in the middle 7th. And this was a time when the powers of the south extended their sway overseas to Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Lee is typical of the Orientalist tradition in his estimate that, "These were...the last great days of Indian Buddhist art, except for the Pala and Sena schools of Bengal. As Hinduism displaced Buddhism in India the future of the art, like that of the faith , moved eastward." The fact is, great Buddhist art was created in the Gupta period, but a great deal was created later, both under the Palas and Sena, who ruled in eastern India from 730 to1197, and in a variety of other places. What Lee is referring to is the fact that Buddhism as a cultural force begins to wane in India with the Gupta period. Never the majority or dominant religious movement, still Buddhism grew prominently from the time of Shakyamuni to the Gupta period, when it began to contract, a circumstance not true in Fa-Xians time but noted by Xuan-Zang, in terms of abandoned monasteries and shifting bases of sectarian location. [147] Yashadinnas Buddha Mathura Gupta c 425 [63"] red sandstone Though the Bhikshu Yashadinnas Buddha is not the image illustrated in Lees 147, they are close enough to assure us that they come from the same workshop and master. And their form stands well as the Gupta ideal. A full standing Buddha from the early 5th century, it is lacking its right hand, which was undoubtedly raised in abhya mudra, as such is the consistancy of this iconic type. Its right hand comes up holding the hem of its robe. Unlike previous imagery from the Mathura region its robe covers both shoulders. In its form we see a continuation of the figurative tradition running from the Parkham Yaksha and Bhikshu Balas Bodhisattva. Each generation growing more suavely naturalistic and elegant. By this time we have a fairly elongated and slimmed-down figure. Its wide shoulders and sharply delineated details carry on forms seen in Kushan art, but it is now more smoothly organic in such elements as the general flow of body form, or in the tie cord for its inner garment showing subtly through the clinging drapery of the outer robe at the waist, or in the pressing back of the cloth against the legs, belly, and torso. Crisp geometry around the eyebrows or the three lines of beauty in the throat stand out as strong articulation. So to do the somewhat more subtle string folds that course across the robe. The head is covered with an encrustation of clockwise turning "snail curls" representing the hair that has shaved off growing slowly back and over the ushnisha, the cranial protuberance indicating the expanded consciousness in the location considered the highest in the bodys subtle energy physiology by the yogic tradition. The halo behind its head is a rich concentric sequence of organic lotus petals, water plant foliage and crisp garland and rosette motifs. Do the

downcast eyes come from the "Gandharan art" as Lee suggests, or from the mediators abstracted gaze visible in every monk? Lee favors derivations from other places than where he is, and particularly from Gandhara and by extension the West, rather than explanations based on local indigenous art or culture. "The source for the "string-type" drapery on this image, also found on Chines an;d Japanese images, is much debated. Does it come from the Gandhara school, or is it Kushan work from Mathura?" (111) There are no string-fold images in Gandharan art of the Kushan period! 148 First Sermon Buddha Sarnath Gupta c 475 63" Cream colored, Chunar sandstone Lee cites two great sources of Gupta sculptural tradition, Mathura and Sarnath. This, certainly the most famous Buddha image in the art world since its excavation at Sarnath in the first decade of this century, is the Sarnath type. Compared to the red sandstone of Mathura this is cream colored and a bit more fine grained. The most striking thing about the pair is their sharing of elegant proportions and refined details. They are of closely allied style. The biggest difference between the two, and the only visible one when the color undoubtedly covering both was in place, is found in the absence of stringfolds from the Sarnath figures. This is likely not only an attractive example of a highly admired style, but one of the most important individual images to have survived to this time. This was the altar image in the Gandhakuti, the perfumed hall, of the temple on the site of the Buddhas first preaching. It was have been seen with greater expectation by more pilgrims than nearly any other image of Buddhist India. Imagine what a pilgrim from Pataliputra or the Arabian Sea coast would have experienced when witnessing such an object after hundreds of miles of travel to the actual location of the first sermon. Imagine what a Chinese monk who had traveled years to reach this spot would have expected and experienced. And imagine how desirous such pious lay or monastic pilgrims might have been of taking away reproductions of this imagery to their own homes on their return. Here we see the meditational expression of the half closed eyes, the elongated empty earlobes, and ushnisha we are now used to. What is new is the somewhat pointed chin and the elegance of the oval face and the rich sensuously thick lips of the Gupta period. The posture is the interlocked legs of the Simhasana. The mudra is dharma chakra. We can see the edges of the robe crossing the legs and expanding out in an elegant fan of folds in front. The throne on which it sits is also a simhasana, with lions holding up the trademark Gupta halo of undulating water foliage. If we look to its edge, we will see vestiges of the scalloped lineindicating the effulgence of light seen earlier in the Mathura style of the Kushan era. This is the Indian tradition: little is discarded, while all is continually transformed. This element is visible in

the Yasadinna halo also. Here an added element is found in a pair of heavenly beings flying in to worship. Beneath the figure is a scene that indicates that this is not just any preaching Buddha, but specifically the Buddha preaching the first sermon at Sarnath. At the center we see the wheel of the law flanked by two deer, representing the deer park. The six deciples Lee points out are actually seven. Five represent the former wandering ascetic companions of Siddharthas, who became the first members of the Sangha. The two on the viewers left represent a woman, who is likely to be the donor of the piece and a child. Images of the Buddha werent just "made." They were created by artisans for patrons who thus earned merit toward a more prosperous life in this world and a more beneficial birth in the next. That is they are not the personal expression of the artists. Most of the artists were likely not even Buddhists. Certainly none were Bhikshus. They were commissioned by devotees, lay or monastic, for the merit their creation would produce and for their subsequent use as meditation and worship focuses. Lees suggestion that "Hindu" imagery of the time was more "frenzied" is a lingering bit of Orientalism; most specialists see no important stylistic difference between the Brahmanical and Buddhist art of the period. Though Jain art was often distinctly more geometric, rigid and abstract. Even this difference had limits and it is often impossible to tell the difference between a Buddha or Jina image if there is not enough surviving to offer specific iconographic guidance. Jina images are regularly portrayed in the same yogic postures and with the same ushnisha crowned head of snail curls as the Buddha. 146 Temple 17 Sanchi Gupta c 425 Temple 17 at Sanchi stands just beyond the southern torana of the Great Stupa, and shows us more or less what sort of housing the images we have just seen would have had. Its body is a stone cube, perched upon a small basement, and the drains of its roof slabs indicate it once carried a taller tower above. It is the standard Indian temple of the Gupta period; nearly identical Brahmanical versions are found nearby. Before the doorway of the sanctum we see a slight porch supported by two pairs of columns. Thus the icon was kept on an altar in a cubical room fronted by a column decorated entrance. Platos Cave Vishnu Temple Cezerla 3rd c There were indeed apsidal temples of the sort we have seen in rock-cut examples. The ruins of one of these is seen exactly south of the Great Stupa at Sanchi. This Brahmanical example, once thought to have been originally Buddhist, at Cezerla has survived. It is a brick structure with a corbel vaulted roof

Lees suggestion that the cubical-celled temple eventually replaced the apsidal form in India because it suited the worship of images better than the apsidal form which seemed more appropriate to stupa circumambulation is reasonable. Though a bit wide of the mark. Indeed the apsidal form did pass from use among the with the shift from stupa to image worship. But both Brahmanical and Buddhist temples regularly put images into apsidal halls, and circumambulation was as common with images as with stupas. What may be more important is that the spectacular interior provided by the apsidal hall was forgone for the more private and mysterious space of the smaller sanctum, as the emphasis of the temple shifted from spacious interiors to spectacularly towered exterior forms . 149 Eight Great Events Sarnath Gupta c 500 The Eight Great Events of the Buddhas life were a familiar subject, only slightly less popular than the Four Great Events they include. The style here is precisely that seen in the First Sermon Buddha, on a smaller scale. The four major events are set in the corners of the stele. The four lesser events are set within these. Each event took place in a different location, so that the enumeration of the sets indicated the Buddhas life extending in the four or eight conventional directions. 1 The Birth below, indicated by the pose of Mayadevi, one hand up grasping the tree, The baby Siddhartha, the Bodhisattva, stands to her side being washed by a pair of nagas. (Lumbini) 2 The Enlightenment is beside this. It is indicated by the yogic figure right hand reaching down in bumisparsha mudra. Maras host surrounds. (Bodhgaya) 3 The First Sermon is marked by the meditating Buddha over a pair of deer flanking a wheel and accompanying monks. (Sarnath) 4 The Parinirvana, is as usual shown by the Buddha on it right side, fully extended. Here a pair of distraught devotees are seen as well. (Kusinagra) 5 The Descent from the Triastrimsa Heaven, where the Buddha went to preach for the benefit of his mother soon after the enlightenment is shown by the presence of Indra holding an umbrella over the standing Buddhas head. That is Brahma to its other side. (Sankasya) 6 The Miracle of Sravasti is seen in the scene with multiple Buddhas. (Sravasti)

7 The Monkeys gift of a bowl of honey is seen in the meditating figure with the bowl. (Vaisali) 8 The Subjugation of Nalagiri, is shown with a kneeling elephant. (Rajagriha) One can only wonder what Lee is referring to when he discusses this images in terms of an "impoverishment of imagination and subject" in Mahayana art. Or that he has failed to identify the Descent (5) and misidentified the Monkeys Gift, since the set is a conventional one an quite common, that has little likelihood of variation. Which may be the explanation of what he is calling a lack of imagination. In this image, as the two Buddhas we have just seen, we may be looking at either Nikaya or Mahayana images. But since there is no particular reason to suppose it is the latter, we can suppose them most likely to be Nikaya. 150 Sangarama Ajanta Vakataka + 1st c BCE & 5th c CE The third great site of Gupta period art is the most spectacular of all Buddhist sites to survive from ancient India, and one of the most spectacular artistic sites anywhere in the world. Ajanta, on the trade routes linking northern India with the western coast an the south, is the location of 29 rock-cut excavations. At its center, which Xuan-Zang described from others stories a century after its completion, were a set of Nikaya vihara and a pair of chaitya halls from the first centuries BCE and CE. A second, apparently Mahayana phase added over twenty much larger excavations, on either side of these in the later part of the fifth century. And what they reveal is q different sort of Buddhism than seen earlier. The creation of the sites second phase is owed largely to the Vakataka dynasty, whose last sovereign was married to a Gupta princess and extended his Deccan rule north at the end of the Gupta period. 151/Platos Cave Chaitya griha, Cave 19 Ajanta Vakataka c 475 Facade There were two more chaitya halls added to the two earlier ones at Ajanta during the Mahayana phase. (A fifth was barely begun.) Cave 19, of about 475, has the best preserved facade. It shows the earlier chief characteristic, of the great chandrasala (moon) window, flanked by great wealth figures on the upper story. Above this are three ranks of Buddha images lined up in rows within architectural frames. These are the infinite Buddha Ksetras (Buddha Fields) of the cosmos: a separate Buddha in each Buddha world. When confronted with such a profusion of Buddhas, one is undoubtedly in the presence of a Mahayana monument.

Flanking the great arch, on the first story are great figures of Indian, though not specifically Buddhist wealth deities, Padma and Shanka Nidhi (Lotus and Conch Wealth). Like the Wealth Goddess Lakshmi, these are figures shared by the Buddhists with Brahmanical and Jains in poplar iconography. On the ground story, below, we see Buddhas in a variety of poses flanking the entrance porch. The effect is extremely lavish and lush. Though it is somewhat crowded by the addition of unplanned figures, filling up the spaces originally intended to remain empty to either side. When Vakataka royal patronage ran out artists apparently did small "add panels" for anyone willing to pay them. 155 Nagaraja, Cave 19 Ajanta Vakataka c 475 The Nagaraja to the side of the cave was apparently intended by the original program. The Nagaraja symbolizes the wealth of the earth, and in this case the richness of the rock from which this temple was excavated and embellished with such fine craft. Here we see the Snake-king seated on a rocky platform with his consort, Nagini, and one standing Nagini servant. Each of the females has a single cobra hood, the male figure has a hood of seven heads. Such figures are conceived of as more or less human figures with snake hoods growing out of their backs. Each of the figures wears a rich crown or coiffeur and a wealth of jewelry. The servant carries the usual chauri whisk, the queen a bunch of flowers. They are shown within an architectural niche: a pair of pillars supporting an eaves. Their style is the usual slightly inflated, but relatively smooth Gupta standard. In the roughness of the Deccan Trap rock formation we get little of the subtle modulation found in the north in finer grained stones. But we get the same sensually plump lips and cheeks and the amazingly rich wigs or coiffures that are found throughout the style. Lee points out that the platform on which they sit is depicted as composed of rocks. This is the standard Indian convention for depicting stones or a mountain. Platos Cave interior, Chaitya griha, Cave 19 Ajanta Vakataka c 475 On the inside of Cave 19 we find something striking and yet familiar. When we compare the stupa here to the ones in the earlier and later first century ones at the site, Caves 10 and 9, we see that what was an aniconic, geometric reliquary mound in the first Early Andhra period, have been replaced in the Gupta period by a stilted form toped by three tall chattra (umbrellas) and featuring upon its face a large fremed nich, within which we find a standing Buddha image. The change in the effect, from the geometric symbol to the one featuring a beautiful image of the Buddha is striking. And yet, it is new for us only in its scale. We have already seen this equivalence of the Buddha with the stupa in the stupa relief depictions at Amaravati in the Later Andhra period. And indeed we have the same question here as we did then. Is this imagery here depicting a Buddha standing before (or with) a

stupa, or is this a depicrtion of a Buddha within a stupa? Whichever the case, we can read it as an equivalence of the two. The same equivalence can be seen in a fragment of painting added to Cave 9s ambulatory in the Gupta period. To view the stupa is indeed to view the Buddha, whch, in the geometric, Nikaya form undoubtedly stands for the Buddha of the Paranirvana, the Buddha who has gone away. Where this stupa dominated by Buddhas figure is more likely a Mahayana image, of the cosmic Buddha who promises a Mahayana nirvana of eternal life. 152/Platos Cave Chaitya griha, Cave 26 Ajanta Vakataka c 500 Looking now at the inside of the, slightly later, Cave 26, we see a serious development in the conception of the stupa hall. The arched interior surrounded by a colonnade and an outer aisle are familiar, but the degree of rich ornamentation is both overwhelming and new, and the presence of the Buddha on the stupa seems altogether new. The halls architecture takes full advantage of its sculptural formation. Pillars are rounded out of 32 and 64 faceted forms. Like those seen at Sanchi and the other facades here, they carry elegantly fluted pot capitals. The brackets above them and in the clerestory we get a repetition of Buddhas seated in architectural frame works. As on the facade of 19 we are in the presence of the cosmos of Buddha Ksetras. The ceiling is still a barrel vaulted hall, though unlike those we have seen earlier this one is done in the stone of the mountain, not added wood. Most stunning at any rate is the stupa. Here we have the burial-mound symbol of the Parinirvana turned representation of a palace, with the Buddha visible inside. In fact a careful look around the lower story of the stupa-palace here shows that it is lined with Buddhas. Though no one any longer follows the assumption of the previous generation of scholars, that the presence of Buddhas represented Mahayana Buddhism and its absence Nikaya Buddhism, we can see in the case of a single scene with multiple Buddhas, that we are in the presence of Mahayana. Seated here is a cosmic Buddha, who exists outside of the incarnation of Shakyamuni, that ended with the Parinirvana of total extinction. The stupa, representing the end of existence, has here been upstaged by a many-storied palace, representing the heaven of the cosmic Buddha at the center of a universe of alternative Buddha worlds. The two story architecture of the palace is topped with a dome that reminds us of the form of the old stupa, but its symbolism is transcended. Above, the tower of parasols that surmounted the harmika has been broken. Platos Cave Vihara, Cave 12, Ajanta c 100 BCE

There were four caves in first century, Shunga period, iniation of the site, the great Chaitya griha, Cave 10, and this vihara. Both of them were excavated in the period before the convention of maintaining an outer, facade wall. Here as we would expect, we find a simple square hall, lined with four cells on each of the three inner sides. At sholdler level runs a single, quite distinct line of vedika raililng and arches. 153 Vihara, Cave 17 Ajanta Vakataka c 475 The later, Mahayana viharas of Ajanta have changed even more than the Chaitya griha, from the Nikaya forms of the earlier periods. Of course one element of this change is the rich decorative development we have seen in the two chaityas. Gupta art is covered with a profuse layer of ornamentation. Pillars, as we see them here, are lined up in ranks. Their decoration combines the elementary geometric progressions from four to eight to sixteen and then thirty-two facets to round. Their relief decoreation imitates modeled-plaster, carved-wood, and and repusee metal work with swags of jewels and garlands added. 154 Apsaras and Gandharva, Cave 16 Ajanta Vakataka c 475 The rock-cut interiors imitate celestial papaces, of wooden, pillar and lintel architecture. And figures like the pair in Lees illustration 154 represent celestial demi-gods poplating the palaces. Here is a high relief Apsaras Gandharva (celestial dancer and musician, like a pair of angels) fly under tha corbel of a pillar in a porch, accompanying the monks who lived in the vihara, on their way toward the cells, or a lay visitor on their way to see a monk or the Buddha. [In later versions Vihara 11 with it stupa turned into a Buddha image will go here.] Platos Cave Vihara, Cave 1 Ajanta Vakataka c 500 The facades of the Mahayana viharas at Ajanta are colonnaded under overhanging eaves. They front wide porches, within which are the familiar forms of a rectalinear, usually square, atrium surrounded by a periphery of square monks cells. What is different here, from the earlier viharas is the elaborate differentiation and complex development of the surrounding cells. What is most important is the evolution of the Arhat- dormitory vihara into the Bodhisattva-sanctuary vihara. The simple surround of equivalent cells is by this time superseded by elaborate hierarchies of cells, some doubled, some preceded by pairs of embellishing columns. The operative concept here is hierarchy. There is now a distinctly focal, central rear cell in which a carved representation of the Buddha resides. In inscriptions this cell is normally referred to as the Perfumed chamber (Gandhakuti). And the Buddha within is

worshipped as a deity. This then is a vihara-temple. It is still a dormitory for monks, but rather than arhads these are Bodhisattva of the Mahayana path, and they share their domicile with the image of the Buddha they strive to approach. Comparing Sanchi 17 to the plan of Ajanta Cave I, we can see how the one has been grafted onto the other to add the Buddhas temple to the vihara. This sanctum cell has a closely equivalent layout: a cubical sanctum fronted by a porch faced with four pillars, spced in pairs, to either side of a wider central opening. Within the sanctum is a First Sermon Buddha. CP 8 Padmapani, Cave 1 Ajanta Vakataka c 500 The rear wall of Cave I spreads extends the painted and sculptural imagery of the Buddha in the sanctum to the painted Bodhisattvas of the walls that flank it. And of course the Bodhisattva Bhikshu who lives in the nearby cells of the same interior. To the Buddhas left has usually been called Vajrapani, though the possible presence of a Buddha in his crown might indicate Maitreya. He sways to his left in the triple bend stance common for guardians. He is depicted with dark skin, sensuous features, and the half-closed eyes of the trance state common to much Buddhist imagery. Gold ornaments and strings of pearls decorate his body. He stands in an ambiguous space crowded around by attendants. On the other side of the Buddha in a comparable setting and complementary pose stands the Bodhisattva Padmapani, identifiable by the lotus in its hand. As usual the pair are a study in contrasts. Padmapani, or Avalokitesvara, not only sways in the opposite direction, he is depicted in a lighter hue and a distinctly different crown. The Vajrapani stands for wisdom, the Padmapani stands for the Buddhas other chief quality, compassion. The best look I can give you of the entire piece extends from the wall of the monks cell to the pilaster that is the edge of the outer-porch of the Buddhas sanctum. Padmapani is surrounded by rocks and attendants, including the "Black Princes" of Lee 158. If we combine our viewing of this full view with the color detail in plate 8, we can assemble an impression of the whole. The figure stands out in a light golden flesh color from a dark green ground. There are both rocks and palm fronds around him. Andshowing how close the style is to that of relief sculpturethere are figures crowding around on all sides. A tiny kinnara (human headed bird) plays a lute like instrument to one side. The attendant figures are on a distinctly smaller scale. These two giant, larger than life sized Bodisattva are joined with the Buddha at the back of the central cell as the central iconic imagery here. This is a

good indication that the vihara is a Mahayana shrine. How this is done is also interesting. We see the high relief sculpture of the Buddha image, preaching the First Sermon in the Deer Park at Sarnath, originally completed in precisely the same color as the Bodhisattva painted on the walls outside. There is a clear interest in connecting the sculpture and painting into one continuous imagery. Let us add to that the presence of the living monks, in their various stages of the Bodhisattve path, who live in the cells of surrounding the hall. The full image unites stone, painted and living figures in a single striking imagery. One in which inscriptions often refer to the Buddhas in the rear Perfuned Chambers of such shrines simply as "the Buddha." When we examine the face and torso that are best preserved we get our first look at the painting style of India. It is a virtuoso linear form with clear outlines and local color. Contours and anatomical elements like fingers or eyes are highly elegant. Mass is achieved partially by curving outlines and partially by a traditional technique of adding highlights to the elements closest to the viewer, the bridge of a nose or ridge of a shoulder. And complementary, a darkening around all outlines may occur. This is not the observed modeling of emperical study, but a convention for mass that works well enough for the effect achieved. We can follow the Chinese of subesquent times, and call this the Indian style of modeling. The conventions like eyebrows like a double bent bow stand behind much of this anatomy, which is in this and otherwise extremely comparable to the sculptural style with which we are familiar. The beauty of the work is acknowledged around the world. The technique is not fresco, or painted in wet plaster, but more or less tempra (egg) based, over a prepared and gessoed surface. In some areas it a transparent medium allows one color to show through another. 158 Black Princess, Cave 1 Ajanta Vakataka c 500 This is a detail of the Padmapani scene, not a Jataka. As Lee says, the richness of the figure comes from the jewelry decorating it. He points out the "loving exaggeration of the lower lip [that] harks back to the pure Gupta style." Read: that is the Gupta style. The part he catches well is the sharpness of the characterization visible between the curve of the eyebrows and the counter poised curves of the eyes. Indeed these are quite piquant and haunting expressions, that carry a depth of human expression that is hard to avoid. ...here in the monastery dormitory of Bodhisattvas and the Buddha. CP 7 Vishvantara Jataka, Cave 17 Ajanta Vakataka c 475 In the Vishvantara Jataka of cave 17s outer porch we get another good look at the painting style and a better idea of the color in this work. Here in a garden setting running up to a palace we see a procession of figures around

a monk leading up to a view of Prince Vishvantara and his wife and a couple of servants in a pavilion. The colors are hot and cool. The treatment makes them stand out separate from each other by giving each figure a different hue. There is little modeling but a good deal of detail. All in all it is not an easy style to read at this length in time and the changing of some of the colors due to chemical deterioration. Still, space and story and the figures themselves are both handsome and relatively easy to read. The over all style continues to remind one of relief sculpture, though there is more perspective and space. As the procession moves along the figures play off each other. A pair of women look out of a window in the wall. Within its four pillars the prince and his queen snuggle sweetly as a servant in Persian dess serves them wine from a Persian jug. The princes dark hue and its contrast with his light hued princess catch the eye and aid in clarifying the narrative. The main action of the Jataka, the most popular of all and often considered the last incarnation before the Bodhisattva life, is elsewhere. Prince Vishvantara gave away all of his possession up to and including his family, out of his compassion for the needs of others and the wisdom to know that these mere things were not worth attachment. Platos Cave Cave 2 Ajanta Vakataka c 475 Looking at Cave 2s plan and a view down the outer aisle we can see how this new complexity works, with a doubling of the back cell for the Buddha and a development of the side cells of the back walls into subsidiary shrines for Kubera and Hariti. As a shrine cell it replaces the usually small doorway for the monk with a pillared opening of greater sumptuousness. 157 Hariti and worshippers, C 2 Ajanta Vakataka c 475 Looking into the Hariti and Kubera cell we can see both the deities to be worshipped on the back wall and something that will remind us of Bhajas small vihara now taken to a greater development, or at least recognizable as a greater development because its paint has survived. One of Ajantas greatest glories is its surviving painting. Fifth century painting in bright color surviving up to today. On side wall we see a set of lay women coming to worship Hariti, who was a patroness of childbirth and child raising. What is interesting in this context is the way in which the painting on the flat wall is set into a context with comparably painted sculpture. Within one painted scene, some of the imagery is flat and some is sculptural. And all is set within an actual architectural space.

And this is Ajantas special reminder to us of a world in which the imagery of Buddhism transcended ornament and recitation to become a world embracing form. For within these rock cut interiors with paintings of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas on flat walls and over sculptured massive images of their subjects, lived Bodhisattvas wearing the same clothes depicted on the walls and living in the same cells.