The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

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THE EARLY CLASSIC PERIODS
seen employed for living creatures, mountains
are reduced to pyramidal, block-forms; ponds
and rivers are spread like carpets, with an engraving
of parallel lines to indicate by this symbolism
the nature and movement of water. All
these conventions are present not only in the
sculpture but also in the remains of wall-paintings
in the Early Classic Period.
Although there are copious references to
painted decorations in the Jatakas and other
early Buddhist texts, the only surviving examples
of wall-painting from the early period are to
be found in a rock-cut chaitya-hall at Ajanta in
the Deccan. 5 Various inscriptions in the cave
confirm its dedication in the second century B.C.,
and the fragments of wall-painting in the interior
are probably to be dated no later than the
first century B.C. The principal wall-painting in
Cave X is devoted to the Saddanta jfdtaka,
which recounts the story of the Buddha's sacrifice
of his tusks during his incarnation as an elephant
[48].
Its arrangement recalls the scheme
of the Sanchi architraves, since the composition
is presented in the form of a long frieze in which
the action progresses from episode to episode, as
in a Far Eastern scroll-painting. It should be
emphasized, in view of the later compositional
developments in Indian wall-painting, that the
picture is entirely confined within the borders
of its frame, and does not cover the entire wall.
Only about one-third of the painting is given
over to the actual martyrdom and the denouement
of the tragedy. The greater part of the
space is devoted to a most wonderfully naturalistic
recording of the elephants in their home in
the deep forest. We see them bathing, resting,
feeding, and apprehensively awaiting the hunters.
The composition is crowded, and yet one
has the impression of the beasts moving with
perfect freedom in the space that the artist
assigns them. Every available area that is not
occupied by the forms of the pachyderms is
filled with the portrayals of floral and foliate
forms, and serves to give a dramatic illusion to
the density ofthe jungle. Although the elephants
are types, just as much as the human figures in
the composition, the artist has given us a marvellous
impression of their immense dignity and
weight, and their ponderous frolics. The nearest
comparison in sculpture is in the representation
48. Ajanta, Cave X, Saddanta Jataka