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

THE
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HINDU RENAISSANCE
leaves. The direction of the lines in the composition
inevitably suggests a movement across
the panel, as though a wind were bending the
heavenly blossoms.
These Jain paintings are not far removed in
date or style from the earliest paintings in the
Kailasa temple at Ellura. Two layers of painting
exist on the ceiling of the western mandapa of
the Kailasa temple. The earlier paintings are
almost certainly datable to the period of the
temple's dedication. These fragments, especially
the decorations in the spandrels around the
carved lotus boss in the centre of the ceiling
[273], are very close in style to the decorative
panels on the roof of Cave I at Ajanta. Both the
technique and the subject of celestial beings and
elephants playing in a gigantic lotus pond are
almost a duplication of the Jain fresco at
Sittanavasal. The upper layer of paintings in
the Kailasa temple [274], datable no earlier than
the late eighth or early ninth century, contains a
representation of Vishnu and Lakshmi surrounded
by Garudas. Although we may recognize
some trace of the Ajanta paintings in the
general composition and colour scheme, certain
changes have taken place, particularly in the
figure drawing, that proclaim these paintings as
a definitely individual style. This is to be
discerned in the way that the faces are drawn
with extremely sharp features, typified by beaklike
noses and bulging eyes, mannerisms which
definitely suggest the style of the later Jain
miniatures of Gujarat. 1
Certain later fragments of painting at Ellura
are, on the contrary, a direct continuation of the
Gupta tradition, as represented by the Ajanta
wall-paintings. These are the ninth-century
Jain paintings in the Indra Sabha cave. 2 The
figures of apsaras are reminiscent of the earlier
style, but are distinguished from it by an almost
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273. Ellura, Kailasanath temple, wall-painting
274. Ellura, Kailasanath temple,
wall-painting of Lakshmi