Ajanta & Ellora – Exquisite Cave Art

The world celebrates Buanarotti (better known as Michaelangelo) for the frescoes in Sistine Chapel and the Creation of Adam because he painted them as recently as 500 years ago and left his signature too. And he worked in the flourishing metropolis of his day known for its patronage of the arts.Who painted all those gorgeous frescoes in the dark grottos of Ajanta more than 2000 years ago? They never left any names or signatures, never claimed ownership, never exerted their copyright. It was almost certainly a collective effort where no individual claimed glory to himself/herself.

The frescoes were painted with dyes coaxed out of stones. Lapis lazuli and firoze for blue, jade for green, carnelian for pink, casper for red, topaz for yellow and many more. The basalt rock yielded the entire rainbow and all in-between for embellishing those exquisite sketches. And the dimness of the caves has preserved the colours (well, almost) to this day. The unmatched elegance of the human form in Ajanta frescoes speaks volumes of the aesthetic sensibilities of those self-effacing and anonymous artists. The lasting colours of the paintings is testament to their mastery over minerals and elements. Archaeological Survey of India seems to have done little by way of preservation, leave alone restoration in the 200 years since it has been discovered.