Ajanta

In Tibetan art, paintings of the Wheel of Rebirths (Samsaracakra) have remained popular to the present day. Divided into five (more often six) sections, the wheel shows the different possible realms of rebirth: in the world of the gods, (of the asuras), the humans, the animals, the hungry ghosts, and the beings residing in various hells. The prototypes of these depictions were devised in India where, however, only one such painting survived, namely on the veranda of Cave XVII in Ajanta. Corresponding with the Samsaracakra paintings, a number of texts preserved in Sanskrit, Tibetan and Chinese, provide instructions on how to paint this type of wheel. The mural in Ajanta corresponds most closely to a fragmentary Sanskrit manuscript found in Kucha. This manuscript describes not only the wheel of rebirth, but also the wheel’s surroundings: Mara, god of sensuality and death – two of the main factors leading to rebirth – should be depicted there in his fourfold form, as well as representatives of various sciences, such as different branches of medicine. The wheel itself is defined as a ghatiyantra, pot-machine, which scoops water, and is known today as noria or the “Persian wheel.” The present book contains the edition, translation, and commentary of the fragmentary manuscript from Kucha, and a meticulous analysis of the corresponding Ajanta mural.

Globally Tourism is the fastest growing industry for which competitive destinations are trying their best to promote their tourism products by developing appropriate brand strategies for marketing their products. Identification of Brand Personality is one of the strategies where Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) are focusing upon. This study aims to explore the brand personality traits of the first world heritage site of India i.e. Ellora caves situated in Aurangabad District of Maharashtra State of India. Though the site is having potential for Tourism, minimal efforts are taken by the stakeholders for branding Ellora. Primary data was collected using interview schedule and questionnaires from 23 tourism stakeholders of Aurangabad region and 90 domestic tourists at Ellora respectively. Factor Analysis is done to reduce the perceived brand personality traits and developing the most relevant ones. Further Cronbach's Alpha was used for testing the reliability. Factor Analysis is done to reduce the perceived brand personality traits and coming up with the most relevant ones. 18 new traits were identified which were not seen in marketing literature of Ellora like Intelligent, resourceful, Astute, Senile Surest, Shrewd, Hygiene etc. These identified new traits will help to target new segment of tourists like Millennial's, Eco Tourists etc. The implications of this paper are dual which are related to academic contribution and policy making for the stakeholders relating to branding of Ellora.

This article seeks to present a short overview of the astronomy of Sanchi and Udayagiri (near Vidisha), and a longer overview of the astronomy of the Ajanta caves 26 and 19. With regard to Sanchi and Udayagiri, it presents excerpts from the published researches in order to create a background and context for the main topic, that is, Ajanta on which subject fresh observations are being presented here for the first time to reveal a hitherto undisclosed dimension of the architecture of two magnificent monuments of Ajanta. Eventualy, the article seeks to convey that science and astronomy had a great role to play in the temple building activity in the fifth-century India.

Im Jahr 1910 fertigte der Brücke-Künstler Ernst Ludwig Kirchner eine Reihe von mehr als 30 Zeichnungen mit Motiven aus den Wandmalereien der buddhistischen Höhlentempel von Ajanta an. Fünf davon sind heute im Besitz des Brücke-Museums in Berlin.

https://www.bruecke-museum.de/de/sammlung/perspektiven/1183/die-ajanta-zeichnungen-kirchners-imaginres-indien

This is the second edition of earlier title of the same name (2013). The subtitle has been changed here a little. The book contains:

* Colour photographs of 70 Ajanta narrative paintings.
* * 84 abridged Buddhist legends.
* Elementary introduction to the Ajanta paintings.
* Information based on the current research.
* A window to deeper studies.
* References to the scholarly works that first identified the nearest textual sources of the painted legends.

Ajanta (pp. 36 -50), Aurangabad (pp. 191-200), Bedsa (pp. 210-213), Bhaja (pp. 221-227), Ellora (pp. 439-449), Junnar (pp. 599-605), Kanheri (pp. 624-630), Karli (pp. 634-639), Ratnagiri (pp. 975-985), in: K.T.S. SARAO & JEFFREY D. LONG (eds), Buddhism and Jainism, Dordrecht: Springer, 2017 (Encyclopedia of Indian Religions, chief editor ARVIND SHARMA). (Written in 2011).

The relationship between 'center' and 'periphery raises vital questions about the formation of culture. Does influence flow in one way or the other or is there usually a complex blending ? Also, is it even fair to label certain regions as 'periphery' or 'center' or does this somewhat pejorative nomenclature prejudice or cloud our approach? Ancient India affords examples illustrating many of these basic issues. Daksina Kosala, an area  corresponding to a great part of modern Chhattisgarh state, reveals influences from ancient Vidarbha in the Deccan and Gupta north India.

The monograph contains 15 Buddhist legends painted on the walls of Ajanta Cave No. 1 of the late fifth centry CE. Each episode -- of each of the 14/15 painted narratives of Cave 1 -- is arranged here in the same way as the painters painted them.

It is a kind of catalogue showing each narrative scene by scene, episode by episode.

The monograph covers 14 of the total 15 narrative paintings of Cave 1. It has at least one photo of every episode of 14 narratives painted on the walls of the caves. The corpus is based on the latest research by Dieter Schlingloff.

There is also an abridged re-telling of the 15 Buddhist legends. The text of the stories are reproduced from the author's earlier works.

The nearest textual sources of the narratives are given in a table in the end of the book. The table is a preface to the bibliography of ancient texts or Buddhist scriptures in Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, and Mongolian. The bibliography seeks to provides in brief relevant details about the ancient manuscripts, archives, repositories, critical editions, translations, or analytical works.

Since they were 'rediscovered' by the West in 1819, the painted Buddhist caves at Ajanta have attracted a great deal of attention. Yet this interest has tended to focus on the narrative scenes of kingship and courtship. This essay shifts the gaze upwards to examine a kaleidoscope of the weird and wonderful - flying celestial figures, dwarves, aquatic and mythical creatures, verdant foliage, blossoming flowers and decorative meander patterns - inhabiting the ceiling of Cave 1. Such motifs also existed in the visual traditions of the diverse cultures early Buddhist art came into contact with, from Ancient Greece to Egypt and Persia. However, a delicately rendered white elephant surrounded by lotus flowers, found on an unremarkable border of the ceiling, appears to be a uniquely Indian motif. It serves to demonstrate the ceiling of cave 1 was not simply a decorative composite pastiche of non-Buddhist forms, as has been suggested, but a deliberate appropriation of these within a Buddhist framework. Links between the Buddha and the white elephant are revealed through textual evidence found in the Mahayana scriptures and supported with visual analysis of other Buddhist iconography found at the site and throughout India. The elephant panel, whose meaning has long been lost and since rewritten for cultural, social and economic benefits, is used here to reinstate the religiosity of cave 1’s ceiling. This essay argues that, contrary to prevailing wisdom, the seemingly strange and miscellaneous paintings we find here had great significance within the Buddhist practice flourishing at Ajanta in the fifth century CE. The ceiling subtly guided the viewer towards higher states of mind, and in the direction of the most important part of the cave: the shrine of the Buddha.

The important soteriological trend placing at its core the ambition to become a perfect buddha progressively suffused Indian Buddhism throughout the Middle Period, that is, between the first and sixth centuries CE. Across South Asia, evidence of various kinds concurs in identifying the late fourth to early sixth century as marking a shift, when the ideas propounded by the Bodhisattva movement became, so to speak, the “main stream”.

The public impact of the Bodhisattva movement may, for instance, be measured by tracing shifts in the ideology of merit. To explore this issue historically, literary sources—and in particular those texts concerned with the generation and assignment of merit—need to be considered in close connection with epigraphical, visual, and archaeological evidence. These sources generally do not present a coherent picture of a gradual path to liberation in the same way as doctrinal works. Yet, the study of what religious agents define as their goal(s) may allow some understanding of the multi-life trajectory that bodhisattvas expected for themselves.

This contribution attempts to determine how donors self-identifying as bodhisattvas  harmoniously combined and hierarchically structured mundane and supramundane goals. I argue that both categories of expectations are in fact reconciled by an implied multi-life path to liberation, whereby benefits such as auspicious rebirths serve, inter alia, as markers of one’s progress toward Awakening. I also suggest that, at the prominent and well-documented site of Ajanta, the concern for rebirth among gods and high-born, beautiful human beings may well relate to the commemorative dimension of many of the fifth- and sixth-century cave dedications. To illustrate my point, I draw on two examples: (1) a series of short donative inscriptions transmitting a formulaic assignment of merit along with a scriptural quotation; (2) an elaborate record in verse composed by a prominent monastic donor and representing a unique document for understanding the ideology of the gift current in that time and place.

Desde sus inicios, el estudio académico del budismo indio ha estado teñido por prejuicios concernientes a su pureza doctrinal. En su afán por distinguir las manifestaciones religiosas originales de las que consideraban como adiciones posteriores, los estudiosos aplicaron la dicotomía religión popular/religión oficial a distintos aspectos del budismo
En este ensayo pretendo debatir la aplicación de esta dicotomía a ciertos rituales budistas, presentando el ejemplo de un rito que, si bien no forma parte del budismo normativo ni articula los ideales de liberación de la doctrina filosófica budista, atraviesa las distinciones entre monjes y laicos, entre institución religiosa y religiosidad individual, entre religión normativa y culto heterodoxo.

This essay presents a snapshot of the year 465 CE. Place: South Asia with the Ajanta Cave 11 in focus. A history is narrated here to describe how the stupa-shrine (naos) of the Ajanta Cave 11 was conceived, and added to what was earlier a dormitory; how the Hunnic disturbance in Eurasia created migrations of people including the one when the Bactrian and Gandhāran people migrated towards Middle India and the Deccan on one hand and the Tarim / Taklamakan region on the other. The war refugees, I argue, introduced the concept of multi-functional or composite architecture in India. It was to bring under the same roof the three major functions of monastic architecture: dwelling, congregation, and worship. It was an experiment that resulted in the creation of Cave 11’s naos. It was a quadrant and flat-roofed naos. The idea was at once accepted across all the contemporary rockcut sites. The article shows how the displaced people the “foreigners” from Eastern Mediterranean, ancient Turkey, Iran, Bactria and Gandhāra, swiftly changed the Buddhism of Middle India and the Deccan from an earlier form of Śrāvakayāna that insisted on the stupa cult to a different one that insisted on the cultic worship of the Buddha and Bodhisattva figures. The latter was a confluence of the traditional Sarvāstivāda and Bodhisattvayāna, which acquired the name of Mūlasarvāstivāda towards the seventh century CE.

This monograph proposes a reconstructive chronology of South Asia’s history in the late fifth century CE. It shows how the Gupta lands up to Yamuna and Narmada were encroached by Alchon Hun Khiṅgila, et al. Other powerful dynasties such as the Vākāṭaka, Aulikara, Parivrājaka, and Traikūṭaka were nearly destroyed in multiple invasions. A military history of India has been reconstructed here based on a pattern of deaths of many kings. The study shows how the development of contemporary rock-cut monuments was disrupted and abandoned.

India and Japan traditionally have strong relations, and have been guided
by shared cultural traditions, including the heritage of Buddhism, and
a strong commitment towards the ideals of democracy, tolerance and
pluralism.  It is the 19th and early 20th century period that brought India
into the consciousness of Japan as the fountainhead of Buddhism,
and in terms of looking beyond China.
In discovering the source, Japan discovered the rich intellectual heritage
in India. The report thus looked at the many parallels between
the cultural traditions of Japan and India, from which arose the sense
of a shared Asian culture, led by India and Japan, which needed to be
explored further.

Devoted exclusively to the narrative paintings, this small book is an abridged edition of An Introduction to the Ajanta Caves: With Examples of Six Caves (Baroda: Hari Sena Press, 2012; ISBN 9788192510705) by the same author.

The monograph is aimed for students of higher education studying ancient Indian history and culture or Buddhist art and archaeology of the Indian subcontinent. The language is simple so that even such general readers who desire to understand the subject in detail would have no inconvenience.

You will find here the following contents within a single volume:

- A short introduction to the historical, religious, and political background of Ajanta, such that is based on the latest researches.
- Comprehensive, systematic, and summarized re-telling of the narratives based on the latest corpus by Dieter Schlingloff.
- Extensive photographic documentation of each of the extant narrative wall paintings. Exclusion: Caves 9 and 10 that could not be photographed due to poor state of the paintings.

Incense, Flowers and Prayers in Honour of the Buddha, Ritualistic Scenes in Ajanta and other Buddhist Sites of Maharashtra, fifth to eighth Century, in: Ratnasri: Gleanings from Indian Archaeology, Art History and Indology: Papers Presented in Memory of Dr. N R Banerji, ed. ARUNDHATI BANERJI, New Delhi: Kaveri Books, pp. 51-70.

As the Indo-Italian project for the conservation of the wall paintings of Cave 17 at Ajaṇṭā proceeded, the need emerged for comparison between the results of the diagnostic analyses on the mortar, binders and pigments used on the site, and the painting techniques described in the ancient treatises of the specialist literature – the so-called Śilpaśāstra – to verify whether certain procedures described in these works were effectively reflected on the site, and determine the line to be taken in analysis of the relations between textual tradition and painting in practice. The paintings of Ajaṇṭā have been taken by some to reflect the evidence offered by the Viṣṇudharmottara Purāṇa, the text considered chronologically closest to the site’s great pictorial achievements, in terms both of the aesthetic theories and iconographic and iconometric rules and, more concretely, of the specific technical procedures.
In order to verify and assess what type of relations there were between the socalled
‘prescriptions’ contained in adhyāya 40 of the III khaṇḍa and other passages in the
Viṣṇudharmottara Purāṇa, on the one hand, and painting as effectively practised at Ajaṇṭā on the other, in this study certain aspects of the techniques described in the treatise will be analysed. To begin with, we will look into the initial stage of the procedure, preparation of the primer, with particular attention paid to the various components going into the composition of the mortar mixture. We then go on to the issues relating to colour theory and the nature of the binders. In the second part of the study, the evidence emerging from perusal of the treatise will be compared with the data obtained through the analyses carried out on Cave 17 and from the previous investigations documented in the literature.

It is not unusual for any two Indian art traditions separated by time and place to share certain details. On the contrary, it is symptomatic of a consistency in style, technique or mode of expression which any living art tradition retains. What is perhaps striking in the present context is this: The style of Ajanta cave paintings is more on par with the plastic tradition of Amaravati than the Ajanta sculptures located in the same site.

This observation is drawn purely on historical grounds of art i.e. the visual data presented by the surviving examples. This has been noticed by the art historians in the past. Except for Sivaramamurti, who attempted to compare the points of similarity in terms of ornaments, hairstyles, architecture details etc. only a cursory interest has been shown in this direction.

The similarity between the two is more global than specific. Amaravati style as a whole, in its fundamental articulation of bodily rhythms, for instance, approximates that of Ajanta. A piecemeal matching would be defeating the purpose.

Zin, M., 2015, Pictures of paradise for good luck and prosperity: Depictions of themes irrelevant for enlightenment in the older Buddhist tradition (with special reference to the paintings of Ajanta), in: Mani-Sushma, Archaeology and Heritage (Dr. B.R. Mani Festschrift), ed. V. Kumar, B. Rawat, Delhi: B.R. Publishing Corporation, vols. 1-3, vol. 1, pp. 125-47, pls. pp. 49-56.

Esta tesis propone un estudio crítico y transcultural de la recepción de dos obras procedentes de la antigüedad india en la creación plástica del artista alemán Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938): el drama “El Reconocimiento de Sakuntala” de Kalidasa y las pinturas de las cuevas budistas de Ajanta, ambas datadas hacia el siglo V.
Al trazar el itinerario del viaje de ida y vuelta -entre Asia y Europa- y analizar la recepción simultánea de estas dos obras en Alemania y en la región india de Bengala Occidental, se esboza una nueva cartografía de las modernidades entrelazadas.

Véase resumen / See summary in english / Siehe Zusammenfassung auf Deutsch


Esta tesis propone un estudio crítico y transcultural de la recepción de dos obras procedentes de la antigüedad india en la creación plástica del artista alemán Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938): el drama El Reconocimiento de Śakuntalā de Kālidasa y las pinturas de las cuevas budistas de Ajanta, ambas datadas hacia el siglo V. Este proceso de recepción, se estudia en el contexto cultural de la indomanía y se plantea su cristalización en las propuestas artísticas alternativas y utópicas encaminadas a crear un arte en conjunción con la vida. Con el fin de demostrar esta hipótesis, se traza un recorrido desde la recepción romántica del arte y la cultura india en Alemania –cuyo hito fundacional es la traducción de Śākuntala en 1791–, hasta la acogida de algunas de sus tradiciones como el budismo, el ascetismo y el yoga en las corrientes de la Lebensreform [Reforma de la vida] desde el final del siglo XIX.
De manera conjunta se estudia la traducción y elaboración de la serie de litografías de Kirchner sobre Śākuntala (1907) y la ejecución de cuarenta dibujos a partir de copias de las pinturas de Ajanta (ca. 1910), que son analizados y catalogados. La traducción y la copia son considerados procesos análogos y reconstruidos vinculados a los fenómenos de la indomanía y del Orientalismo. Además de la construcción de un imaginario sobre lo indio, en la primera parte, se aborda la configuración de las colecciones asiáticas y los debates historiográficos en torno al arte indio en Alemania, en relación con el ideario y las apreciaciones de Kirchner, testificadas en sus escritos y en los documentos de su biblioteca.
En la segunda parte, se rastrean los motivos indios presentes en la producción plástica de Kirchner. Mediante el concepto de traducción cultural, se analiza la transferencia de formas procedentes de Ajanta, en conjunción con otras experiencias y con la visión de otras fuentes de la cultura de India, como fotografías etnográficas, relatos de viajeros y espectáculos. El espacio del taller del artista, decorado con una acuarela del Buda de Ajanta junto con escenas y símbolos eróticos importados, es interpretado como una cueva-templo semejante a las de Ajanta. Su configuración como lugar para la intimidad y la vida artística disidente se estudia en consonancia con la popularización del budismo y otras tradiciones místico-sexuales. Paralelamente, en las escapadas a parajes naturales emprendidas junto a sus compañeros del grupo Brücke, Kirchner emuló un viaje exótico en el que reencontrarse con la vida primitiva. Esta introducción del cuerpo en la naturaleza, considerada un acto performativo, se pone en relación con la acción promovida por las disciplinas del ascetismo y el yoga presentes en el ámbito de la Freikörperkultur [Cultura para la liberación del cuerpo]. Así, tras constatar la presencia del arte indio en Alemania y analizar su papel en la obra de Kirchner, se concluye que éste no sólo se constituyó como paradigma para un repertorio formal alejado del académico, sino que las tradiciones de India fueron estímulos clave para la configuración de su proyecto artístico vitalista.
A lo largo de esta investigación, se pone de relieve cómo este proceso de recepción estuvo inserto en el entramado de trasferencia del arte y la cultura procedente de los territorios colonizados por Europa, condicionado por las dinámicas del poder imperial y los prejuicios de la mirada etnocéntrica. Como contrapunto, en la tercera parte se indaga en el papel desempeñado por las dos obras indias en la ciudad de Calcuta, como modelo para los artistas que pretendían recuperar su tradición vernácula, censurada por las instituciones coloniales. Con ello, se esboza una nueva cartografía de la modernidad, al trazar el itinerario del viaje de ida y vuelta, entre Asia y Europa, del drama de Śākuntala y de las pinturas de Ajanta. Al analizar la recepción simultánea de estas dos obras en Alemania y en la región de Bengala desde una perspectiva transcultural, se arroja luz al proceso de las modernidades entrelazadas.

Dentro de las tradiciones narrativas budistas la domesticación consiste en el proceso mediante el cual un héroe budista apacigua a algún ser hostil y produce en él un viraje de carácter moral e instrumental. A partir de ese momento, el héroe budista utiliza las potencias destructivas del personaje hostil y al mismo tiempo reafirma la autoridad del budismo por encima del paradigma de autoridad que ese personaje hostil representa. En este ensayo se analizan dos narrativas visuales de domesticación del budismo indio: la del rey Asoka en el stupa de Kanaganahalli, en Karnataka; y la de la yaksi Hariti en la cueva 2 de Ajanta. Ambos casos representan distintos modelos de domesticación de la autoridad, donde actores y discursos que buscan el reconocimiento de su propia soberanía por parte de la comunidad budista primero deben doblegarse ante la soberanía del budismo.

The book contains a detailed study of the chronological development of four Ajanta caves. It also contains a comprehensive collection of the majority of the Buddhist legends that are painted on the walls of the Ajanta caves.

The history section includes the chronological development of four Ajanta caves: Caves 1, 2, 16 and 17. This is a new account of the chronology of the Ajanta caves based on the research carried out by the author.

The narrative sections include short summaries of 84 Buddhist legends that are painted on the walls of the Caves 1, 2, 9, and 17. The short summaries are based on the pioneering research work carried by Dieter Schlingloff and his predecessors. The descriptions follow the nearest known versions of the stories, many of them from still very obscure Buddhist scriptures.

At least one photograph of each of the preserved painted legends has been reproduced. In total there are 284 colour photographs, which also include some examples from architectural details, sculptures, inscriptions, ground plans, and motifs.

A short introduction of our current understanding about the prevailing political and cultural background is also given.

The book is intended for the advanced researchers, educators, students, and such general readers who seek an in-depth understanding of the history of the Ajanta caves and the paintings.

Esta tesis propone un estudio crítico y transcultural de la recepción de dos obras procedentes de la antigüedad india en la creación plástica del artista alemán Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938): el drama “El Reconocimiento de Sakuntala” de Kalidasa y las pinturas de las cuevas budistas de Ajanta, ambas datadas hacia el siglo V. Al trazar el itinerario del viaje de ida y vuelta -entre Asia y Europa- y analizar la recepción simultánea de estas dos obras en Alemania y en la región india de Bengala Occidental, se esboza una nueva cartografía de las modernidades entrelazadas. Véase resumen / See summary in english / Siehe Zusammenfassung auf Deutsch

Les âges de la vie dans le monde indien, Actes des journées d’étude de Lyon (22-23 juin 2000) édités par CHRISTINE CHOJNACKI, Paris: Diffusion De Boccard, 2001, pp. 283-323. (Lyon: Centre d’Études et de Recherches sur l’Occident Romain de l’Université Lyon 3, Collection du Centre d’Études et de Recherches sur l’Occident Romain, Nouvelle série n° 24)

The very idea of hiatus emerged in the historiography of the western Deccan is deeply rooted in the readings into the political events. Political narratives have been responsible for making ‘hiatus’ as a historical event not only in the case of early Thēravādin caves but also in the case of later Mahayanist caves. It has become a narrative of the present discourses on the caves. How art historical studies have grown under the shadow of the polemics of political history is worth noting and needs to be contested. Contestation has to be based on the acceptable propositions that would create a very different understanding as well as provide impetus to the new issues and problematize the cave monuments in its historical context. In case of early caves, the Sātavāhana chronology has become the issue of contestation and in order to place the Puranic genealogy in a unilinear fashion, historians have read event of a conflict between the Sātavāhanas and the Kṣatrapas as a mark of hiatus in the process of cave excavation. Such generalization, time and again has emerged out of belief in the textual tradition that the Sātavāhana genealogy in the Puranas has to have greater authenticity. Therefore, one has to contest the idea based on the very reading of inscriptions, for example, if one of the Sātavāhana kings is mentioned to have ruled for 52 years, then why there is no visible evidence to corroborate his rule or is it because of the fictitious nature of the evidence, our understanding gets controlled by such evidence? Similarly, the Mahāyāna phase in the western Deccan has always been dated as the development of the fifth century AD as if the western Deccan was immune to the Mahāyāna Buddhism, consequently, was averse to the Buddha image representation, and therefore, the Hinayāna/Thēravada caves went on getting excavated till about fifth century AD, thus it is concluded that the Mahāyāna caves began only in the fifth century AD. Moreover, when it comes to the Vakatakas, the hiatus at Ajanta, as has been highlighted by Prof. Walter Spink needs to be contested in the light of the dated Vada inscription of the Konkan Mauryas, and the image tradition that gets developed at Kanheri itself. One pertinent example would be that of cave complex at Ajanta patronized by the local king Upēndragupta. The lower portion of the attendant figures in the shrine of cave 20 of Ajanta is incomplete and the inscription of the Upēndragupta in Ajanta cave 17 claims that he had defeated the Aśmakas. If the war between the two local kings was that paramount then why the artisan left unfinished the lower portion of the attendant images in cave 17 at Ajanta? No doubt that the Ajanta cave 20 was also patronized by the Upēndragupta and he might have initiated its excavation only after the war. Besides, how do we understand the imagery at Ajanta itself in the light of the observation that only the later caves of Ajanta have marked the influence of the eastern Vidarbha sculptural tradition whereas the early phase is devoid of such influences? Can we show any connection between the coastal tradition and Ajanta when it comes to the Mahāyāna caves sculpture? Why the pictorial conventions of shrine Buddha images at Ajanta cave 11, 15, lower 6 and 7 do not fall under the conventions of the late fifth century AD developments of sculpture at Ajanta itself? Can there be a better reading of the development of conventions in the light of the Vada inscription of the Konkan Mauryas and its palaeographical implications? The paper attempts to seek answers to the questions raised above with appropriate examples.