Ajantha Caves - lyrics in stone

Padma Edirisinghe

Care to see an amazing cluster of rock-hewn massive caves against the backdrop of an equally amazing sheer verdant mountainous fastness that looms to the skies.

Just go to Maharashtra State of our neighbouring sub-continent, travel 480 kms from the State's capital Mumbai or 104 km from Aurangabadh, a medieval Mogul stronghold or 40 km from Booswal and you are there in the vicinity of the world famous Ajantha Caves now declared a World Heritage Site.

The number they say is 30. Of course I did not count them but simply stared in awe when I first set my eyes on them as they swam into view in a sort half-crescent pattern, according to some a horse-shoe pattern. The view was from a location far below, which is the river basin of Waghora (also spelt Bhagora) whose cascading waterfall adds to the magnificence of the scenario.

Rock - kewn caves are not a strange sight to Sri Lankan eyes since they abound in hundreds under forest cover now, around our ancient capitals providing monastic sanctuaries to Bhikkhus ever since the advent of Buddhism.

But it is the gigantic size that is awe - inspiring, a common feature to both Ajantha and Ellora Caves. They have to be big for there is so much of space in Big India. But Big is not the only adjective that qualifies them.

They are enclaves that display the high aesthetic sense of Indian artists and sculptors and painters who painstakingly worked on them in a long time span ranging from 2nd C BC to 7th C Buddhist India.

Alas! Buddhism declined or got absorbed into Hinduism after this and King Forest cruelly spread his thick cloak on them.

Came colonialism to the East and also to India and the busybody Imperialists restlessly began to trek across all these shrouded areas, sometimes for mere pleasure, sometimes for the sake of adventure or on hunting sprees.

In 1819 a group of British soldiers out hunting had been resting in this part of north-west India when a strange glow was seen by them emanating from yonder forest. Curious they trekked up and discovered this wonderful crop of caves that was to tantalise the world for years to come.

The caves are definitely Buddhist caves adorned with figurines and paintings and murals and other artifices when Buddhism was at the height of its glory. Most of the themes revolve around the life of the Bodhisatva, Prince Siddhartha and the Buddha Himself after Enlightenment.

Popular Jathaka stories as the Vessantara Jathaka provide the next popular theme. Sinhalavadana or the advent of the Sinhalas to Lanka, according to a Lankan authority (of whom we shall write later) forms a popular theme.

Actually, the day we visited Ajantha some of the caves were closed up for restoration purposes and maybe these caves that presented this theme of colonisation of Lanka belonged to the "View - blocked" caves that were ill-lit too. That is why I have to rely on a book written by that authority to delve into that topic so close to the saga of our own country.

I may also degrees here to confide to the reader that this was my second attempt to reach the Ajantha Caves, a successful second group tour attempt.

My first attempt, a solo one ended in a flop. In the aftermath of attending a writers conference in New Delhi I got an impulse to visit these caves and made a journey by train to Booswal station where sly beggars sliding on their buttocks stole my footwear while I snored.

Then I made a reckless, ticketless and sandal - less trip to Goa by the same train smirked at the ticket checkers and got away. I was rehearsing my beggar story to relate were they to put me behind bars.

Stayed over the night and visited the fabulous churches, especially church of Bom Jesus to make sure that the corpse of Francis Xavier was or was not that of our own Ven. Sri Rahula Thera said to be stolen from Ambana Cave by the Ferenghis.

Then went onto Bombay and since my flight home was scheduled the next day bribed a man with 200 Indian rupees (first and last time I have ever offered a bribe) to get me a ticket on the Rajasthani Express from Bombay to New delhi, a train just spilling out with humans.

Actually it looked as though the whole world populace was taking train from Mumbai to Delhi. (Come to think of it, India seems to be the country that has made optimum use of this long passengers conveyance invented in England.

One of my dreams, gods willing, is to write a book on "The railway world of India"). Sat on a sort of an improvised rack that the bribed man provided for me on which I sat very uncomfortably and trying to avoid the attention of the huge Gujerati female traders who bullied and ragged any encroacher. (This is said to happen in what is known as Raksha Bhavan of our Samudra Devi, name concocted for compartments allotted to office travellers).

The female Amazons asked me several questions and me not understanding them nor them, me eventually they left me alone. It was the second rag that I underwent after the Peradeniya Campus rag some 30 years back.

To get back to the main theme, according to the earlier mentioned authority, S. Mahalekham who has done his own research on Ajantha Caves and put out a voluminous book frescoes 44 - 54 are allotted to Sinhalavadana or the coming of the Sinhalas to Lanka.

However Prince Vijaya is effaced and a leader of a team of merchants takes his place. But all other components of the Vijayan legend are found in the murals, chief of which is the enticing of the merchants by the Rakushees or the Yakkinis who take on various beautiful female forms for their enchantment strategies.

Among the connoisseurs of art who wrote lengthily on Ajantha Caves three are mentioned, Lorenzo Cecconi, Capt. W.E. Gladstone and Lady Herringham. Cecconi contends that the Ajantha figurines display the refinement of Graeco Roman art while Herrigham refers to the astounding colour combinations that have defied the trek of time along with the attention paid to minute details of fauna and flora of the times, the caves were being adorned aesthetically. Capt. Gladstone wonders on the prominence given to the female form in what are majorly religious dens.

Even in the most holy scenes the artist finds an excuse to display his skill in portraying the female form in its most beautiful and erotic form that one comes across them in hundreds in these caves.

The Sinhalavadana provides an excellent canvas for such a display for the Rakushees by their magical powers take on various guises to beguile the merchants.

There is a new twist to this story when the merchants return and the Rakushees follow them, battle with them and bring them back.

According to one art critic the figurine of one of these Rakushees surpasses the famous Venus Statue, a masterpiece of Botticelli, address, Florence, Italy. The Rakushee in one of her magically assumed forms stands before King Sinha Kehsaree, one hand coyly covering one breast while her long dark treasses cascade down covering her nudity.

Botticelli lived between 1,445 and 1,510 during which time he produced the astoundingly beautiful 'Birth of Venus". The unknown Indian artist worked on his own Indian or Lankan Venus (for the Rakushees were from Lanka) about a 1,000 years before and due to quirks of history would have wilted a flower unseen or a lyric in stone gone into oblivion, if not for the 1,819 discovery.

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