Annotation. Volume Two begins with the contentious, yet challenging, views of Hans Bakker and Richard Cohen, both of whom are involved with an overview of Ajanta's development. This is explored further in shorter essays by Karl Khandalavala, Arvind Jamkhedkar, and Brahmanand Deshpande. At the same time, the author presents a detailed analysis of the form and development of Cave 26, as a model upon which his other arguments are built.
Volume Three in the Ajanta series focuses on what the site tells us about what happened in the months following the death of emperor Harisena (478 A.D.). In that year the great “Vakataka” patrons had to flee from Ajanta as a result of the Asmakas’ takeover of the site. When soon the Asmakas themselves also had to leave because of the needs of war, the great phase of patronage ended at Ajanta. But now a host of pious intruders, mostly monks and devotees still living in the region, could make their own offerings, generally violating the original patrons' programs. In this systematic cave to cave treatment, it is shown through careful interpretation of the physical evidence, that remarkably these new and “uninvited” paintings and sculptures appear only on and/or in caves which had already been dedicated by the earlier patrons. By contrast, excavations where the Buddha image had not been completed, were never utilized for such votive donations.
Volume Two begins with writings by some of the most important critics of Walter Spink's conclusions, interspersed with his own responses, using a thorough analysis of the great Cave 26 to support his assertions. The author then turns to matters of patronage, and to the surprising fact that, unlike most other Buddhist sites, Ajanta was purely "elitist", developed by less than a dozen major patrons. Its brief heyday traumatically ended, however, with the death of the great emperor Harisena in about 477, creating political chaos. Ajanta's anxious patrons now joined in a headlong rush to get their shrines dedicated, in order to obtain the expected merit, before they fled the region, abandoning their caves to the monks and local devotees remaining at the now-doomed site. These "intrusive" new patrons now filled the caves with their own helter-skelter votive offerings, paying no heed to the well-laid plans of the years before. A similar pattern of patronage is to be found in the redecoration of the earlier Hinayana caves, where the careful planning of the work being done during Harisena's reign is suddenly interrupted by a host of individual votive donations. The volume ends with a new and useful editing of Ajanta inscriptions by Richard S. Cohen.
Walter Spink’s intense concern with the development of the Ajanta caves and their architectural, sculptural and painted features finds its most insistent reflection in his present richly illustrated study. In part 1, Spink explains the many connections between the Bagh caves and its “sister site”, Ajanta. He particularly emphasizes the leading role that Bagh plays in establishing the “short chronology” and in the crucial matter of Buddhist shrine development from the aniconic to iconic forms of worship. In part 2, along with his colleague Professor Naomichi Yaguchi, who also provided the photographs and the newly informative plans, the authors show how, over the course of a mere decade, better and better ways were discovered to fit the doors in the cells where the monks lived. Such an analysis reveals the vigor of the conceptual and technical changes that characterize Ajanta’s evolution from its start in the early 460s to its traumatic collapse in about 470. Moving from Ajanta’s beginning to its ending, the evolution of door fittings parallels the precise and dramatic development of Indian history in the remarkable course of the emperor Harisena’s reign.
Annotation. Volume Two begins with the contentious, yet challenging, views of Hans Bakker and Richard Cohen, both of whom are involved with an overview of Ajanta's development. This is explored further in shorter essays by Karl Khandalavala, Arvind Jamkhedkar, and Brahmanand Deshpande. At the same time, the author presents a detailed analysis of the form and development of Cave 26, as a model upon which his other arguments are built.
The twenty-nine Buddhist caves near Ajanta form a devotional complex which ranks as one of the world's most startling achievements, created at the very apogee of India's Golden Age. Ajanta: History and Development, appears as part of the series Handbook of Oriental Studies, present the reader with a systematic treatment of all aspects of the site, the result of forty years of painstaking research in situ by Walter M. Spink. Volume one deals with the historical context in which this dramatic burst of pious activity took place under the reign of Vakataka emperor Harisena, (c. 460 – 477 A.D.), and with the sudden halt of activity almost immediately following the death of the emperor. In surprising detail the relative and absolute chronology of the site can be established from a careful reading of the physical evidence, with consequences for our dating of India’s Golden Age. Ajanta, it appears, is a veritable illustrated history of Harisena’s times, crowded with information on its history, development and how it was used. Originally published in hardcover
Greater Magadha, roughly the eastern part of the Gangetic plain of northern India, has so far been looked upon as deeply indebted to Brahmanical culture. Religions such as Buddhism and Jainism are thought of as derived, in one way or another, from Vedic religion. This belief is defective in various respects. This book argues for the importance and independence of Greater Magadha as a cultural area until a date close to the beginning of the Common Era. In order to correct the incorrect notions, two types of questions are dealt with: questions pertaining to cultural and religious dependencies, and questions relating to chronology. As a result a modified picture arises that also has a bearing on the further development of Indian culture.
This book considers Gandhāran art in relation to its religious contexts and meanings within ancient Buddhism. Addressing the responses of patrons and worshippers at the monasteries and shrines of Gandhāra, papers seek to understand more about why Gandhāran art was made and what its iconographical repertoire meant to ancient viewers.
