Aesthesis of Beauty and Beyond

Lokesh Chandra

Ajantā has been home to pensive reflections of the mind, flashes of the infinity of our centuries, a whirlwind of forms that weave and unweave the threads of our inner being, glances that kindle pāramitās, and as we re-populate the world with eyes, the caves leave us into the pulse-beats of serenity: the heart is our eye. They are nine centuries of sketching the echoes of contemplations, in the dazzling sparkles of life and passions, transfigurations of reality into a house of glances where music sleeps and the poet paints. To paint is to search for the secret rhyme. The Sanskrit adage runs: na adevo devam arcayet, or to paint is to evoke the divine. Here, in the immensity of the sky and earth, besides the river, and in the bosom of the mountain, painting has one foot in the cave and the other in dreams to populate the world with vision. These pulse-beats of colour, these streams of tenuous brush-strokes that crouch in darkness are the tide of Being, the triumph of non-form in form, or as the Heart Sūtra says: śunyatā eva rūpam. In Indic spirituality, man is in essence ever becoming, a yonder-farer in the life divine. Man is not a static still-stander but a dynamic 'becomer', in living he has to grow, in living is the willed way-faring. That noble values may persist, may become more, for their expansion, he endeavours, he stirs up energy, he makes firm the mind (Dīgha-nikāya 21). Ajantā is a brilliant expression of that 'More' in mind, the bhiyyobhāva of the Pāli texts. Ajantā as the very breath of the teachings of the Tathāgata is both Becoming and Beauty. 

Ajantā was the temenos of monks, yet from the walls of these rock-carved temples emanate joy in the radiance of the world, in the physical charm of men and women, in the liveliness of animals, birds and flowers, in courts and gardens, in forests and across the sky. From focus on monks, the lay believers came to occupy a parallel role in Mahāyāna. The Lotus Sūtra looks upon monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen as constituting the Order. In the Vimalakīrti Sūtra, Vimalakīrti is a rich merchant of Vaiśāli, has a wife and family, engages in business, and occasionally goes to pleasure quarters of the city to preach Dharma. The Sūtra describes how he engaged in debate with the major disciples of the Buddha, and got the better of them in wit and eloquence.

The Ajantā Caves are predominantly related to Mahāyāna and as such embody the dictum that all beings are potential Buddhas. Śākyamuni spent the last monsoon season at the Veṇuvana on the outskirts of Vaiśāli. Resting under a tree after the rains had ended, he remarked: "This world is beautiful, it is a joy to live in it." The murals of Ajantā speak of such spiritual greatness in the consummate beauty of life in its pain and tears, in its transient episodes, culminating in the sublime goal of nirvāṇa. The visible finds its meaning and depth in the life of the Buddha, in the Bodhisattvas, and in the narratives of the avadānas. The studies of Prof. Dieter Schlingloff have proved that Mahāyāna texts are the inspiration of the murals. The Pāli jātakas play but a minor role. They are pictured in the earliest Caves 9 and 10 which are dated to the second century BC.

Caves were the earliest habitations of man. Long after they were not needed for habitation, these caverns drew men to their depths and stirred the spirit as well as the eye. What a dream it was to be in the Śūnyatā and rūpam of the caves, grooved by the gods, syllogisms in stone, symbolic tangents of what took place in the secret gardens of human ideas and ideals: dharmasya tattvam nihitam guhāyām. The cave is a womb for illumination, the away from the world to attain transcendence. The Sanskrit word for cave, guhā, is from the root, guh, 'to conceal, keep secret', guhya 'concealed, secret, mysterious'. In the Ṛgveda 10.45.2 guhā (short instrumental case form) means 'geheim' (PW): vidma te nāma paramam guhā yat. The Atharvaveda 11.5.10 guhā nidhī nihitau brāhmaṇaśya, which means that the treasures of sacred lore of a brahmin are hidden in a cave. The śatapatha-brāhmaṇa 11.2.6.5 equates the guhā with the heart: tasmād idam guheva hṛdayam. In the Śvetāsvatara-upaṇiṢad 3.20 the macrocosmic and microcosmic soul resides in the guhā or deeps of being (aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān ātmāsya, jantoranihito guhāyām). In a cave, psyche finds the hidden that smiles in its dream of deep meditation. The cave is called a guhā as the categories of knower, knowledge, and knowable are hidden herein, or the soul secrets in it (gūḍhā jṉātṛ-jṉāna-jṉeya-pādārthāh asyām, gūhate 'syām ātmā iti vā, Vāhaspatya lexicon). Bhāgavata-purāṇa 2.9.24 says: The Divine Being, the Lord of all beings dwells in the guhā (Bhāgavān sarva-bhūtānām adhyakṣo 'vasthito guhām). Brahman resides in the guhā, the supreme space (brahmā yo veda nihitam guhāyām parame vyoman: Indische Studien 2.217). Guhārāja is the best temple-form in Varāhamihira's Bṛhatsamhita 56.18.25. Guhā is the angelic guardian of a person and hence the name Guhāgupta for a Bodhisattva in the Mahāvyutpatti and the Saddharma-puṇ�aṛka-sūtra. Divinities are located in a cave within a stūpa. In Sādhana 191 of the Sādhanamālā 2.394 the goddess Uṣṇīṣa-vijayā sits in a cavern in the caitya (caitya-guhā-garbha-sthitām). Cave is the solitary vision beyond reflections, where time falls into the timeless. The solemnity of its original silence - deep, dark, oneiric, unfathomable - has so many lessons for meditation. We are hypnotized by solitude, hypnotized by the gaze in a solitary cave. The intimacy of concentration therein leads us to the light on the far horizon. Small caves without murals or reliefs served as places for austere meditation. In Tibet, there are caves near monasteries for meditation-retreats. On the other hand, the rock-cut caves with reliefs and full sculptures served as worship chapels for the laity as well as for the monks.

The paintings or sculptures in the cave-sanctuaries or monasteries were to attract devotees. The translation of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya-vibhaṅga was completed by I-tsing on 17 Nov. 703 AD. It is enjoined herein that pictorial representations of the jātakas should embellish monastic interiors. It is narrated that Anāthapiṇḍa wanted to decorate the walls of the Jetavana vihāra which he was about to offer to the Buddha. The monks did not know what to do. The Buddha said that a single colour should not be employed, but all the four kinds of colours. When Anāthapiṇḍa had commissioned the painters they asked him "what should we represent". The Buddha said: "at the entrance portal a yakṣa holding a daṇḍa, in the vestibule, the Grand Miracle and the Wheel of Existence in five gati, and in the cloister the garland of jātakas (Jātaka-mālā), and .........." While the painters worked, the monks washed near the frescos bespattering and splashing at them. They made fire and blackened them with smoke. This earned them a reprimand from the Buddha. Finally when the paintings were completed, men came to admire them which brought about many conversions, even among the brāhmans. This passage provides precise themes to be painted on the convent walls. In the Ajantā caves a number of paintings are inspired by such Vinaya rules, for instance, the Wheel of Existence (bhāva-cakra) in the veranda of Cave 17 and the jātaka scenes derive from the Jātaka-mālā of Āryaśūra.

The Wheel of Existence comes from the Mūla-sarvāstivāda Vinaya. It classifies human experience from the least to the most desirable, from hell to heaven. The six yoni are: 1. niraya / hell, 2. tiryag-yoni / animals, 3. preta-loka symbolic of unfulfilled desire, 4. asura/anger, 5. manuṢya-loka / humans, 6. deva-loka / gods or higher beings of the sense world who enjoy human pleasures on a more magnificent scale. Where do heaven and hell exist: they are in our mind and body. Hell is a condition of overwhelming suffering, animality is fearing the strong and bullying the weak, preta is a state dominated by deluded desire that can never be satisfied, asura is unrestrained anger and domination. These are four Evil Paths (durgati) marked by destructive negativity. Humanity is a tranquil state marked by reason and balanced judgments. Devas or divinity is state of rapture when desire is fulfilled or suffering escaped. The rim of the bhāva-cakra has the twelve nidānas. Understanding the riddle of life, and the inanity of existence:

When one constantly and fully perfects himself
In the prescriptions of the Dharma
He drains this ocean of sorrows and afflictions
And he overcomes the greatest of sufferings.

yo hy asmin dharma-vinaye apramattas' cariṣyati /
prahāya jāti-samsāram du�khasy-āntam kariṣyati //

Cave 17 is dated to the fifth century by Schlingloff and his identifications of the murals are definitive, being located to precise texts. The avadānas pictured on the walls of this cave are: 1. Simha, 2. Avalokiteśvara who protects from eight perils, 3. Bhāvacakra, 4. Śuddhodana, 5. Udāyin, 6. Dhanapāla, 7. Rāhula, 8. Sumati, 9. Mahāsamāja, 10. Indra-brāhmaṇa, 11. Śibi, 12. Ruru, 13. Ṛksa, 14. Mṛga, 15. �a�danta, 16. Mahākapi, 17. Hastin, 18. Bodhi, 19. Sarvadda, 20. Hamsa, 21. Viśvantara, 22. Indra, 23. Vānara, 24. Sutasoma, 25. Devāvatāra, 26. Rāhula, 27. Mahāprātihārya, 28. Śarabha, 29. Śaśa, 30. Mātṛ-poṣaka, 31. Matsya, 32. Śyāma, 33. Prabhāṣa, 34. Mahiṣa, and 35. Simhala. Their placement in the cave is shown in the sketch below.

The largest number of scenes are based on the Vināya of the Mūla-sarvāstivāda sect (1, 3-7, 13, 20, 21, 25, 26, 32), followed by eleven scenes from the Jātakamālā of Āryaśura (11, 12, 16-18, 22, 23, 28, 29, 31, 34). The other avadāna illustrations are from Divyāvadāna (18, 10, 27, 35), Kalpanā-maṇḍiṭīkā (14, 33), Bodhisattv-āvadāna-kalpalatā (19), Haribhatta's Jātakamālā (15) and Damamūkasūtra (24). The Abhiniskramaṇa-sūtra (30) or the life of the Buddha provides one avadāna. The Mahasamaja-sūtra relates to no. 9 and the Aṣṭabhaya-trāṇa Avalokiteśara (2) can be compared with the relevant chapter of the Saddharma-puṇḍarika-sūtra. These avadānas were to pictorialise the narratives in the book of discipline and to exemplify the six pāramitās in life.
 

We have detailed the jātakas or avadānas in Cave 17 to emphasize that Prof. Dieter Schlingloff has done a yoeman's service to refine the earlier identifications and added new ones by referring to newly discovered fragments or full texts in Sanskrit from Central Asia and Gilgit, and by utilizing Chinese and Tibetan translations of lost Sanskrit originals. Prof. Schlingloff culminates a long tradition of identifying the murals and it is incumbent on future scholarship to benefit by his toil and insights.

The avadānas illustrated on the walls of Ajantā are a social symbolism modeled in personal agencies which has a potential moral depth that an impersonalist cosmology cannot have. They are parables or narratives of a possible event in life or nature, from which a moral or spiritual truth is drawn. If the action is possible, if it might have happened, the story is called a parable. If the action is imagined and in addition unreal (animals conversing, etc.) it is a fable, or better apologue. The characters of an apologue are animals or inanimate things acting as if they were human. Both the parable and the apologue have been employed at Ajantā to draw lessons, and persuasive lessons. Aristotle discusses for example, parable and fable as 'means of persuasion' (koinai pisteis). The concrete image or picture symbolizes precepts, and as we know the power of a story for moral teaching is always more effective when illustrated. Some narratives of the Vināya come from the saṅghabheda-vastu or schism of the Sahgha by Devadatta. The story of a bear (Ṛkṣa) and a poor man concerns a previous birth of Devadatta (Gnoli 2.106). So also the story of Viśvantara is to highlight the treachery of Devadatta (Gnoli 2.133). The story of Dhanapāla, the very ferocious elephant of Ajātśatru, relates to Devadatta's attempt to kill the Buddha by means of this elephant who follows the Buddha submissively, dies of grief and is reborn in the heaven of the Four Great kings (Gnoli 2.186-191). The story of the King of Geese (Hamsādhipati) concerns a previous birth of Ananda (Gnoli 2.192-194). Kumārajīva says at the end of his Mahāprajṉāpāramitopadeśa that the Vināya of the Mūla-sarvāstivādins of Mathura was rife with jātakas and avadānas, while the Vinaya of Kashmir rejected both of them and accepted only the essentials and formed ten sections. The Mūla-sarvāstivādins enjoyed vogue on account of its literary qualities, tales written in a plain and vivid style, that relieved the dry enumeration of disciplinary duties. The Divyāvadāna, Avadāna-śataka and other works are inspired by the Vinaya, which Sylvain Levi calls a chef-d'ouevre of Sanskrit literature with its succession of edifying tales which are picturesque and amusing. He terms it a kind of Bṛhatkathā for the monks ("une espece de Bṛhatkathā a l'usage des moines" JA 1932:23). This exegesis is to point out that the exquisite paintings in the monastic ambience emanate from Vināya texts which sought meaning in the liberal symbolism of life. The visible symbols breathed powerful expression into the discipline of monks.

The twenty-nine cave-sanctuaries of Ajantā are Buddhist monastic complexes, some with remains of paintings that are rich and combine the finish of a classic style. Cave 10 can be as early as the second century BC. Here the paintings are in the form of a long frieze, and recall the painted scrolls of kathaka or story-tellers in the Mahābhārata. In later centuries the paintings sprawl all over the wall surface, teeming with life and nature. All visible space was adorned in a grotto. Thirteen caves have fragments, while six of them (Caves 1, 2, 9, 10, 16, 17) are richly endowed with recognizable themes. The fleeting and the profound vitality of the living models, sincere devotion, Persians in the embassy scene, fur-trimmed conical caps and embroidered coats of foreigners, a bearded figure with striped socks and a skull-cap, the very Indian figures of princesses, queens and maids: are an entire range of a lucid imagery of a formative art. An inscription in Cave 22 below a seated Buddha says: "Those who erect an image of the Jina become endowed with good looks, good fortune and good qualities, acquiring resplendent brightness and insight". Another inscription in Cave 2 is eloquent about the loveliness and serenity of these caves: "For, where pious persons, adorned with excellent virtues, have their residence, such a place is very auspicious and lovely, a sacred place of pilgrimage, a hermitage." The apsidal caityagṛhas with a long vaulted nave and pillared aisles, and the rectangular vihāra halls with cells for monks on the inner sides are the two main architectural types. The resplendent imagery of the vihāras, made possible by munificent endowments, inspired the people with wonder and devotion. We see artistic culmination in drawing and colouring the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in their serenity and compassion, and the exuberance in reproducing the female figure in the modulations of her body, the glance of her eyes, the curves of her hips, and the roundness of her bosom. The murals of Ajantā are a pouring forth of Buddha's words to Ānanda when he rested a moment in one of the neighbouring hills of Vaiśālī: citram Jambudvīpam, manoramam jivitam manuṣyāṇām "colourful and rich, resplendent and attractive is India; and lovable, charming is the life of men". In bidding adieu to life and the world, he felt in harmony to both. Likewise, Ajantā is both a blessing and enamour, the radiant form and the wisdom of the Yonder Bank (Pāramitā), the enlightening insight (avalokita) of the dynamism of the mirage.

Colossal compositions can be seen in Caves 1 and 17 which were painted during the Vākāṭaka dynasty. The Padmapāṇi Bodhisattva in Cave 1 has a sublime expression beyond joy and sorrow, subtle and detached in his spirituality though he is amidst courtiers, ladies and guards. His golden crown with jewels, necklace, cat-rings, armlets and wristlets, and the strand of pearls from shoulder to waist emphasize his princely dignity. The monkeys, lions, pigeons, kinnara musicians embrace the universality of life: Buddhism was the whole universe. The colours are applied in an ingenious manner. The painting of Return of the Buddha to Kapilavastu at the invitation of his father King Śuddhodana, in Cave 17, exhibits delicate poignancy. The Buddha is about ten feet tall and the figure of Yaśodharā is very small but elegant in her feminine grace, in the rhythmic treatment of her body, the fine brushwork in the curls above her temples, her pinkish white complexion and the light colour of her dress. As the Buddha extends his hand with a jade alms-bowl towards Yaśodharā, she pushes Rāhula lovingly towards the Buddha to be blessed. The child gazes up at his father. The human becomes divine calm in the indifference of the Enlightened One to worldly ties. The powerful frieze of the Simhala-avadāna represents a series of events in the life of Simhala, a previous birth of the Buddha. A shipwreck, followed by the army of Simhala fighting the forces of the demonesses of the island where the ship was wrecked, is a vivid representation of a battle scene, with methods of attack, various weapons, and frenzied tempo of combat. It is a composition of unparalleled power, and represents the spirit of the Vākāṭakas. Vindhyaśakti, who had ushered in the Vākāṭakas, is referred to in an inscription as "whose strength increased in great battles, whose valour was irresistible even to the gods, and who was mighty in fighting and charity". The Śakas suffered defeat at the hands of Pravarasena, the son of Vindhyaśakti. The rising power of the Vākāṭakas attracted artists from all directions, and this gave rise to the superb artistic achievements at Ajantā: the inner beauty of the spirit and the sensuality of lovely women in the surpassing unity of transience and transcendence. The extinction of desire and langorous sensuality are drawn in suavity and elegance, in the maturity of drawing and colouring. Exuberance and excitement seems to have run in the veins of the artist as he reproduced the soft roundness of her breasts, the curves of her hips, or the mischievous glance of her eyes. And yet, feminine dignity radiates like the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

In Cave 10 wood nymphs are moulded beautifully with bare round breasts. The vibrant movements of the dancer in an enchanting tilt of the head, or slanting look are in contrast to the rigidity of the nymphs. In the portrayal of women lies the creative genius of Ajantā. Lovely women in repose, admiring themselves in a mirror, carrying offerings, standing, sitting or gossiping, talking to their lovers, crowding in street scenes, embellishing the windows by their presence, nymphs flying through the air, or luring the sailors to their doom, in their manifold fashions of hair-dressing: they are all perfection of elegance, reminiscent of Kālidāsa in his poem Kumāra-sambhava: "like a painting on which the final outline had been carefully drawn to mark the modelling of the limbs by the master painter Kāmadeva." The Viṣṇu-dharmottara relates that sage Nārāyaṇa took the juice of a mango tree (which excites sexual passion), and created Urvaśī ("Hot Desire") and she surpassed all women. Thus he invented the art of painting together with its rules, and communicated it to Viśvakarmā. The mental vision of this legend is voiced in the bewitching charm of the feminine at Ajantā.

The decorative sense of the Ajantā artists has left nothing un-adorned on ceilings, walls, doors, windows, pedestals and columns. Jewellery designs, geometric patterns, fantastic human or semi-human forms, dancing, clapping or sipping wine, frolicsome birds and animals, flowers and fruits amidst verdure of foliage are a kaleidoscopic variety that covers every inch of space. Space is alive in zest and humour.

The grotesque of expressive ugliness is portrayed without malice in the features of devotees offering to the Buddha. In Cave 2 are two wine-bibbers, one of whom is a foreigner by his features and dress. His sunken cheeks and the thin tuft of beard on his chin give him a comic appearance.

Birds and animals are shown with realism, as the artists lived amidst forests rich in fauna, and also because Buddhism teaches compassion for all living beings. Various pre-incarnations of the Buddha in the jātakas are as birds and animals.

The soft hues of red ochre, yellow ochre, terra verte, lamp-black and lime white enlivened the surfaces by shading to produce relief effects. In the Vināya-piṭaka, Buddha allows the monks to use whitewash, black colouring and red chalk in a dwelling place. The Master permitted the use of binding media -- such as the powder of rice husks mixed with clay, oil of beeswax, excrement of earthworms, to be sponged over with a piece of cloth. In Ajantā mineral colours have been applied on a semi-wet surface, and they have been absorbed deep in the nearly two centimetre thick plaster. The tone of colours consolidated the relief and plasticity of the painting: dark colours for subjects in the foreground and a background of lighter shades, or vice versa. In Pāli they are known as vattana 'shading' and ujjotana 'adding highlights'. The varying thickness of line is drawn with a free flowing sweep of the brush to define sensitive features in the technique of 'shade and highlight'. The introduction of lapis lazuli (vaidurya) in the fourth or fifth century became an effective medium for visual depth, in contrast to the red and brown tones. The transparent cool blue was a deepening of tonal vision, creating the illusion of spaciousness. In Zen, blue is the colour of meditation, and the different planes of contemplation are in varying shades of blue. The deep and pure scale of colours has been enriched by a harmonious veil of patina of several centuries.

The sculptures of Ajantā, though heavy, show a spiritual sensitivity and refined modeling. The sculptor of the figures of the Buddha at the entrance of Cave 19 has endowed them with an expression of detachment and universal love. In Cave 26 the Parinirvāṇa of the Buddha is of colossal dimension. The sculpture of Hāritī and Pāṉcikā in Cave 2 exudes an assuring expression of the well-being of children. As a sculpture in Cave 19 Amrapāli the beauty of Vaiśālī appears "in white garments, devoid of body-paint and ornaments before the Buddha like a woman of a good family at the time of worshipping" and "prostrated her slim body like a blossoming mango-creeper and stood up full of piety" (Aśvaghosa's Buddha-carita 22.17, 51). Nāgas, yakṣas, vidyādharas, gandharvas, kinnaras and other celestial beings are sculptured in lithesome movements. The supple forms of the flying mithunas depict consorts resting gracefully on their male companions.

Ajantā has safeguarded the ancient art of Indian painting which became the grace and vitality of the art of Buddhist Asia. Chinese pilgrims journeyed over the deep sands of Central Asia as pilgrims and disciples to India and took back manuscripts, sacred images and paintings from Indian monasteries. The art of Ajantā and other sanctuaries influenced the Buddhist art of China. Xuanzang refers in all probability to Ajantā in the east of Maharashtra: "here was a monastery the base of which was in a dark defile, and its lofty halls and deep chambers were quarried in the cliff and rested on the peak, its tiers of halls ...... had the cliff on their back and faced the ravine. This monastery had been built by Acala of West India." An inscription in Cave 26 says that monk Acala had the cave made at Ajantā. The style of the fresco paintings in the Golden Hall of the Horyuji monastery near Nara (Japan), built in the sixth century, resembles that of Ajantā. Prof. Haruyama points out that colouring methods, shading and the emphasis on three-dimensionality is close to Ajantā. The reddish brown of most lines reflects Indianness. Prof. Kidder says that the Horyuji paintings are linked with India through Dunhuang in China.

Ajantā is the mind embodied in material beauty and spiritual transcendence, joy permeated with deep spirituality, austerity and princes, sages and heroes, forests and plains, mithunas flying across the sky, a remarkable expression of life in harmony with the Divine, in the superb natural scenery of a hill-stream cascading down in seven leaps (Sātkun�) into the Waghorā river. The melodious lines of frescos and sculptures turn into poetic perfection, into a luxurious glow and composure. Ajantā fills us with a sense of marvel and reverence, vivid in the presence of sage monks who once lived and meditated and the ancient artists who gave body and shape to sublime ideas long ago. It reminds us of a Japanese poet: "And here among these stones / The shadow of a dream". The architectonics of the caves with their solemn proportions and sublime sense have a mind behind them, are coefficients of consciousness, to merge the sādhaka into the light of cosmic awareness.

In the Symposium of Plato, contemplation of the beautiful body is only a rung on the ladder toward the vision of the supreme good: form, archetype, idea. Ajantā is the barefoot light of the mind that opens its doors to the images of this world and of another that we can only glimpse. It is a temple to the Void, a sanctuary to Śunyatā, beyond the eyes and mind, surrounded by infinites and transfinites.

Andre Malraux on a pilgrimage to Ajantā reminisces: "The mind is but a shaft from the unknown". With a lotus in our hands, we are all Bodhisattvas watching the river that runs through the gorge. Compassion makes the world as twilight makes a day....

"If Ellorā is medieval, Ajantā is renaissance. Here man flowers. True, he is sorrowful of sorrow. Life is but a cycle of becoming. That is why one should hold these flowers in the hand and look at the swans on the wall, composing the life of the Buddha with so many splendours that one can live because one is dead to this life. Māyā, the mother of Buddha, twists her body in pain of birth with such human cosmicity that the trees burst into flower about her".

"See these princesses beside the Bodhisattva, their breasts rounded by love, their limbs of cooing sensuality, their tiaras of confirmed feminity. Man leaves these behind because he looks at the world of twilight, which is not really of this world. There is no world. The Void is. Only the Void is."

 

Raniero Gnoli, The Gilgit Manuscript of the saṅgabhedavastu, being the 17'" and last section of the Vinaya of the Mulasarvastivadin, Parts I, II, Roma (I.I.M.E.O.), 1977, 1978

J. Edward Kidder Jr., Ajantā and Horyuji, in India's Contribution to World Thought and Culture, pages 347-358, Madras (Vivekananda Rock Memorial Committee), 1970.

Malraux & India: A Passage to Wonderment, New Delhi (Ambassade de France en Inde), n.d.

PW (=Petersburg Worterbuch)  Otto Bohtlingk & Rudolph Roth, Sanskrit Worterbuch, St. Petersburg (Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften), 1855-l 875.

Dieter Schlingloff, Guide to the Ajantā Paintings, New Delhi, 1996.