Ajanta: Handbuch der Malereien, vol. 1: Interpretation; vol. 2: Supplement; vol. 3: Plates.

• Author: Chandra, Pramod
• Position: Reviews of Books - Book Review

Ajanta: Handbuch der Malereien, vol. 1: Interpretation; vol. 2: Supplement; vol. 3: Plates. By DIETER SCHLINGLOFF. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2000. Pp. 908. DM 198.

This encyclopedic work is the culmination of Professor Schlingloff's extensive researches in the wall paintings of the Buddhist cave temples and monasteries of Ajanta. He has been primarily concerned with the very basic task of identifying the subject matter in all its rich detail, a prerequisite for all further research. Scholars of the greatest eminence had never before completely and satisfactorily accomplished this, in spite of the attention devoted to the subject for over a hundred years. Professor Schlingloff himself has steadfastly pursued his researches for the last three decades, and glimpses of his results are to be seen in his contributions to learned journals. Some of these were brought together in the very useful Studies in Ajanta Paintings (1988), which, unlike the present work, was written in English. The Ajanta Handbuch under review brings to a culmination all his previous work, in a sense completing and perfecting it.

Volume 1, consisting of over 500 pages, is the core of the work and is confined to a thorough exposition of the narrative paintings. The arrangement is clear, the corpus of materials being divided into two broad parts: the earlier paintings which, trusting Luders, the author considers to be of the second century B.C. and the later ones, by far the most abundant, which are assigned to the second half of the fifth century A.D. These are further classified into logical themes and sub-themes under rubrics such as the life of the Buddha in former existences, the life of the Buddha, and central events in the Buddha's life as devotional pictures. As the arrangement is thematic, all representations, apart from the caves in which they were painted, are grouped together, making a comparative study particularly convenient.

The analysis of each painted narrative follows an orderly sequence. We are first given a description of the contents of a painting in a meaningful context, at the head of which is a reference to the literary source to which the painting most closely conforms. A study of the sources for all of the paintings, as Schlingloff has already hinted in earlier publications, leads to the inevitable conclusion that almost all of the narrative paintings are based on the vinaya of the Mulasarvastivadins, and the poems of Aryasura and Asvaghosa. This is a major advance in our understanding of the art of Ajanta. It establishes that in spite of the presence of Avalokitesvara images, the commonly accepted understanding of the caves as Mahayana is incorrect; rather it is the Sanskrit texts of the "Hinayana" that are the source and inspiration for the painting at Ajanta, to the extent...