61 Rajendralala Mitra— On Representations of [No. 1, 
“ The artists who painted them, were giants in execution. Even on the 
vertical sides of the walls some of the lines which were drawn with one 
sweep of the brush struck me as being very wonderful; but when I saw 
long delicate curves drawn without faltering with equal precision upon the 
horizontal surface of a ceiling, where the difficulty of execution is increased 
a thousand-fold, it appeared to me nothing less than miraculous. One of 
the students, when hoisted up on the scaffolding, tracing his first panel on 
the ceiling, naturally remarked that some of the work looked like a child’s 
work ; little thinking that what appeared to him up there as rough and 
meaningless, had been laid in by a cunning hand, so that when seen at its 
right distance, every touch fell into its proper place. 
“ The condition of mind in which these paintings at Ajanta were origi¬ 
nated and executed must have been very similar to that which produced the 
early Italian paintings of the fourteenth century, as we find much that is 
in common. Little attention paid to the science of art, a general crowding 
of figures into a subject, regard being had more to the truthful rendering 
of a story than to a beautiful rendering of it ; not that they discarded beau¬ 
ty, but they did not make it the primary motive of representation. There 
is a want of aerial perspective—the parts are delicately shaded, not forced 
by light and shade, giving the whole a look of flatness—a quality to he de¬ 
sired in mural decoration. 
“ Whoever were the authors of these paintings, they must have con¬ 
stantly mixed with the world. Scenes of every-day life, such as preparing 
food, carrying water, buying and selling, processions, hunting-scenes, ele¬ 
phant-fights, men and women engaged in singing, dancing, and playing on 
musical instruments, are most gracefully depicted upon these walls ; and 
they could only have been done by men who were constant spectators of 
such scenes, by men of keen observation and retentive memories. # # # # 
In every example that has come under my observation, the action of the 
hands is admirable and unmistakeable in conveying the particular ex¬ 
pression the artist intended. 
Adverting to the second picture he says : “ Parts of this picture are 
admirably executed. In addition to the natural grace and ease with which 
she is standing, the drawing of the woman holding a casket in one hand, 
and a jewel with a string of pearls hanging from it in the other, is most 
delicately and truly rendered. The same applies to the woman seated on 
the ground in the left hand corner. The upward gaze and sweet expression 
of the mouth are beautifully given. The left hand of the same woman...is 
drawn with great subtlety and tenderness.”! “The third picture”, he 
remarks, “ contains eight figures and portions of three others, all of which are 
seated or standing upon large lotus flowers with nimbi round the heads. The 
* Indian Antiquary, III. 26. f Ibid., loc. cit. 
