Copy of painting in the caves of Ajanta by John Griffiths and students of the Bombay School of Art.

This painting has a scene of a rocky landscape. On the left hand side there are two elephants, one of which is raising his trunk. A man with a striped shirt looks out from the rocky landscape towards the elephants. There are also two sets of couples sitting in the landscape and peacocks up at the top centre of the canvas. In the right hand side of the painting the man with the striped shirt is carrying a yoke laden with elephant tusks across his shoulders towards the other figures nearby.

This painting has deep scratches across the image which are evidence of the vandalism done to the actual cave paintings.

Historical significance: The paintings inside the caves of Ajanta tell stories from the lives of the Buddha. This painting depicts the Saddanta jataka.

Narrative:

A queen announces to the king that she has an unsatisfied desire for the tusks of a six-tusk (Saddanta) elephant. The elephant is infact her husband from a previous birth and she wants to take revenge on him for his supposed unfaithfulness. She lets the hunters of the court know where this six-tusk elephant lives.

A brave hunter goes in search of the elephant and from the top of a rocky landscape (IS.19-1885) he catches sight of it and the herd with which he lives while they are bathing in the lotus pond.

The hunter digs a pit along a path which the elephants use and climbs in. He mortally wounds the elephant as he walks over the pit and the rest of the herd flees into the jungle, lost without their leader. The hunter saws the tusks off the elephant and ties them to a yoke in order to carry them to the queen (IS.19-1885).

When the queen sees the tusks she is full of remorse and regrets the action. To make amends the relics of the elephant are kept in a stupa within the caitya-hall of a monastery which the king and his attendants visit.

The cave paintings of Ajanta are the oldest surviving examples of painting in India. They depict stories from the lives of the Buddha (the jatakas) and date from the 1st century BC to about AD 480. The cave complex was discovered in 1819 and since then attempts have been made to document the paintings inside them. In 1844 Major Robert Gill was commissioned to make copies. Unfortunately most of the paintings he completed were destroyed in a fire in 1866. To make up for this loss, from 1872, John Griffiths from the Bombay school of Art and seven Indian students spent every winter for the following 13 years at the caves producing approximately 300 paintings, of which this is one.

Painted by John Griffiths and students from the Bombay School of Art

This is a copy of a painting in cave 10 at Ajanta. These paintings date from the 1st century BC to about AD 480 and are the oldest surviving examples of painting in India. They depict stories from the lives of the Buddha (the Jatakas), in this case the Saddanta Jataka.

The Ajanta cave complex was discovered in 1819 and since then attempts have been made to document the paintings inside them. In 1844 Major Robert Gill was commissioned to make copies. Unfortunately most of the paintings he completed were destroyed in a fire in 1866. To make up for the loss, from 1872 to 1885 John Griffiths from the Bombay School of Art and seven Indian students spent every winter at the caves producing approximately 300 paintings. This is one of them.

IS.19-1885