Chapter 3 - The Model of the City in Narrative Ajanta Paintings

Summary

In order to visualize the structure of an old Indian city we are still almost completely dependent on random mentions in contemporary literature. Representations in reliefs generally do not depict cities but rather individual buildings. Moreover, excavations reveal building plans of houses, but not of urban structures. The narrative paintings of Ajanta complement the available source material in a welcome manner. Since the large-area paintings recently became completely available as line drawings, it is possible to gain an insight into their formal structure. It becomes evident that the painters by no means spread the depicted scenes over the surface in a random fashion but rather imbedded them into an ideal plan of the city. Although the requirements of the narrative, as well as the size and shape of the available pictorial wall, necessitated many variations, the paintings, divested of the figures acting in them, reveal a generalized sketch of the cityscape.

Due to the narrative content, in nearly all the paintings the royal palace occupies the foreground. It was also the most prominent building structure. It was not only the residence of the king and his court. and seat of the state administration, it also served as the military, economic, and cultural center of the city.