{"id":5062,"date":"2014-08-16T07:00:14","date_gmt":"2014-08-16T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/?p=5062"},"modified":"2014-08-22T15:54:05","modified_gmt":"2014-08-22T20:54:05","slug":"5062","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2014\/08\/5062.html","title":{"rendered":"Birth of Indian Art: Restored Ajanta Caves"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><figure id=\"attachment_5063\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5063\" style=\"width: 224px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/433\/2014\/08\/Detail-from-a-mural-in-ca-001.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5063\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/433\/2014\/08\/Detail-from-a-mural-in-ca-001-224x300.jpg\" alt=\"Photograph: Prasad Pawar\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5063\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photograph: Prasad Pawar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Restored paintings on the Ajanta cave walls in Maharashtra, western India are, according to author and writer, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.williamdalrymple.uk.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">William Dalrymple<\/a>, \u201cpossibly the finest surviving picture galleries from the ancient world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Restoration of the paintings in Cave #10 began in 1999 using infrared light, micro-emulsion and \u201ccutting-edge Japanese conservation technology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/artanddesign\/2014\/aug\/15\/mural-ajanta-caves-india-birth-indian-art#_\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">In a story for the Guardian <\/a>called \u201c<em>The Ajanta Cave Murals: \u2018Nothing Less Than the Birth of Indian Art<\/em>,\u2019 \u201d Dalrymple reports that archaelogists\u00a0\u201csucceeded in removing 75% of the layers of shellac, hard soot and grime from 10 sq m of the murals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Here are some interesting facts about the murals that come from the story.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<ul>\n<li>31 caves make up the Ajanta Caves<\/li>\n<li>The paintings <a href=\"http:\/\/buddhism.about.com\/od\/sacredbuddhisttexts\/a\/The-Jataka-Tales.htm\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">tell Jakarta stories<\/a> which are stories about the earlier lives of the\u00a0Buddha.<\/li>\n<li>Cave#10, the one that was restored and about which Dalrymple writes, dates to about the 1st or 2nd century CE, while most of the others date 600 years later.<\/li>\n<li>The paintings, Dalrymple notes, \u201copen a window on to an age about which we know little.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0turbans, for example, seem to denote rank \u00a0and status.<\/li>\n<li>And artistic techniques suggest a Hellenistic influence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But above all, says Dalrymple,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The murals of Ajanta are now recognised as some of the greatest art produced by humankind in any century, as well as the finest picture gallery to survive from any ancient civilisation. Even today, the colours glow with a brilliant intensity: topaz-dark, lizard green, lotus-blue.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>You can read more about the Ajanta Caves<a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2014\/04\/ajanta-caves-spirituality-sexuality.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\"> in an earlier post about them<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Restored paintings on the Ajanta cave walls in Maharashtra, western India are, according to author and writer, William Dalrymple, \u201cpossibly the finest surviving picture galleries from the ancient world.\u201d Restoration of the paintings in Cave #10 began in 1999 using infrared light, micro-emulsion and \u201ccutting-edge Japanese conservation technology.\u201d In a story for the Guardian called [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1838,"featured_media":5063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17,18],"class_list":["post-5062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ajanta-caves","tag-buddhism"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Birth of Indian Art: Restored Ajanta Caves<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Restored paintings on the Ajanta cave walls in Maharashtra, western India are, according to author and writer, William Dalrymple, &quot;possibly the finest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2014\/08\/5062.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Birth of Indian Art: Restored Ajanta Caves\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Restored paintings on the Ajanta cave walls in Maharashtra, western India are, according to author and writer, William Dalrymple, &quot;possibly the finest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2014\/08\/5062.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World Religions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-16T12:00:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-08-22T20:54:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/433\/2014\/08\/Detail-from-a-mural-in-ca-001.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"476\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"635\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"George G. Coe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"George G. Coe\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2014\/08\/5062.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2014\/08\/5062.html\",\"name\":\"Birth of Indian Art: Restored Ajanta Caves\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-16T12:00:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-08-22T20:54:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/#\/schema\/person\/c8608c711b76ea4be3eb28f4ed317e2f\"},\"description\":\"Restored paintings on the Ajanta cave walls in Maharashtra, western India are, according to author and writer, William Dalrymple, \\\"possibly the finest\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2014\/08\/5062.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2014\/08\/5062.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2014\/08\/5062.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Birth of Indian Art: Restored Ajanta Caves\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/\",\"name\":\"World Religions\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/#\/schema\/person\/c8608c711b76ea4be3eb28f4ed317e2f\",\"name\":\"George G. Coe\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/author\/gccoe\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Birth of Indian Art: Restored Ajanta Caves","description":"Restored paintings on the Ajanta cave walls in Maharashtra, western India are, according to author and writer, William Dalrymple, \"possibly the finest","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2014\/08\/5062.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Birth of Indian Art: Restored Ajanta Caves","og_description":"Restored paintings on the Ajanta cave walls in Maharashtra, western India are, according to author and writer, William Dalrymple, \"possibly the finest","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2014\/08\/5062.html","og_site_name":"World Religions","article_published_time":"2014-08-16T12:00:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-08-22T20:54:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":476,"height":635,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/433\/2014\/08\/Detail-from-a-mural-in-ca-001.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"George G. Coe","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"George G. Coe","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2014\/08\/5062.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2014\/08\/5062.html","name":"Birth of Indian Art: Restored Ajanta Caves","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-08-16T12:00:14+00:00","dateModified":"2014-08-22T20:54:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/#\/schema\/person\/c8608c711b76ea4be3eb28f4ed317e2f"},"description":"Restored paintings on the Ajanta cave walls in Maharashtra, western India are, according to author and writer, William Dalrymple, \"possibly the finest","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2014\/08\/5062.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2014\/08\/5062.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2014\/08\/5062.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Birth of Indian Art: Restored Ajanta Caves"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/","name":"World Religions","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/#\/schema\/person\/c8608c711b76ea4be3eb28f4ed317e2f","name":"George G. Coe","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/author\/gccoe"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1838"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}