Photographs by Benoy Behl.

1819. A team of British officers of the East India Company, tailing a tiger on a hilltop near the village of Ajanta, Maharashtra, lost the big cat in the forested valley below. As their eyes scanned the landscape, Captain John Smith glimpsed an unusual horseshoe shaped arch on a rock face in the valley. Intrigued by the form, the officers ventured below and found the arch to be hand-chiseled. A closer look revealed it enclosed a window through which light filtered into a cave excavated within the mountain And further: it was only one of the many caves in a row, with steps leading down from each such cave to the narrow Waghora river in the gorge below.

The quiet, remote location swiftly stirred alive. Centuries of vegetation and debris were cleared away, to reveal exquisite painstakingly sculpted and painted caves. Outer walls emerged embellished with sculptures depicting the Buddha; while within, the dark, cool cavernous walls had turned into canvases with narrative paintings of scenes from the life of the Buddha, legends and stories associated with Buddhism. The sheer dimension of the scooped-out caves left visitors amazed: Cave 10, the largest prayer hall is 29.5 metres in length, 12.5 metres wide, 11 metres high and covers an area of 369 square metres. A treasure stumbled up on, John Smith carved his name next to a painting in Cave 10. And it was only a matter of time that historians, travelers, restorers, artists and pilgrims traveled to see for themselves the marvelous Ajanta caves.

Lost to the elements for over a thousand years, Ajanta’s exquisite paintings were in danger of being permanently damaged after their discovery. Apart from water seepage through the rocks and insects eating into the fibrous base of the ancient paintings, yogis had started dwelling inside and visitors kept touching the painted surfaces. After a thorough study of the paintings in January 1919, Sir Aurel Stein wrote, “There can be little doubt that notwithstanding all the care bestowed on the ruined cave temples these wonderful wall paintings will be subject to progressive decay owing to irremediable physical conditions. It is most unlikely that their value for the student of Eastern art and Buddhism will ever be surpassed by any discoveries still possible in the future”.

Monsieur A. Foucher, University of Paris, invited to Ajanta in April 1919, stressed the urgency of calling in an expert for the preservation and cleaning of the paintings as well as photographing them. By that time, paintings on the upper section of some walls had darkened considerably (varnish applied in the 1880s to protect the paintings from moisture as well as brightening their details had darkened them instead), some paintings were peeling, insects were eating away sections, dust and soot from fires lit by yogis had settled on the walls. Monsieur Foucher suggested that the restoration task “must be entrusted to none but to a skilled expert. It is common belief that such a one can only be found in Italy, the only country in the world where the abundance of wall- paintings, either al fresco or a tempera, provides sufficient training and occupation for such restorers”. After lengthy correspondence with the British Embassy at Rome, Sir Marshall invited the expert Italian restaurateur, Signor L. Cecconi to India to undertake the conservation of the Ajanta paintings. He arrived at Ajanta in December 1920 with his assistant Count Orsini. Funded by “the truly enlightened and generous disposition of H.E.H. the Nizam’s Government”, under whose dominions the Ajanta Caves came under, restoration work proceeded without monetary constraints, and the two experts were soon immersed in the conservation work, which carried on till the end of April 1921.

To protect the paintings from insects the restaurateurs decided to insert casein mixed with a little white arsenic where the space between the painted surface and the rock-bed was narrow, and plaster of Paris, where the cavity was larger. Before filling in the cavities, they strengthened the painted surface with shellac diluted in alcohol, secured them with bandages (so that they would not peel off from the rock bed) and cleaned the cavities with an air pump. The decayed and frayed edges of paintings were filled in a mixture of plaster of Paris (about 10%), Portland cement (40%) and powdered rock (about 50%). While alcohol was used for removing the earlier varnish, spirit of turpentine immediately applied as a fixative so that the colors and details of the paintings should suffer no damage. Ammonia was used for removing dust and smoke from the wall surface.
Of their painstaking efforts, the government report noted that, “Thanks to the skill and patience of the restaurateurs these problems which offered no small difficulties in the beginning have gradually been solved”, and after a year it was found that “the paintings which before conservation were apt to turn into dust at the gentlest touch are now as hard as stone and may last for several centuries to come”.

Restoration efforts have since continued at Ajanta. With experience and the advancement of conservation techniques, methods are constantly reviewed, and new measures taken to preserve the paintings, which remain vulnerable to water seepage and the heavy tourist inflow. For instance, in retrospect, it has been realized that the application of shellac to paintings in tropical areas is not suitable practice, as it has darkened with time thus obscuring images. With the commitment of the government; of archeologists, researchers, restorers and agencies from India and abroad, Ajanta’s magical beauty, tranquility and unique artistic expression has been preserved for posterity.

NOTEBOOK: A major restoration project is underway at Ajanta, which is funded jointly by the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation and the Government of Maharashtra. The first phase has been completed successfully and the project cited as the best executed conservation project in India by the Minister of Tourism and Culture, Government of India, at the PATA conference in New Delhi, in April 2002. Ajanta is 100 kms. from Aurangabad, and can be conveniently visited from Aurangabad. The Buddhist, Hindu and Jain caves at Ellora, 30 kms. from Aurangabad are also a World Heritage Site and can be conveniently visited. The caves are closed on Mondays and national holidays. Contact Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation for further details. MTDC, Express Towers, 9th Floor, Nariman Point, Mumbai - 400 021.Phone - 91-22-2024482, 2024522, 2024584.r.