Ajanta Murals by Ingrid Aall; M. N. Deshpande; A. Ghosh; B. B. LalReview by: Jane Gaston MahlerJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 89, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1969), pp. 453-454Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/596547 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 16:34

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

American Oriental Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal ofthe American Oriental Society.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.122.73.86 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 16:34:56 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Reviews of Books 453

Ajanta Murals. By INGRID AALL, M. N. DESH- PANDE, A. GHOSH, and B. B. LAL; photo- graphs by S. G. TIWARI; ed. by A. GHOSH. Pp. 71, 85 color plates, 16 photographs in black and white, 20 line drawings. New Delhi: ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA, 1966. Rs. 80.00, $24.00.

This is the book we have been waiting for. With the Director General of Archaeology in India, A. Ghosh, as editor, the enormous prestige of that department stands behind it. The excellent color plates derived from photographs by Shri S. G. Tiwari were checked for fidelity of color by several of the contributors, and proofs rectified, giving us a true picture of the murals as they now appear.

The glories of Ajanta can be enjoyed by artists, by amateurs of all ages, by students of sociology, theology, mythology, costume design, textiles, architecture, decorative arts, the dance, and Gupta period culture-to name some categories of those who will welcome the book. Formerly one had to go to a great library to consult G. Yazdani's four volume opus, Ajanta, which is still the master work in scope and completeness, but this is in- tended for the public in general, for colleges and smaller libraries. It is the best of its size to come out.

The Bibliography lists all previous books and articles relating to the subject, arranged in chrono- logical sequence; it is a useful guide to earlier litera- ture on the Buddhist cave temples in the Hydera- bad region, with particular attention focussed on Ajanta sanctuaries.

The authors modestly assert that one volume cannot attempt to do more than suggest some of the wonders contained in those halls for worship, and monks' quarters, hewn out of the cliffs above the Waghora River. The plan of the horse-shoe shaped group, drawn to scale, is used for end- papers. The black and white photographs give an idea of the relationship between architecture and sculpture, overall proportion, and texture. They allow the viewer to make comparisons with the art of the painters displayed in the 85 color plates.

For specialists in art history these have rele- vance in discussions that bear on the troublesome questions of chronology in the rock cut temples

that extend from Kanheri and Elephanta on the West coast to structural temples and sculpture in the Pallava realm on the East coast. They are equally important to scholars who are interested in tracing the relationships between the Buddhist art of India, Ceylon, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Java and other Southeast Asian lands, to South China, Central Asia, and Northeastern Asia.

The line drawings add another dimension. They give a clear picture of composition in the over-all mural scheme, and are valuable for an analysis of details such as jewelry and gesture. All of the illustrations are important to the student of Buddhist iconography.

The written words vary in style from the dis- passionate scientific reports of Dr. B. B. Lal, Archaeological Chemist, who discusses pigments and techniques used to produce these tempera murals, and their preservation, to the rich prose of Ingrid Aall, who never lacks for ecstatic adjec- tives to express her appreciation of the over- whelming impact of the art. The Norwegian lady's response is as warm as the tropics, while the scholars of India present their views with re- straint, dealing with facts and iconographic inter- pretation in a more detached manner.

Shri Deshpande gives an historical perspective, discusses some of the problems faced by students of the cave sculpture, and, for the murals, a chap- ter on theme and content. Though all are brief, they are written with insight and the expertise one would expect from the Director of the School of Archaeology of the Archaeological Survey. He states that prolific activity at this monastic center had come to a close by the end of the sixth century A.D., which gives a chronological span dating from the second century B.C. through this late phase. In the middle phase of painting, com- mencing from the last quarter of the fifth century A.D., he places many of the narratives from the Jftakas and Avadanas, including a large portion of the murals in Cave 1 and Cave 17. In this he disagrees with other authors who considered Cave 1 to be later. Even Cave 2 he assigns to the sixth century on the basis of inscriptions.

The text is well organized, well presented, well documented. There are some typographical errors,

This content downloaded from 62.122.73.86 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 16:34:56 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

454 Journal of the American Oriental Society, 89.2 (1969)

such as "Gill's copies, 1849-1955" (p. 2), and note 2, p. 19, which should read "p. 16 note 3."

For all readers the color plates will be a source of delight. Great care was exercised in their selec- tion and presentation so that they would truly re- flect the beauty of the Golden Age, the pageant of life in the courts, towns and villages. There are celestial figures, humans, animals and plants-and combinations of all four which illustrate the unity of life in Buddhist philosophy.

A revelation lies in store for the readers who had not yet discovered the art of Ajanta. They will feel an awakening to a new appreciation of Indian culture, of Indian leadership in the arts. For those who already love India, who have penetrated the cool caverns of Ajanta from the hot brilliance of the outer world, this book will be a gift of joy, a reminder of a unique experience, a consolation for separation in time and space which is made less poignant by the authors, and the marvels of reproduction in the twentieth century.

JANE GASTON MAHLER COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

Jughraftyat al-Andalus wa-Urubba Min Kitab al- Mascilik wa-l-Mamalik. By ABC cUBAYD AL-BAKRI; ed. CABD AL-RAHMAN CALI AL- HAJJI, Pp. 258. Beirut: DAR AL-IRSHAD, 1968. 16 s. or 6 Lebanese pounds.

In the Arab world, the "Andalusian Library" (al-Maktabah al-Andalusiyyah) has been increased and enriched in the last decade by the publication of a good number of scholarly works related to al-Andalus. The edition of the work under review is a case in point. Its editor is cAbd al-Rabun-n al-Hajji, to whom scholarship owes a debt of grati- tude for his painstaking edition of extant portions of al-Muqtabis (Beirut 1965) by the great Anda- lusian historian Ibn Hayydn (d. 1070), probably one of the teachers of al-Bakri. Once more, Mr. al-Hajj! brings to the service of scholars a critical edition of the rather fragmentary portion dealing with al-Andalus and Europe of the Book of Roads and Countries by the eleventh century Andalusian scholar al-Bakri (d. 1094). The edition is highly

commendable and is done with meticulous care and patience required by the high standard of scholarship. It contains an introduction consisting of a bibliography, a sketch about al-Bakri and his works, and a discussion of the available manu- scripts which are for the most part incomplete as to content and divergent as to arrangement. It is fully annotated with identification of the numer- ous geographical names with their Western equivalents. It also has a comprehensive index, and a map of al-Andalus with names in both Arabic and Latin characters, and facsimile- samples of the six manuscripts used by the editor.

These manuscripts are: two from Paris (Na- tional Library 2218 and 5905), two from Istanbul (Nuru Osmaniye 3043 and Laleli 2144), one from Fez (Jamic al-Qarawiyyin 390/80 L.), and one from Rabat (Public Library 488). The task of the editor to reconcile these incomplete manuscripts must have been difficult especially when he was often forced to shift from one to another in order to fill the lacunae. The editor has limited himself to the selection of material having bearing on al-Andalus and Europe. Even with this pro- cedure, it still appears that we do not have a re- constructed text on al-Andalus and Europe ap- proximating what might have been the original work of al-Bakri. As it is, the text ranges from cryptic listing of names to a relatively ample de- scription of certain places and monuments. Some of the material contained in the present edition was published by E. L6vi-Provengal in his edition of al-Himyari's al-Rawd al-Mictar (Cairo, 1937) and the translation of the same into French under the title of La peninsule iberique au Moyen-Age (Leiden, 1936). Also Husayn Mu'nis integrated some of al-Bakri's material into his Fajr al- Andalus (Cairo, 1959), pp. 539 ff. and into his article "Geography and Geographers of al- Andalus", Majallat Machad al-Dirasat al-Isla- miyyah (Madrid), vols. VII and VIII. But all the material published so far and including the one in the present edition seems to have been based on an abridgement of the work of al-Bakri. This becomes more evident if the material on al- Andalus and Europe were to be compared with the extant material on North Africa which was edited

This content downloaded from 62.122.73.86 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 16:34:56 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions