The Ajanta: History and Development: 2 (Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 2 South Asia / Ajanta: History and Development): Arguments About Ajanta: 18 - Hardcover

Spink, Walter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9004150722 ISBN 13: 9789004150720

Publisher: Brill, 2006

Synopsis

Volume Two begins with writings by some of the most important critics of Walter Spink's conclusions, interspersed with his own responses, using a thorough analysis of the great Cave 26 to support his assertions. The author then turns to matters of patronage, and to the surprising fact that, unlike most other Buddhist sites, Ajanta was purely "elitist", developed by less than a dozen major patrons. Its brief heyday traumatically ended, however, with the death of the great emperor Harisena in about 477, creating political chaos. Ajanta's anxious patrons now joined in a headlong rush to get their shrines dedicated, in order to obtain the expected merit, before they fled the region, abandoning their caves to the monks and local devotees remaining at the now-doomed site. These "intrusive" new patrons now filled the caves with their own helter-skelter votive offerings, paying no heed to the well-laid plans of the years before. A similar pattern of patronage is to be found in the redecoration of the earlier Hinayana caves, where the careful planning of the work being done during Harisena's reign is suddenly interrupted by a host of individual votive donations. The volume ends with a new and useful editing of Ajanta inscriptions by Richard S. Cohen.

About this title

Synopsis

This volume, turning around the moment of Harisena's death, deals with different aspects of Vakataka patronage. Ajanta's remarkable renaissance in the 460s and 470s must be ascribed to the enthusiastic energies, comprised of both pride and piety, of the powerful Vakataka emperor, Harisena and his courtiers and feudatories. On the great emperor's tragic death, his empire was left exposed to the aggression of a consortium of disruptive feudatories, and Ajanta went into a sudden collapse. By about 480, a mere few years from the time of the emperor's death, all patronage at Ajanta ended forever. Whereas Ajanta was exuberantly flourishing in 477, while Harisena was still alive, in 478 the courtly patrons suddenly had to give up their well-laid plans; as analysis proves, they were now obsessed to finish their shrine Buddhas, a prerequisite for the acquisition of merit. Then, within a year, these formerly powerful patrons had all fled from the site, leaving it forever abandoned.

About the Author

Walter M. Spink, Ph.D. (1954) at Harvard is Professor Emeritus, History of Art, at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has published widely on Indian Art in general, and Ajanta and related sites in particular.

Edition details

• Publisher: Brill
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 9004150722
• ISBN 13: 9789004150720
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 348