Ajanta Caves: Ancient Buddhist Paintings of India Paperback – 12 October 2023

Benoy K Behl (1956-) is a photographer, documentary film maker and an art historian with a specialisation in Indian and Tibetan Art. A prolific documentary film maker (over 140 films till date), he had produced two series of documentary films on Indian Painting and sculpture for Indian Television. He had traveled in India extensively for the purpose of photographing the ancient classical sculptures and whatever fragments of murals are still in existence. He took over 50000 photographs already in his quest so far. In the early 1990s he did a comprehensive survey of Ajanta taking over 1000 photographs without assistance of any artificial light. This book is a result of that pilgrimage.This is a large format book (10 by 12 inches). It contains a brief overview of the caves and the time these murals were created. Some illustrations were provided to guide the readers about the narrative techniques used by the artists. They are not great in numbers but useful enough. The caves were covered chronologically with the relevant Jataka tale has been told in the beginning of each chapter. Then paintings related with the story appeared. Photographs were reproduced with great care and in big sizes. They reveal details that are not available before. The luminosity, colour saturation, depth of field, sharpness and contrast of those photographs are simply mind-blowing! All photos glow with a soft golden hue which the photographer insists come from the bounced sunlight available just outside the caves. I have visited Ajanta 37 years ago and found this a little hard to digest as my experience was more akin to the photographs taken by Jean-Louis Nou in the late 1980s. Still, it takes nothing away from Behl. Its a wonderful book, probably your only option if you are interested in Ajanta murals. However, I must add that Ajanta by Nou/Okada may be studied alongside this book to form your own opinion. Studies of Ajanta murals are invaluable for serious students of Indian painting, because it created the grammar and style of Indian Painting which continued to reverberate for the next 1300 years till the demise of Pahari miniatures in the late 19th century.Highly recommended.P.S. Since publication of this review I have been fortunate to study some recent photos taken at the site. Those were taken with long exposure and without the help of artificial light. These photographs are rich in details and show more prominent red, yellow, green, blue and a shine which make them luminous. Something we first encountered in the photographs of Behl but these traits are not visible to naked eyes. If this is the case, then we must consider ourselves privileged to be able to see these paintings as presented here, something our previous generations were not lucky enough to see.

Costly but worth it

Very helpful book of buddhist painting in ajanta caves

There could have been more photos :D(I'm greedy)

Great book. Must have for History scholars.

Excellent books with fine plates.High quality packaging and prompt dispatch by Amazon

Good