Warli Wall Paintings: 200th Anniversary of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings

Summary: Warli wall paintings advise their audiences and those in the 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings of area animals.

Warli wall painting at Sanskriti Kendra Museum, Anandagram, New Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi, North India; March 2007: Abhishekjoshi, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Warli wall paintings in the 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings attest to a similar appreciation of animals, community and plants in the northern Sahyadri Hills, Maharashtra state, India.

Warli wall paintings belong to wooden architectural traditions behind the Warli people building inside walls of mud, thatched huts from earth, red bricks and tree branches. Ajanta cave wall paintings by anonymous artists, perhaps from northern India's Deccan Plateau between the Godavari and Kistna Rivers, correlate wooden architectural traditions with rock constructions. Their painted, plastered, sculpted surfaces divulge a stonecutter's experience and expertise as a woodworker of beamed ceilings, latticed windows, planked floors, privacy doors and wood-framed niches.

Ajanta cave wall paintings and Warli wall paintings express architectural and artistic traditions elaborated by ancient artisans and artists on extant cave, rock and stone paintings.

Ajanta cave wall paintings feature blue from imported lapis lazuli, green from ironized soils, lamp-black from sooty residues and red and yellow ocher from pigmented soils.

The 1,300- to 2,300-year-old Ajanta cave wall paintings get white from lime whereas two-color Warli wall paintings garner a diluted rice paste with a gum binder. Warli wall paintings have a canvas-like surface of red ocher from wall-building materials and white pigment from bamboo sticks with one end chewed for paintbrush-like strokes. The village context in the northern and western extensions of the Sahyadri Hills in Maharashtra state informs the implements, models and themes of Warli wall paintings.

Sudden termination of work in the first- and second-phase excavations and time jeopardize any such transparency for Ajanta cave wall paintings in their 200th anniversary year.

William Dalrymple, in The Ajanta Cave Murals for The Guardian Aug. 15, 2014, keys in as Ajanta models "the same people who inhabit western India today."

Warli wall paintings perhaps look for models in 2,500- to 30,000-year-old geometric figures in Bhimbetka (from Sanskrit भीमबेटका, "sitting place of [tall hero-god] Bhima") rock shelters. They manifest circles for moons and suns; squares for land parcels, as their name's meaning, and sacred enclosures; and triangles for animals, mountains, peoples and trees. Wasp-waisted female and male figures respectively net hair buns atop their necks and smaller inverted upper-body than upright lower-body triangles versus bigger upper-body than lower-body triangles.

Ajanta cave wall paintings in their 200th anniversary year offer as overriding themes Siddhartha Gautama (624?-544 B.C.?), whose 200th enlightenment-seeking reincarnation occasioned enlightened teaching as Buddha.

Warli wall paintings pursue as traditional themes bodhi trees (Ficus religiosa); the mother goddess Palaghata; and villagers performing circle dances around male players of trumpet-like tarpas.

Warli wall paintings quarter a central devchowk (from Marathi देव, "divine" and चौक, "square") or lagnachowk (wedding square, from Marathi लग्न, "coming together" and चौक, "square"). They reveal dancing after rice harvests to tarpa music's two notes, for clockwise  or counterclockwise revolutions; farming; fishing; hunting; and playing belled staffs and zither-like ganghli. Female artists and, since the 1970s, male painters suggest in respectively traditional and modern cultural shares initiation of children as community-based, forest-loving tribals; marriage; and death.

Warli wall paintings tender some animals and plants that thrived around and in the Ajanta cave wall paintings before their 200th anniversary year of European access.

Warli wall painting at Mahatma Gandhi's Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, northwestern India; Saturday, Jan. 28, 2006, 12:58: Nichalp, CC BY SA 2.5 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Warli wall painting at Sanskriti Kendra Museum, Anandagram, New Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi, North India; March 2007: Abhishekjoshi, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Painted_prayers,_Warli_paintings,_at_Sanskriti_Kendra,_Anandagram,_New_Delhi.jpg

Warli wall painting at Mahatma Gandhi's Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, northwestern India; Saturday, Jan. 28, 2006, 12:58: Nichalp, CC BY SA 2.5 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Warli-art-2.jpg

For further information:

"Ajanta Caves." UNESCO > Culture > World Heritage Centre > The List > World Heritage List.
Available @ http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/242

"Ajanta Caves Vulnerable to Landslides, Says Study." NDTV > India > News > August 6, 2014 15:50 IST.
Available @ https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/ajanta-caves-vulnerable-to-landslides-says-study-616005

Bankar, M.V.; and N.P. Bhosle. November-December 2017. "Ethnobotanical Survey of Medicinal Plants in Ajanta Region (MS) India." IOSR Journal of Pharmacy and Biological Sciences Volume 12, Issue 6 Ver. II: 59-64.
Available @ http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jpbs/papers/Vol12-issue6/Version-2/I1206025964.pdf

Barrett, Douglas E.; and Basil Gray. 1963. Painting of India. Geneva, Switzerland: Skira, Treasures of Asia. Distributed in the United States by World Publishing Co., Cleveland OH.

Behl, Benoy K. 2005. The Ajanta Caves: Ancient Paintings of Buddhist India. London UK: Thames & Hudson.

Boyd, Ryan. 14 December 2018. "Sacred Sites: Ajanta Caves." Evolve + Ascend > Ancient Wisdom > Culture > Occult > Sacred Sites.
Available @ http://www.evolveandascend.com/2018/12/14/sacred-sites-ajanta-caves/

Boyle, Alan. 25 November 2013. "Religious Roots of Buddha's Birthplace Traced Back 2,600 Years." NBC News > Science News.
Available @ https://www.nbcnews.com/sciencemain/religious-roots-buddhas-birthplace-traced-back-2-600-years-2D11648772

Burgess, J. (James). 1879. "Notes on the Bauddha Rock-Temples of Ajanta, Their Paintings and Sculptures, and on the Paintings of the Bagh Caves, Modern Bauddha Mythology, &c." Archaeological Society of Western India, no. 9. Bombay, India: Government Central Press.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/archaeologicals01indigoog/

Dalrymple, William. 15 August 2014. "The Ajanta Cave Murals: 'Nothing Less Than the Birth of Indian Art.'" The Guardian > Culture > Art & Design.
Available @ https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/aug/15/mural-ajanta-caves-india-birth-indian-art

Fergusson, James. 1845. Illustrations of the Rock-Cut Temples of India: Text to Accompany the Folio Volume of Plates. London, England.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/gri_33125008483717/

Fergusson, James. 1845. Illustrations of the Rock-Cut Temples of India: Selected From the Best Examples of the Different Series of Caves at Ellora, Ajunta, Cuttack, Salsette, Karli, and Mahavellipore. Drawn on Stone by Mr. T.C. Dibdin, From Sketches Carefully Made on the Spot, With the Assistance of the Camera-Lucida, in the Years 1838-9. London, England: John Weale, M.DCCC.XLV.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/gri_33125008543106/

Fergusson, James; and James Burgess. 1880. The Cave Temples of India. London, England: W.H. Allen & Co.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/cavetemplesofind00ferguoft/

Fergusson, James; and Robert Gill. 1864. The Rock-Cut Temples of India; Illustrated by Seventy-Four Photographs Taken on the Spot by Major Gill. Described by James Fergusson. London, England: John Murray.
Available via HathiTrust @ https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100206115
Available via Wikisource @ https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Rock-cut_Temples_of_India

Gill, Robert; and James Fergusson. 1864. One Hundred Stereoscopic Illustrations of Architecture and Natural History in Western India. Photographed by Major Gill and described by James Fergusson. London, England: Cundall, Downes & Co.

Gupte, R.S.; and B.D. Mahajan. 1962. Ajanta, Ellora and Aurangabad Caves. Bombay, India: D.B. Taraporevala Sons and Co.

Marriner, Derdriu. 16 August 2019. "200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings: Ajanta Cave 11." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/08/200th-anniversary-year-of-ajanta-cave.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 9 August 2019. "Ajanta Cave 6: 200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/08/ajanta-cave-6-200th-anniversary-year-of.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 2 August 2019. "200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings: Ajanta Cave 18." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/08/200th-anniversary-year-of-ajanta-cave_2.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 26 July 2019. "Ajanta Cave 25: 200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/07/ajanta-cave-25-200th-anniversary-year.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 July 2019. "Thich Nhat Hanh Achieved at An Quang the Aims of Ajanta Jataka Tales." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/07/thich-nhat-hanh-achieved-at-quang-aims.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 12 July 2019. "Engaged Buddhism of Thich Nhat Hanh Allies With Ajanta Jataka Tales." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/07/engaged-buddhism-of-thich-nhat-hanh.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 5 July 2019. “Thich Nhat Hanh and Indra's Net at Parallax Press and Ajanta Cave 17.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/07/thich-nhat-hanh-and-indras-net-at.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 28 June 2019. “Thich Nhat Hanh, La Boi and Ajanta Cave 16 Ace Outstanding Inner Peace.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/06/thich-nhat-hanh-la-boi-and-ajanta-cave.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 21 June 2019. “Thich Nhat Hanh and Indra's Net at Van Hanh and Ajanta Cave 1.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/06/thich-nhat-hanh-and-indras-net-at-van.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 14 June 2019. “Indra's Net Affects Thich Nhat Hanh, Phap Van and Ajanta Cave 2.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/06/indras-net-affects-thich-nhat-hanh-phap.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 7 June 2019. "Thich Nhat Hanh, Indra's Net at Phuong Boi and Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/06/thich-nhat-hanh-indras-net-at-phuong.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 31 May 2019. "Thich Nhat Hanh, Indra's Net at Bat Nha and Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/05/thich-nhat-hanh-indras-net-at-bat-nha.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 24 May 2019. “Thich Nhat Hanh, Stream Entering Monastery and Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/05/thich-nhat-hanh-stream-entering.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 17 May 2019. “Thich Nhat Hanh, Thai Plum Village and Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/05/thich-nhat-hanh-thai-plum-village-and.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 10 May 2019. “Thich Nhat Hanh, AIAB Hong Kong and Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/05/thich-nhat-hanh-aiab-hong-kong-and.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 3 May 2019. “Thich Nhat Hanh, EIAB Germany and Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/05/thich-nhat-hanh-eiab-germany-and-ajanta.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 26 April 2019. “Thich Nhat Hanh, Deer Park Monastery and Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/04/thich-nhat-hanh-deer-park-monastery-and.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 April 2019. “Thich Nhat Hanh, Blue Cliff Monastery and Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/04/thich-nhat-hanh-blue-cliff-monastery.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 12 April 2019. “Thich Nhat Hanh, Plum Village Tradition and Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/04/thich-nhat-hanh-plum-village-tradition.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 5 April 2019. “Thich Nhat Hanh, Tu Hieu Temple Walks and Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/04/thich-nhat-hanh-tu-hieu-temple-walks.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 29 March 2019. "Thich Nhat Hanh, Walking Meditations and Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/03/thich-nhat-hanh-walking-meditations-and.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 22 March 2019. “200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings: Ajanta Cave 13.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/03/200th-anniversary-year-of-ajanta-cave_22.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 15 March 2019. “200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings: Ajanta Cave 12.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/03/200th-anniversary-year-of-ajanta-cave.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 8 March 2019. “200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings: Ajanta Cave 8.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/03/200th-anniversary-year-of-ajanta-cave_8.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 1 March 2019. “200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings: Ajanta Cave 15A/30.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/03/200th-anniversary-year-of-ajanta-cave_1.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 22 February 2019. “200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings: Pithora Wall Art.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/02/200th-anniversary-year-of-ajanta-cave.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 15 February 2019. “200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings: Ajanta Cave 29.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/02/200th-anniversary-year-of-ajanta-cave_15.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 8 February 2019. “Ajanta Cave 26 in 200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/02/ajanta-cave-26-in-200th-anniversary.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 1 February 2019. “Ajanta Cave 19 in 200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/02/ajanta-cave-19-in-200th-anniversary.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 25 January 2019. “200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings in Ajanta Cave 9.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/01/200th-anniversary-year-of-ajanta-cave.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 18 January 2019. “Ancient Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings and Inscriptions in Ajanta Cave 10.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/01/ancient-ajanta-cave-wall-paintings-and.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 11 January 2019. “Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings Ailing at World Heritage Centre Site.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/01/ajanta-cave-wall-paintings-ailing-at.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 4 January 2019. “Accurate, Ancient, Artistic Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings to Buddha.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/01/accurate-ancient-artistic-ajanta-cave.html

Nair, Sumitra. 22 September 2016. "The Story of Warli: Going Beyond the Stick Figures on the Wall." The Ethnic Soul > Arts & Crafts.
Available @ https://www.craftsvilla.com/blog/warli-art-history-maharashtra/

Pisani, Ludovico. 6 August 2013. "The Ajanta Cave Paintings." The Global Dispatches > Articles and Culture.
Available @ http://www.theglobaldispatches.com/articles/the-ajanta-cave-paintings

Singh, Rajesh. 2012. An Introduction to the Ajanta Caves: With Examples of Six Caves. Vadodara, India: Hari Sena Press Private Limited.

Singh, Rajesh Kumar. 2017. Ajanta Cave No. 1: Documented According to the Ajanta Corpus of Dieter Schlingloff (Photographic Compendium, Ajanta Narrative Painting). Vadodara, India: Hari Sena Press Private Limited.

Somathilake, Mahinda. June 2013. "Painted Jataka Stories of Ancient Sri Lanka." International Journal of Arts and Commerce 2(6): 139-150.
Available @ https://ijac.org.uk/images/frontImages/gallery/Vol._2_No._6/14.pdf

Spink, Walter M. 2018. Ajanta: History and Development. Volume 1: The End of the Golden Age. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 2 South Asia, Volume 18/1. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers.

Spink, Walter M. 2018. Ajanta: History and Development. Volume 2: Arguments about Ajanta. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 2 South Asia, Volume 18/2. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers.

Spink, Walter M. 2005. Ajanta: History and Development. Volume 3: The Arrival of the Uninvited. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 2 South Asia, Volume 18/3. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers.

Spink, Walter M. 2008. Ajanta: History and Development. Volume 4: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture - Year by Year. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 2 South Asia, Volume 18/4. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers.

Spink, Walter M. 2006. Ajanta: History and Development. Volume 5: Cave by Cave. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 2 South Asia, Volume 18/5. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers.

Spink, Walter. 2017. Ajanta: History and Development. Volume 7: Bagh, Dandin, Cells and Cell Doorways. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 2 South Asia, Volume 18/7. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers.

Spink, Walter M; and Naomichi Yaguchi. 2014. Ajanta: History and Development. Volume 6: Defining Features. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 2 South Asia, Volume 18/6. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers.

Tribhuwan, Robin D.; and Preeti R. Tribhuwan. (Eds.). 1999. Tribal Dances of India. New Delhi, India: Discovery Publishing House.

Uno, Tomoko; and Yoshiko Shimazdu. "Thermal Environment in Ajanta Caves." Archi-Cultural Translations through the Silk Road: 2nd International Conference, Mukogawa Women's University, Nishinomiya, Japan, July 14-16, 2012, Proceedings.
Available @ http://www.mukogawa-u.ac.jp/~iasu2012/pdf/iaSU2012_Proceedings_401.pdf

Warrier, Niveditha. 28 September 201. "The Tales of the Folk from the West - Warli Painting." Open Art > Topics > History.
Available @ https://www.openart.in/history/tales-folk-west-warli-painting/

"World Heritage Sites - About Ajanta Caves 01 to 29." Archeological Survey of India > Monuments > World Heritage Site > Ajanta > About Caves.
Available @ https://web.archive.org/web/20120501151253/http://asi.nic.in/asi_monu_whs_ajanta_caves.asp