This volume comprises the fascinating story of an Indian artist s experiences in the Ajanta and Bagh caves which house the most wonderful fresco paintings of ancient India, some of them dating back to pre-Christian era. The wall paintings of Ajanta have been the subject of elaborate and sumptuous works like those of Griffith and Yazdani. These voluminous publications are for scholars and specialists but far beyond the reach of general readers. The present volume serves, to a great extent, the purpose of the latter group. The author, Sri Mukul Chandra Dey, one of those artists who sought to revive the art of Indian spirit, went to Ajanta and Bagh in the spirit of a pilgrim. The present work embodies his experiences during these pilgrimages and his appreciation of those master-pieces of Indian art, unsurpassed till today. The illustrations in this book are party from the copies the author prepared during his stay near the caves and partly from photographs taken earlier by others. The author have selected the illustrations with great aesthenic sense. In a chapter on the life of Gaytama Buddha, the author has provided his readers with the interpretation of a number of Buddhist paintings in Ajanta. The vivid descriptions of the site and of the carving of caves in a wonderful lucid language literally overwhelms the reader and make him feel as if he is in the surroundings. The work is a good piece of literature, a fascinating travelogue and a well-written work on Indian art by an artist.
