Editing Ajanta Caves (section)

== Copies of the paintings ==
[[File:Aj2.jpg|thumb|a detail: original left, copy by [[Christiana Herringham|Lady Herringham]] (1915) right]]
The paintings have deteriorated significantly since they were rediscovered, and a number of 19th-century copies and drawings are important for a complete understanding of the works. A number of attempts to copy the Ajanta paintings began in the 19th century for European and Japanese museums. Some of these works have later been lost in natural and fire disasters. In 1846 for example, Major [[Robert Gill]], an Army officer from [[Madras Presidency]] and a painter, was appointed by the [[Royal Asiatic Society]] to make copies of the frescos on the cave walls.{{sfn|Upadhya|1994|pp=2–3}} Gill worked on his painting at the site from 1844 to 1863. He made 27 copies of large sections of murals, but all but four were destroyed in a fire at [[the Crystal Palace]] in London in 1866, where they were on display.<ref>{{harvnb|Gordon|2011|pp=234–238}}; Conserving the copies of the Ajanta cave paintings at the V&A</ref> Gill returned to the site, and recommenced his labours, replicating the murals until his death in 1875.{{citation needed|date=September 2016}}

[[File:Ajanta dancing girl now and then.jpg|thumb|left|Dancing girl in Ajanta fresco; a 2012 photograph (left) and [[Robert Gill]]'s 19th-century copy<ref>Detail from this [https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O115444/copy-of-painting-inside-the-oil-painting-gill-robert/ painting in the V&A] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180414100711/http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O115444/copy-of-painting-inside-the-oil-painting-gill-robert |date=14 April 2018 }}</ref>]]
Another attempt was made in 1872 when the [[Bombay Presidency]] commissioned John Griffiths to work with his students to make copies of Ajanta paintings, again for shipping to England. They worked on this for thirteen years and some 300 canvases were produced, many of which were displayed at the [[Imperial Institute]] on [[Exhibition Road]] in London, one of the forerunners of the [[Victoria and Albert Museum]]. But in 1885 another fire destroyed over a hundred of the paintings in storage in a wing of the museum. The V&A still has 166 paintings surviving from both sets, though none have been on permanent display since 1955. The largest are some {{convert|3|×|6|m}}. A conservation project was undertaken on about half of them in 2006, also involving the [[University of Northumbria]].<ref>[http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/journals/conservation-journal/issue-52/conserving-the-copies-of-the-ajanta-cave-paintings-at-the-v-and-a/ Conserving the copies of the Ajanta cave paintings at the V&A] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018201728/http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/journals/conservation-journal/issue-52/conserving-the-copies-of-the-ajanta-cave-paintings-at-the-v-and-a/ |date=18 October 2012 }}, [[Victoria & Albert Museum]], Conservation Journal, Spring 2006 Issue 52, accessed 24 October 2012</ref> Griffith and his students had painted many of the paintings with "cheap varnish" in order to make them easier to see, which has added to the deterioration of the originals, as has, according to Spink and others, recent cleaning by the ASI.{{sfn|Cohen|2006a|pp=50–51}}

[[File:Exposition Clemenceau, le Tigre et l'Asie (MNAA-Guimet, Paris) (13888446659).jpg|thumb|Copy of an Ajanta painting, in [[Musée Guimet]], Paris. Part of a mural probably relating the conversion of [[Nanda (Buddhist)|Nanda]], Cave 1.<ref>{{cite book|title=Ajanta Murals (An Album of Eighty-Five Reproductions in Colour)|date=1996|publisher=Archaeological Survey of India|page=Fig. 2|url=http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/ajanta-murals-album-of-eighty-five-reproductions-in-colour-NAL459/}}</ref>]]
A further set of copies were made between 1909 and 1911 by [[Christiana Herringham]] (Lady Herringham) and a group of students from the [[Government College of Art & Craft|Calcutta School of Art]] that included the future Indian Modernist painter [[Nandalal Bose]]. The copies were published in full colour as the first publication of London's fledgling [[Royal India Society|India Society]]. More than the earlier copies, these aimed to fill in holes and damage to recreate the original condition rather than record the state of the paintings as she was seeing them. According to one writer, unlike the paintings created by her predecessors Griffiths and Gill, whose copies were influenced by [[Academic art|British Victorian styles of painting]], those of the Herringham expedition preferred an 'Indian Renascence' aesthetic of the type pioneered by [[Abanindranath Tagore]].<ref>[http://www.burlington.org.uk/magazine/back-issues/2010/201004/ Rupert Richard Arrowsmith, "An Indian Renascence and the rise of global modernism: William Rothenstein in India, 1910–11"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130509065716/http://www.burlington.org.uk/magazine/back-issues/2010/201004/ |date=9 May 2013 }}, ''[[The Burlington Magazine]]'', vol.152 no.1285 (April 2010), pp.228–235.</ref>

Early photographic surveys were made by Robert Gill, whose photos, including some using [[stereoscopy]], were used in books by him and Fergusson (many are available online from the [[British Library]]),{{sfn|Gordon|2011|p=236}}<ref>[http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/photocoll/g/019pho0001000s4u00478000.html example from the British Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131221033636/http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/photocoll/g/019pho0001000s4u00478000.html |date=21 December 2013 }} (search on "Gill, Robert Ajanta")</ref> then Victor Goloubew in 1911 and E.L. Vassey, who took the photos in the four volume study of the caves by Ghulam Yazdani (published 1930–1955).{{sfn|Upadhya|1994|pp=2–3}}

[[File:Buddhist mural, Albert Hall Museum, Jaipur.jpg|thumb|left|Reproduction of The Adoration of the Buddha, cave 17, [[Albert Hall Museum]], [[Jaipur]], India]]
Some slightly creative copies of Ajanta frescos, especially the painting of the Adoration of the Buddha from the shrine antechamber of Cave 17, were commissioned by [[Thomas Holbein Hendley]] (1847–1917) for the decoration of the walls of the hall of the [[Albert Hall Museum]], [[Jaipur]], [[India]].<ref name="Tillotson"/> He had the work painted by a local artist variously named Murli or Murali.<ref name="Tillotson">{{cite book|last1=Tillotson|first1=Giles Henry Rupert|title=Jaipur Nama: Tales from the Pink City|date=2006|publisher=Penguin Books India|isbn=9780144001002|page=156 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kmfxexeX3pIC&pg=PA156}}</ref> The museum was opened to the public in 1887. This work is otherwise presented as characteristic of the end of the 19th century.<ref>{{cite book |title=Wall Paintings of Rajasthan|date=1998|publisher=Jawahar Kala Kendra|page=23 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0jzrAAAAMAAJ |quote=artist Murali and Kishan are good examples of 19th C. painting}}</ref>

Another attempt to make copies of the murals was made by the Japanese artist Arai Kampō (荒井寛方:1878–1945) after being invited by [[Rabindranath Tagore]] to India to teach Japanese painting techniques.<ref>M. L. Ahuja,[https://books.google.com/books?id=GQWcAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT51 ''Eminent Indians: Ten Great Artists,''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221123135902/https://books.google.it/books?id=GQWcAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT51 |date=23 November 2022 }} Rupa Publications, 2012 p.51.</ref> He worked on making copies with tracings on Japanese paper from 1916 to 1918 and his work was conserved at [[University of Tokyo|Tokyo Imperial University]] until the materials perished during the [[1923 Great Kantō earthquake]].<ref>{{cite book|first1=Caterina |last1=Bon Valsassina|first2=Marcella |last2=Ioele|title=Ajanta Dipinta – Painted Ajanta Vol. 1 e 2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z81lcQNAg8kC&pg=PA150 |year=2014|publisher=Gangemi Editore Spa|isbn=978-88-492-7658-9|pages=150–152}}</ref>