In Service

Back at the Ellora caves . . .

(for the beginning of the story see previous posts -
 http://barbarabash.blogspot.com/2012/02/drawing-in-caves_25.html
 http://barbarabash.blogspot.com/2012/03/in-ajanta.html

I notice I'm not ready to take on the "big guys" -
the dynamic gods and enormous seated buddhas.
Instead I focus in on the attendants, the guardians,
the helpers . . .

Nandi the Bull is the mount and gatekeeper 

for the god Shiva and his consort Parvati

Later in the day

I focus on the small figures above me - 

looking down . . .

Next morning at the Shiva cave 29

I am completely surrounded by a crowd 

of children from Uttar Pradesh. 

Bright-eyed girls with colorful jewelry and hennaed hands - 

slender boys with sparkling tikka marks on their foreheads - 

all so curious and excited ! 

Many photos are taken as I draw -

At the last Jain cave (32), 

finding a quiet spot . . . 

Everything is about to change - 

(searching everywhere, then pulled into the complex process

of acquiring a phone in India).

But first - for a long moment - 

I just keep drawing - 

absorbed and happy.

In Ajanta

Early in the morning we take off for Ajanta

with our steady driver Takrit. 

Steve and Takrit talk throughout the two hour trip

and I gaze out the window, sketching details of life along the road,

feeling surprisingly relaxed for being in a car in India

(usually a terrifying experience ! )

Takrit drops us off at the parking lot and we line up to ride the buses

that take everyone to the entrance of this World Heritage site - 

twenty-six caves lining the edge of a remote gorge - 

carved and painted between 200 and 500 AD - 

most of the art created during an intense twenty year period and then abandoned

as the looming chaos of war enveloped it all. 

A flowering of painting and sculpture from long ago. 

We begin to explore . . .

The cave walls are painted exquisitely with court scenes

and stories of the Buddha's lives, 

but the spaces are so dark, the images so severely damaged,

just fragments remain. 

My eyes are straining as I try to make out the details with binoculars and a flashlight. 

Finally I settle into a corner of a deep inner chamber

that has one electric light on the large Buddha statue. 

His hands are intact, not broken or damaged, 

and powerfully expressive. 

As I sketch Indian families gather one after another to be photographed

in front of the huge sculpture . . . 

We move along through the caves, 

trying to get a sense of the spaces, and the lives lived within them. 

Did Buddhist monks practice here ? 

Who were the artists ? Who were the patrons ? 

How did it come so quickly to an end ? 

At the last cave I find a small spot to sit and gaze

on the long stretched out body of the Buddha . . .

I'm in a narrow space, with people filing by 

and a guard nearby yelling "No flash ! No flash!"

Even so I'm feeling settled and happy being with this quiet resting form. 

A man stops to tell me about his connection with vipassana meditation

and the centers worldwide. I turn to him and say, 

"Sounds like what the world needs ! " 

I move a few feet down and begin another drawing - 

 

Now the guard is telling me I have to move on - finish up quickly.

As he stands there waiting impatiently he remarks, 

"Don't you have a camera ?!" 

 

On the drive back at the end of the day . . .