Bodhisattva Padmapani from cave 1 at Ajanta monastery in central India
This extraordinary mural painting survives from early medieval India, preserved in the interior of the rock-cut Buddhist monastery of Ajanta. It provides the earliest visual evidence of elaborate crowns being worn as signifiers of both princely and divine status. The crowns depicted are the antecedents of those used in Buddhist ritual today by the Vajracharya priests in Nepal.
Artwork Details
- Title: Bodhisattva Padmapani from cave 1 at Ajanta monastery in central India
- Artist: Photograph by Benoy Behl , ca. 1998
- Date: late 5th century, likely 477
- Culture: Central India
- Classification: Photographs
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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