describe the painting padamapani bodhisattva
Answers
Bodhisattva Padmapani is perhaps the best known of the paintings in Ajanta Caves. Padmapani in Sanskrit literally translates into one who holds the lotus. Bodhisattva is one who aspires to be a Buddha. Here he is holding a blue lotus in his right hand.
The Ajanta Caves caves have been described by the government Archaeological Survey of India as “the finest surviving examples of Indian art, particularly painting,” and consists of about 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments dating from approximately the 2nd century BCE to about 480 or 650 CE.
This segment from Gardner’s Art through the Ages: Non-Western Perspectives (2009) describes the scene shown:
The bodhisattva Padmapani sits among a crowd of devotees, both princesses and commoners. With long, dark hair handing down below a jeweled crown, he stands holding his attribute, a blue lotus flower, in his right hand. […] The artist has carefully considered the placement of the painting in the cave. The bodhisattva gazes downward at worshipers passing through the entrance to the shrine on their way to the rock-cut Buddha image in a cell at the back of the cave.
