Art History Faculty Lecture | Nicolas Morrissey

Banner image: Cave 26, Ajanta Caves

Associate Professor Nicolas Morrissey will present the lecture “On the Conception of the Buddha at Ajaṇṭā: Iconographic Anomaly and Buddhology in the Early Medieval Deccan.”

Lecture Abstract

Although Buddhist iconography in all regions of the subcontinent was almost certainly influenced by established convention, there is at least a possibility that the local orientation of a region – or even of a single site – may also have been a contributing factor in terms of iconographic choices made. This might have especially been the case, for example, if a specific  soteriological or doctrinal worldview articulated in a given textual lineage was accorded currency or priority within any given monastic community. This presentation takes as its focus one instance of an unexpected iconographic anomaly at the 5th century CE Buddhist monastery located at Ajaṇṭā in Western India, seeking a potential explanation through a due consideration of a range of literary sources which may, perhaps, have been instrumental in the production of Buddhist sculpture and painting at this important early medieval Buddhist monastic complex.