Bagh~ The Ajanta of Malwa
Hello friends, after a few months gap here is a new story for you about a place, which might be unknown to many of you. As this place is not a very popular tourist destination. Rather this place is somewhat hidden between the Religious hotspots of Malwa like Ujjain, Omkareswar and Maheswar. But if someone wants to explore the Malwa Region of Madhya Pradesh, it would be a blunder if you miss this place. So, lets start our new journey and hopefully, this story will provide you another new destination in your future travel lists.
Bagh caves is situated in the Dhar District of Madhya Pradesh, beside the river Baghini, a tributary of River Narmada. There are 9 Rock-cut caves on the sandstone cliffs of the Vindhyan Hill Ranges, out of which presently only 5 caves are accessible. All this caves are Viharas, that is, they were designated as resting places for the monks. These caves have a rectangular plan consist of a central hall with a stupa filled sanctum forming a Chaitya Griha in the back. This is the prayer hall for the monks. This Chaitya is surrounded by small cells, where the monks stayed.
These Bagh caves are dated back to 6th to 7th Century CE. That is, probably they were curved out during the rule of the Satavahana Rulers. It is believed that these caves were curved by the same monks, who painted the Ajanta caves of Maharashtra. During the Rule of Vakataka King Harisena, political scenario at Ajanta detoriated with internal rebels and external attacks from the Yadavs. This compelled the monks to left Ajanta and migrate to this region of Malwa which is about 300km in the North, and bounded by forests and hills. While their stay over this place they left over such an archaeological marvel which is very much comparable with Ajanta.
Obviously, the caves here at Bagh has a lot of similarities with that of the Ajantas. Like Ajanta, the walls and ceilings of the Bagh caves too are profusely ornamented with beautiful paintings. The paintings here are also executed in Tempera, like that of Ajanta. The colours used in Both the places are of same origin. The colours used here in Bagh are earth colours like Red Ochre, Yellow Ochre and Terravarte, mineral colours like Lapis lazuli for blue and lime for white. Black, which is derived from carbon is the only chemical colour.
The paintings here include stories from the Jataka, Bodhisattyas, scenes depicting inmates of monasteries, scenes from daily life and the King who patronized this paintings. The topics which is depicted on the walls and ceilings of both Ajanta and Bagh are very much similar. However, with so much similarities, there are many differences too.
The main difference is, at Bagh, less care has been taken over the preparation of the first coat. At Ajanta, this coat is made up of local ferruginous earth compounded with gravel, lime and fibres of Jute and Hemp. Here at Bagh, this coat is made up of reddish brown gritty and thick mud plaster over which lime priming was done. On which, this painting was executed. So, the paintings of Ajanta is much more lustrous and protected from natural weathering.
Moreover, the character of rock on which these caves were curved out are of different types. Ajanta caves are curved out of strong basalt rock of Deccan trap. While here at Bagh, the caves had been curved out from porous sandstone of Vindhya Hills. Owing to this poor quality of rock many of the pillars, ceilings and walls have collapsed and got inaccessible by there own debris.
The Cave no.2 of Bagh is the best preserved cave and is known as Pandav Cave. This cave has a statue of Lord Buddha with his attendants. And interestingly, this cave has a image of Hindu deity, Lord Ganesh on the wall. It is said that probably it was crafted later during the Gupta Age.
Cave no. 3 of Bagh caves had a lot of paintings in its walls, but due to weathering and decay, those paintings are now preserved in the State Archaeological Museum at Gwalior. Some of the paintings are also recreated and preserved in the Bagh Museum, just opposite to the caves.
Cave no. 4 is the largest of those caves and is known as Rang Mahal. It is also the most beautiful cave at Bagh. This cave has 28 pillars, which support the roof and has 3 entrances. One can get the glimpses of the original Bagh Paintings in this cave.
Cave no.5 is known as Paathshala. It was a lecture hall or meeting hall.
After visiting the caves, it is must to visit the museum on the opposite side of the caves. This museum preserves some of the paintings from the caves, which was recreated later. So by visiting the museum, one can understand how brilliant those caves was.
Bagh Printing
Apart from Bagh Caves, the village of Bagh is also famous for Bagh Printing. It is said that about 900 years ago, Khatri community people migrated from Larkana District of Sindh and settled here in Bagh Village. They found that the water of the Baghini River is full of minerals, which enhances the texture of Vegetable and natural dye and gives the printed material a luminous quality and makes them distinguishable from other printed products of this region.
Bagh Printing is done on fabrics like cotton, silk, jute or cotton-silk and carried out manually in the following steps--Washing, Dyeing and Printing. At first, the fabric is Washed in the water of Baghini River and then dried in sunlight to get rid of shrinkage and then the cloth is soaked overnight in a mixture of water, goat dung, castor oil and rock salt to get rid of impurities and starch before dyeing.
Vegetable or natural dye is applied to form a base colour. The base colour is either reddish, or black, or off-white. For black colour iron sulphates are used and for reddish base tamarind seeds are used along with jaggery and water. After preparation of the base, the colour used in the printing block is prepared from fruits and leaves of different plants, which are locally available.
The blocks of printing is made up of teak wood. Generally, floral motifs are used in printing process while sometimes geometric shapes are used in the block for printing. The total printing process is carried out manually. Once the printing process is completed, the fabric is dried in sunlight for around 15 days and then again washed in flowing water of the Baghini River.
How to Reach
Bagh is about 120km from Maheswar and about 100km from Mandu. Mandu and Maheswar, both are popular tourist destinations and well connected from Indore. To reach Bagh, it is better to hire a car from Mandu or Maheswar. Public transport is not good in rural Madhya Pradesh, and it would be tough to reach places like Bagh, which is not a very popular travel destination.
What a wonderful blog. The writing style is so immersive. So happy to discover our culture through the author's lens.
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