In Ajanta painting the Blue Colour 'Lapis Lazuli' was imported from:

Question

Accepted Answer

The correct option is 2:
The beautiful, vibrant blue color used in the Ajanta cave paintings, particularly for figures like the Bodhisattva Padmapani, is derived from the semi-precious stone Lapis Lazuli. This mineral yields the highly prized pigment known as Ultramarine, famed for its permanence and brilliant hue. Since Lapis Lazuli is not indigenous to India, the artists at Ajanta, who worked around the 5th to 7th centuries CE, had to procure it through long-distance trade. The world's only major source of high-quality Lapis Lazuli in antiquity was the Sar-e-Sang mines in the Badakhshan region of modern Afghanistan. The material would have traveled along ancient trade networks, most notably the Silk Roads, passing through ancient Persia (modern Iran) before reaching the Indian subcontinent. Thus, Persia was the crucial geographic and commercial link, often acting as the intermediary or transit point, in the pigment's long journey to the ateliers of Ajanta.

The incorrect option is 1:
Indonesia, located in Southeast Asia, is historically renowned for its maritime trade and valuable commodities such as spices (like cloves and nutmeg). However, Indonesia has no significant indigenous sources of Lapis Lazuli, making it impossible to be the point of origin. Furthermore, it did not lie on the established overland trade routes (the Silk Road) that transported Lapis Lazuli from Central Asia (Badakhshan) to India. The material would have followed a western route through land-based trade, not a southern maritime route from Indonesia.

The incorrect option is 3:
Bhutan is a Himalayan kingdom with a different geological profile, and there are no known historical records or geological evidence to suggest it was a source of Lapis Lazuli. Its geographical position, high in the mountains and away from the main Central Asian trade artery, also meant it was not a primary hub or intermediary on the established Silk Road routes for high-value mineral pigments like Lapis Lazuli.

The incorrect option is 4:
Russia, while possessing mineral deposits of Lapis Lazuli, such as those found around Lake Baikal, was not the source for the pigment used at Ajanta. The Ajanta paintings date back to the Gupta and Vakataka periods (around 5th-7th century CE). The Russian deposits were not part of the established ancient trade network supplying India, and their large-scale mining and connection to international trade occurred much later in history. For ancient and medieval Indian art, the definitive source was the Badakhshan region, which exported the stone via Persia.