470 Rigby,

The Ajanta and Ellora caves were begun in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD and the pgments used there had been brought in to Northern and North western India by the Greeks first under Alexander and later under Menander. They were expanded and completed by the 6th century AD. The Greeks did not come to the South and neither did any of their influences during the turmoil between the various Southern dynasties and the Hindus and Buddhists and Jains.

The yellow, saffron and orange colours were brought to Madurai in pigment form by Allauddin Khilji around 1300 AD, long before the Mughals set foot in India. The Mughals also did not ever manage to conquer the Southernmost parts of India as they had to stop at what is now Maharashtra because the Maratthas stopped their expansion southwards.

There is as good as a wall of separation between North and South India, between what are essentially Dravidian and mixed Dravidian/Aryan civilisations. One region simply cannot be compared with the other as the development of religion, art and culture in both are almost completely different.

Best wishes,