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Home
» Monuments in India »
Ajanta Ellora Caves, Aurangabad
Ajanta Ellora Caves, Aurangabad
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Way back in1819, a party of British army officers on a tiger
hunt in the forest of western Deccan, suddenly spotted their
prey, on the far side of a loop in the Waghora river. High up
on the horseshoe- shaped cliff, the hunting party saw the tiger,
silhouetted against the carved façade of a cave.
On investigating, the officers discovered a series of carved
caves, each more dramatic than the other. Hewn painstakingly
as monsoon retreats or varshavasas for Buddhist monks, the cave
complex was continuously lived in from 200 BC to about AD650.
There are thirty caves, including some unfinished ones. Of the
Ajanta caves, five are chaityas or prayer halls and the rest
are viharas or monasteries.
Hinayana and Mahayana
The Ajanta caves resolve themselves into two phases, separated
from each other by a good four hundred years. These architectural
phases coincide with the two schools of Buddhist thought, the
older Hinayana school where the Buddha was represented only
in symbols like the stupa, a set of footprints or a throne,
and the later Mahayana sect which did not shy away from giving
the Lord a human form.
Hinayana
Among the more prominent Hinayana caves are those numbered 9,
10 (both chaityas), 8, 12, 13 and 15 (all viharas). The sculpted
figures in these caves are dressed and coiffed in a manner reminiscent
of the stupas at Sanchi and Barhut, indicating that they date
back to the first or second century BC.
Mahayana
The Mahayana monasteries include 1, 2, 16 and 17, while the
chaityas are in caves 19 and 26. The caves, incidentally, are
not numbered chronologically but in terms of access from the
entrance. A terrqaced path of modern construction connects the
caves, but in ancients times, each cave was accessed from the
riverfront by individual staircases.
The sculptures and paintings in the caves detail the Buddha's
life as well as the lives of the Buddha in his previous births,
as related in the allegorical Jataka tales. You will also find
in the caves a sort of illuminated history of the times - court
scenes, street scenes, cameos of domestic life and even animal
and bird studies come alive on these unlit walls.
The caves including the unfinished ones are thirty in number,
of which five (9, 10, 19, 26 and 29) are chaitya-grihas and
the rest are sangharamas or viharas (monasteries). After centuries
of oblivion, these caves were discovered in AD 1819.
They fall into two distinct phases with a break of nearly four
centuries between them. All the caves of the earlier phase date
between 2nd century BC-AD.
The caves of the second phase were excavated during the supremacy
of the Vakatakas and Guptas. According to inscriptions, Varahadeva,
the minister of the Vakataka king, Harishena (c. 475-500 AD),
dedicated Cave 16 to the Buddhist sangha while Cave 17 was the
gift of the prince, a feudatory.
An inscription records that- Buddha image in Cave 4 was the
gift of some Abhayanandi who hailed from Mathura.
A few paintings which survive on the walls of Caves 9 and 10
go back to the 2nd century BC-AD. The second group of the paintings
started in about the fifth century AD and continued for the
next two centuries as, noticeable in later caves.
The themes are intensely religious in tone and centre round
Buddha, Bodhisattvas, incidents from the life of Buddha and
the Jatakas. The paintings are executed on a ground of mud-plaster
in the tempera technique.
About 107 kms. from the city of Aurangabad, the rock-cut caves
of Ajanta nestle in a panoramic gorge, in the form of a gigantic
horseshoe. Among the finest examples of some of the earliest
Buddhist architecture, caves-paintings and sculptures, these
caves comprise Chaitya Halls, or shrines, dedicated to Lord
Buddha and Viharas, or monasteries, used by Buddhist monks for
meditation and the study of Buddhist teachings.
The paintings that adorn the walls and ceilings of the caves
depict incidents from the life of the Buddha and various Buddhist
divinities. Among the more interesting paintings are the Jataka
tales, illustrating diverse stories relating to the previous
incarnations of the Buddha as Bodhisattva, a saintly being who
is destined to become the Buddha.
Prudent Networks offers online reservation for Ajanta Ellora
Caves, Aurangabad India. For details
please fill up the Enquiry Form provided below.
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India is a land
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