Ajanta Caves

“Cave sanctuaries cut into the rock, the Buddha painted on every wall”

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Photo: Ms Sarah Welch · CC BY-SA 4.0

Scenes

The mural of the lotus-bearing bodhisattva Padmapani in Ajanta Cave 1 — The lotus-bearing bodhisattva Padmapani, the source of a painting that traveled eastYouri · CC BY-SA 3.0

A chaitya hall lined with rock-cut pillars and a stupa carved with the Buddha — A chaitya hall and stupa cut whole from the rockPhoto Dharma · CC BY 2.0

Meaning

Along the cliff of a horseshoe gorge, dark cave mouths open in tier upon tier. Step inside, and in the darkness lined with rock-cut pillars, bodhisattvas in murals more than a thousand years old open their eyes in the faint light.

Scholarship regards these as some thirty Buddhist cave monasteries cut into the rock between roughly the 2nd century BCE and the 5th century CE. The murals and carvings filling their walls and ceilings are understood as a summit of Indian Buddhist art, and this painting tradition is said to have traveled the trade routes eastward into Central Asia and the caves of Dunhuang. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Field notes

Location: Maharashtra · India · N20.6° · E75.7°
Best time: After the monsoon, July to October, when the gorge is green and the light is clear, or early morning
Getting there: About 100 km northeast of Aurangabad in Maharashtra, India; by car, then on foot along the cliff among the caves.
Etiquette: To protect the murals, visitors avoid flash and touch inside the caves and keep to the marked route.

Sources

· UNESCO World Heritage
· Archaeological Survey of India

UNESCO World Heritage Wikipedia

Photographs are freely licensed works from Wikimedia Commons and similar sources; the author and license appear beneath each image.