subject: Ajanta Caves, India [print this page] After a two hour drive out of Aurangabad you crest a rise and glimpse the enormity of the dramatic Deccan Plateau before descending into a spur of the hills.
Here, over 2,000 years ago, people dug into the Sahyadri Hills to create what is now a World Heritage Site. Cut into a horse-shoe shaped hillside, silent but for birdsong and the rippling Waghora River below, Ajanta is a hidden sanctuary of fresco-filled caves 3.5 km from the village of Ajanta.
The 30 monastic caves and prayer halls were begun in 2 BC, when Buddhism was alive and well, and completed between 460 and 478 AD under the Vakataka dynasty. The monks who lived in this sweep of hill meditated in their painted caves, drew their water from the stream, and watched monsoon rain cascade in waterfalls between the caves.
The Gupta and post-Gupta style paintings, among them the miracle at Sravasti, Maya's dream of a white elephant, the Dying Princess, the Buddha returning home, are inspired by the Jataka Tales.The Flying Apsara was used as the emblem of the 1996 World Beauty Pageant in Bangalore.
The first caves date back to the 2nd and 1st century BC and include Caves 9 and 10, both of which are chaityas (prayer halls). Caves 8, 12, 13 and 15A are monasteries. These are the Hinayana monuments. Caves 19 and 26 and Caves 1,2, 16 and 17 (viharas) are generally regarded as the Mahayana monuments.
The Mahajanaka mural in Cave I (Ajanta's most magnificent cave) is the most detailed. Cave 10 (2 BC), a chaitya, is said to be the first cave discovered by the British; it has the earliest surviving Buddha mural in the complex. The famed mural of the Dying Princess can be seen in 5th century Cave 16. Cave 17 is notable for the sultry, dark-skinned princess putting on her make-up and admiring herself in a mirror, surrounded by her attendants. Cave 19 with elaborate sculptures is Ajanta's finest chaityall.
Time will catch up with Ajanta, but until then, the serenity and beauty of the paintings are something everybody should experience at least once in a lifetime.
