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Ajanta Caves

TheAjanta Caves inAurangabaddistrictof Maharashtrastate of India are about 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monu-mentswhich date fromthe2ndcenturyBCEto about 480or 650 CE.[1][2] The caves include paintings and sculp-tures described by the government Archaeological Sur-vey of India as “the nest surviving examples of Indianart, particularly painting”,[3] which are masterpieces ofBuddhist religious art, with gures of the Buddha anddepictions of the Jataka tales.[4] The caves were built intwo phases starting around the 2nd century BCE, with

the second group of caves built around 400–650 CE ac-cording to older accounts, or all in a brief period of 460to 480 according to the recent proposals of Walter M.Spink.[5] The site is a protected monument in the care ofthe Archaeological Surveyof India,[6] and since1983, theAjanta Caves havebeen aUNESCO WorldHeritageSite.

Panoramic view of Ajanta Caves from the nearby hill

With the Ellora Caves, Ajanta is the major tourist attrac-tion of the Marathwada region of Maharashtra. About59 kilometres (37 miles) from Jalgaon railway station onthe Delhi – Mumbai line and Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbailine of the Central Railway zone, and 104 kilometres (65miles) from the city of Aurangabad. They are 100 kilo-metres (62 miles) from the Ellora Caves, which containHindu and Jain temples as well as Buddhist caves, the lastdating from a period similar to Ajanta. The Ajanta cavesare cut into the side of a cliff that is on the south side ofa U-shaped gorge on the small river Waghur,[7] and al-though they are now along and above a modern pathwayrunning across the cliff they were originally reached byindividual stairs or ladders from the side of the river 10–

35 m (30–110 ft) below.[8]

The area was previously heavily forested, and after thesite ceased to be used the caves were covered by jun-

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gle until accidentally rediscovered in 1819 by a Britishofficer on a hunting party. They are Buddhist monas-tic buildings, apparently representing a number of dis-tinct “monasteries” or colleges. The caves are numbered1 to 28 according to their place along the path, begin-ning at the entrance. Several are unnished and somebarely begun and others are small shrines, included inthe traditional numbering as e.g. “9A"; “Cave 15A”was still hidden under rubble when the numbering wasdone.[9] Further round the gorge are a number of water-falls, whichwhen theriver ishighareaudible from outsidethe caves.[10]

The caves form the largest corpus of early Indian wall-painting; other survivals from the area of modern Indiaarevery few, though they arerelated to 5th-century paint-ings at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka.[11] [12] The elaborate archi-tectural carving in many caves is also very rare, and thestyle of the many gure sculptures is highly local, foundonly at a few nearby contemporary sites, although theAjanta tradition can be related to the later Hindu ElloraCaves and other sites.[13]

1 History

Like the other ancient Buddhist monasteries, Ajanta hada large emphasis on teaching, and was divided into sev-

1

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2 1 HISTORY

eral different caves for living, education and worship, un-der a central direction. Monks were probably assigned tospecic caves for living. The layout reects this organi-zational structure, with most of the caves only connectedthrough the exterior. The 7th-century travelling Chinesescholar Xuanzang informs us that Dignaga, a celebratedBuddhistphilosopher and controversialist, author of well-known books on logic, lived at Ajanta in the 5th cen-tury. In its prime the settlement would have accommo-dated several hundred teachers and pupils. Many monkswho had nished their rst training may have returnedto Ajanta during the monsoon season from an itinerantlifestyle.The caves are generally agreed to have been made in twodistinct periods, separated by several centuries.

1.1 Caves of the rst (Satavahana) period

The earliest group of caves consists of caves 9, 10, 12,13 and 15A. According to Walter Spink, they were madeduring the period 100 BCE to 100 CE, probably underthe patronage of the Satavahana dynasty (230 BCE – c.220 CE) who ruled the region.[14] Other datings preferthe period 300 BCE to 100 BCE, though the grouping ofthe earlier caves is generally agreed.[15] More early cavesmay have vanished through later excavations. Of these,caves 9 and 10 are stupa halls of chaitya -griha form, andcaves 12, 13, and 15A are vihāras (see the architecturesection below for descriptions of these types). The rst

phase is still often called the Hinayāna phase, as it origi-nated when, using traditional terminology, the Hinayānaor Lesser Vehicle tradition of Buddhism was dominant,when the Buddha was revered symbolically.[16] Howeverthe use of the term Hinayana for this period of Bud-dhism is now deprecated by historians; equally the cavesof the second period are now mostly dated too early tobe properly called Mahayana, and do not yet show thefull expanded cast of supernatural beings characteristicof that phase of Buddhist art. The rst Satavahana pe-riod caves lacked gurative sculpture, emphasizing thestupa instead, and in the caves of the second period theoverwhelming majority of images represent the Buddhaalone, or narrative scenes of his lives.Spink believes that some time after theSatavahana periodcaves were made the site was abandoned for a consider-able period until the mid-5th century, probably becausethe region had turned mainly Hindu[17]

1.2 Caves of the later, or Vākāṭaka, period

The second phase began in the 5th century. For a longtime it was thought that the later caves were made over along period from the 4th to the 7th centuries CE,[18] butin recent decades a series of studies by the leading experton the caves, Walter M. Spink, have argued that most ofthework took placeover thevery briefperiod from 460to

The entrance to cave 19

480 CE,[17] during the reign of Emperor Harishena of theVākāṭaka dynasty. This view has been criticized by somescholars,[19] but is now broadly accepted by most authorsof general books on Indian art, for example Huntington

and Harle.The second phase is still often called the Mahāyāna orGreater Vehicle phase, but scholars now tend to avoid thisnomenclature because of the problems that have surfacedregarding our understanding of Mahāyāna.[20]

Some 20 cave temples were simultaneously created, forthe most part viharas with a sanctuary at the back. Themost elaborate caves were produced in this period, whichincluded some “modernization” of earlier caves. Spinkclaims that it is possible to establish dating for this periodwith a very high level of precision; a fuller account of hischronologyis given below.[21] Although debatecontinues,Spink’s ideas are increasingly widely accepted, at least intheir broad conclusions. The Archaeological Survey ofIndia website still presents the traditional dating: “Thesecond phase of paintings started around 5th – 6th cen-turies A.D. and continued for the next two centuries”.[3]

Caves of the secondperiodare 1–8, 11, 14–29, somepos-sibly extensions of earlier caves. Caves 19, 26, and 29 arechaitya -grihas , the rest viharas .According to Spink, the Ajanta Caves appear to havebeen abandoned by wealthy patrons shortly after the fallof Harishena, in about 480 CE. They were then graduallyabandoned and forgotten.[22] During the intervening cen-turies, the jungle grew back and the caves were hidden,unvisited and undisturbed, although the local populationwere aware of at least some of them.[23]

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1.3 Rediscovery

Scene from cave 1

On 28 April 1819, a British officer for the Madras Pres-idency, John Smith, of the 28th Cavalry, while huntingtiger, accidentally discovered the entrance to Cave No.10 deep within the tangled undergrowth. There were lo-cal people already using the caves for prayers with a smallre, when he arrived. Exploring that rst cave, long sincea home to nothing more than birds and bats and a lair forother larger animals, Captain Smith vandalized the wallby scratching his name and the date, April 1819, overthe body of a bodhisattva. Since he stood on a ve-foothigh pile of rubble collected over the years, the inscrip-tion is well above the eye-level gaze of an adult today.[24]

A paper on the caves by William Erskine was read to theBombay Literary Society in 1822.[25]

Within a few decades, the caves became famous for theirexotic setting, impressive architecture, and above all theirexceptional, all but unique paintings. A number of largeprojects to copy the paintings were made in the centuryafter rediscovery, covered below. In 1848 the Royal Asi-atic Society established the “Bombay Cave Temple Com-mission” to clear, tidy and record the most importantrock-cut sites in the Bombay Presidency, with John Wil-son as president. In 1861 this became the nucleus of thenew Archaeological Survey of India.[26]

The Ajanta site was in the territory of the princely stateof the Nizam of Hyderabad rather than British India, andGhulam Yazdani (1885-1962), who founded the archae-ology department of the State of Hyderabad in 1914 andran it for over 30 years, played a considerable role in con-serving and researching the site, and publishing a seriesof monographs on it. Until the Nizam’s government builtthe modern path between the caves, among other effortsto make the site easyto visit, a trip to Ajanta was a consid-erable adventure, and contemporary accounts dwell withrelish on thedangers fromfalls offnarrow ledges, animalsand the Bhil people, who were armed with bows and ar-rows and had a fearsome reputation.[27]

Today, fairly easily combined with Ellora in a singletrip, the caves are the most popular tourist destina-tion in Mahrashtra, and are often crowded at holidaytimes, increasing the threat to the caves, especially thepaintings.[28] In 2012, the Maharashtra Tourism Devel-opment Corporation announced plans to add to the ASIvisitor centre at the entrance complete replicas of caves1, 2, 16 & 17 to reduce crowding in the originals, andenable visitors to receive a better visual idea of the paint-ings, which are dimly-lit and hard to read in the caves.[29]

Figures for the year to March 2010 showed a total of390,000 visitors to the site, divided into 362,000 domes-tic and 27,000 foreign. The trends over the previous fewyears show a considerable growth in domestic visitors,but a decline in foreign ones; the year to 2010 was therst in which foreign visitors to Ellora exceeded those toAjanta.[30]

2 Paintings

Mural paintings survive from both the earlier and latergroups of caves. Several fragments of murals preservedfrom the earlier caves (Caves 9 and 11) are effectivelyunique survivals of court-led painting in India from thisperiod, and “show that by Sātavāhana times, if not ear-lier, the Indian painter had mastered an easy and uentnaturalistic style, dealing with large groups of people ina manner comparable to the reliefs of the Sāñcī toraņacrossbars”.[31]

Four of the later caves have large and relatively well-preserved mural paintings which “have come to repre-sent Indian mural painting to the non-specialist”,[32] andfall into two stylistic groups, with the most famous inCaves 16 and 17, and apparently later paintings in Caves1 and 2. The latter group were thought to be a centuryor more later than the others, but the revised chronol-ogy proposed by Spink would place them much closer tothe earlier group, perhaps contemporary with it in a moreprogressive style, or one reecting a team from a differentregion.[33] The paintings are in “dry fresco", painted ontopof a dryplaster surface rather than into wet plaster.[34]

All the paintings appear to be the work of painters atleast as used to decorating palaces as temples, and showa familiarity with and interest in details of the life of awealthy court. We know from literary sources that paint-ing was widely practised and appreciated in the courts ofthe Gupta period. Unlike much Indian painting, compo-sitions are not laid out in horizontal compartments like afrieze, but show large scenes spreading in all directionsfrom a single gure or group at the centre. The ceilingsare also painted with sophisticated and elaborate decora-tive motifs, many derived from sculpture.[33] The paint-ings in cave 1, which according to Spink was commis-sioned by Harisena himself, concentrate on those Jatakatales which show previous lives of the Buddha as a king,rather than as an animal or human commoner, and so

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4 2 PAINTINGS

show settings from contemporary palace life.[35]

In general the later caves seem to have been painted onnished areas as excavating work continued elsewhere inthe cave, as shown in caves 2 and 16 in particular.[36] Ac-cording to Spink’s account of thechronology of thecaves,

the abandonment of work in 478 after a brief busy periodaccounts for the absence of painting in places includingcave 4 and the shrine of cave 17, the later being plasteredin preparation for paintings that were never done.[35]

2.1 Copies

Dancing girl in Ajanta fresco, showing deterioration between thecave now (left) and Robert Gill 's copy. [37]

a detail: original left, copy by Lady Herringham (1915) right

The paintings have deteriorated signicantly since theywere rediscovered, and a number of 19th-century copiesand drawings are important for a complete understand-ing of the works. However, the earliest projects to copythe paintings were plagued by bad fortune. In 1846, Ma-jor Robert Gill, an Army officer from Madras Presidencyand a painter, was appointed by the Royal Asiatic Societythrough the offices of James Fergusson to make copies

of the frescoes on the cave walls, which were increas-ingly subject to damage by visitors.[38] Gill worked on hispainting at the site from 1844 to 1863 (though he con-tinued to be based there until his death in 1875, writingbooks and photographing) and made 27 copies of largesections of murals, but all but four were destroyed in are at the Crystal Palace in London in 1866, where theywere on display.[39] Undeterred, he returned to the site,and recommenced his labours, replicating the murals un-til his death in 1875.Another attempt was made in 1872 when the BombayPresidency commissioned John Griffiths, then principalof the Bombay School of Art, to work with his studentsto make new copies, again for shipping to England. Theyworked on this for thirteen years and some 300 can-vases were produced, many of which were displayed atthe Imperial Institute on Exhibition Road in London, oneof the forerunners of the Victoria and Albert Museum.But in 1885 another re destroyed over a hundred of thepaintings in storage in a wing of the museum. The V&Astill has 166 paintings surviving from both sets, thoughnone have been on permanent display since 1955. Thelargest are some 3 × 6 metres. A conservation projectwas undertaken on about half of them in 2006, also in-volving the University of Northumbria.[40] Griffith andhis students had unfortunately painted many of the paint-ings with “cheap varnish” in order to make them easier tosee, which has added to the deterioration of the originals,as has, according to Spink and others, recent cleaning bythe ASI.[41]

A further set of copies were made between 1909 and1911 by Christiana Herringham (Lady Herringham) anda group of students from the Calcutta School of Art thatincluded the future Indian Modernist painter NandalalBose. The copies were published in full colour as the rstpublication of London’s edgling India Society. Morethan the earlier copies, these aimed to ll in holes anddamage to recreate the original condition rather thanrecord the state of the paintings as she was seeing them.According to one writer, unlike the paintings createdby her predecessors Griffiths and Gill, whose copieswere inuenced by British Victorian styles of painting,

those of the Herringham expedition preferred an 'In-dian Renascence' aesthetic of the type pioneered byAbanindranath Tagore.[42]

Early photographic surveys were made by Robert Gill,who learnt to use a camera from about 1856, and whosephotos, including some using stereoscopy, were used inbooks by him and Fergusson (many are available onlinefrom the British Library),[43] then Victor Goloubew in1911 and E.L. Vassey, who took the photos in the fourvolume study of the caves by Ghulam Yazdani (published1930–1955).[44]

A nalattempt to make copiesof the muralswas madebythe Japanese artist Arai Kampō ( :1878-1945) whoencountered them after being invited by Rabindranath

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Tagore to India to teach Japanese painting techniques.[45]

He worked on making copies with tracings on Japanesepaper from 1916 to 1918 and his work was conservedat Tokyo Imperial University until the materials perishedduring the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake.

• Cave 2, showing the extensive paint loss of manyareas.

• Cave 17, Decorative painting, and frieze with lovers

• Painting from Cave 1

• Section of the mural in Cave 17, the 'coming ofSinhala'. The prince (Prince Vijaya) is seen in bothgroups of elephants and riders.

• The consecration of King Sinhala, Prince Vijaya,detail from Cave 17.

• Hamsa jâtaka, cave 17. This painting probablyshows one of the previous lives of the Buddha

3 Architecture

Plan of cave 1, a typical vihara hall for prayer and living

The majority of the caves are vihara halls for prayerand living, which are typically rectangular with smallsquare dormitory cells cut into the walls, and by the sec-ond period a shrine or sanctuary at the rear centred ona large statue of the Buddha, also carved from the liv-ing rock. This change reects the movement from Hi-nayana to Mahāyāna Buddhism. These caves are oftencalled monasteries. The other type of main hall is thenarrower and higher chaitya hall with a stupa as the focusat the far end, and a narrow aisle around the walls, behind

a range of pillars placed close together. Other plainerrooms were for sleeping and other activities. Some of thecaves have elaborate carved entrances, some with largewindows over the door to admit light. There is often acolonnaded porch or verandah, with another space insidethe doors running the width of the cave.The central square space of the interior of the viharas isdened by square columns forming a more or less squareopen area. Outside this arelong rectangular aisleson eachside, forming a kind of cloister. Along the side and rearwalls are a number of small cells entered by a narrowdoorway; these are roughly square, and have small nicheson their backwalls. Originallythey hadwooden doors.[46]

The centre of the rear wall has a larger shrine-room be-hind, containing a large Buddha statue. The viharas ofthe earlier period are much simpler, and lack shrines.[47]

Spink in fact places the change to a design with a shrineto the middle of the second period, with many caves be-ingadapted to adda shrine in mid-excavation, or after theoriginal phase.[48]

The plan of Cave 1 (right) shows one of the largest viha-ras, but is fairly typical of the later group. Many others,such as Cave 16, lack the vestibule to the shrine, whichleads straight off the mainhall. Cave 6 is twoviharas , oneabove the other, connected by internal stairs, with sanc-tuaries on both levels.[49]

The four completed chaitya halls are caves 9 and 10 fromthe early period, and caves 19 and 26 from the later pe-riod of construction. All follow the typical form found

elsewhere, with high ceilings and a central “nave” leadingto the stupa, which is near the back, but allows walkingbehind it, as walking around stupas was (and remains)a common element of Buddhist worship ( pradakshina ).The later two have high ribbed roofs, which reect tim-ber forms,[50] and the earlier two are thought to have usedactual timber ribs, which have now perished.[51] The twolater halls have a rather unusual arrangement (also foundin Cave 10 at Ellora) where the stupa is fronted by a largerelief sculpture of the Buddha, standing in Cave 19 andseated in Cave 26.[47] Cave 29 is a late and very incom-plete chaitya hall.[52]

View into the sanctuary of cave 1 from the central hall. TheBuddha in the shrine room is seen through the aisle and vestibule.

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6 4 ICONOGRAPHY OF THE CAVES

The form of columns in the work of the rst period isvery plain and un-embellished, withbothchaitya halls us-ing simple octagonal columns, which were painted withgures. In the second period columns were far more var-iedand inventive, often changingproleover their height,and with elaborate carved capitals, often spreading wide.Many columns are carved over all their surface, someuted and others carved with decoration all over, as incave 1 (illustrated left).[53]

Theoodbasaltrockof the cliff, part of theDeccan Trapsformed by successive volcanic eruptions at the end of theCretaceous, is layered horizontally, and somewhat vari-able in quality,[54] so the excavators had to amend theirplans in places, and in places there have been collapses inthe intervening centuries, as with the lost portico to cave1. Excavation began by cutting a narrow tunnel at rooflevel, which was expanded downwards and outwards; thehalf-built vihara cave 24 shows the method.[55] Spink be-lieves that for the rst caves of the second period the ex-cavators hadto relearn skills andtechniques that hadbeenlost in the centuries since the rst period,[56] which werethen transmitted to be used at later rock-cut sites in theregion, such as Ellora, and the Elephanta, Bagh, Badamiand Aurangabad Caves.[57]

The caves from the rst period seem to have been paidfor by a number of different patrons, with several in-scriptions recording the donation of particular portionsof a single cave, but according to Spink the later caveswere each commissioned as a complete unit by a singlepatron from the local rulers or their court elites. Afterthe death of Harisena smaller donors got their chance toadd small “shrinelets” between the caves or add statues toexistingcaves, andsome two hundred of these “intrusive”additions were made in sculpture,[58] with a further num-ber of intrusive paintings, up to three hundred in cave 10alone.[59]

A grand gateway to the site, at the apex of the gorge’shorsehoe between caves 15 and 16, was approached fromthe river, and is decorated with elephants on either sideand a nāga, or protective snake deity.[60]

• Cave 9, an early chaitya hall, with murals surviving,and plain octagonal columns

• Cave 10, the other chaitya hall from the rst periodof construction

• Stupa with standing Buddha in Cave 19

• Wide view of Cave 26, a late chaitya hall with astupa

4 Iconography of the caves

In the pre-Christian era, the Buddha was representedsymbolically, in the form of the stupa. Thus, halls were

Reclining Buddha at Cave No. 26

made with stupas to venerate the Buddha. In later peri-ods the images of the Buddha started to be made in coins,relic caskets, relief or loose sculptural forms, etc. How-ever, it took a while for the human representation of theBuddha to appear in Buddhist art. One of the earliest ev-idences of the Buddha’s human representations are foundat Buddhist archaeological sites, such as Goli, Nagarju-nakonda, and Amaravati. The monasteries of those siteswere built in less durable media, such as wood, brick, andstone. As far as the genre of rock-cut architecture is con-cerned it took many centuries for the Buddha image to bedepicted. Nobody knows for sure at which rock-cut cavesite the rst image of the Buddha was depicted.Current research indicates that Buddha images in aportable form, made of wood or stone, were introduced,for the rst time, at Kanheri, to be followed soon atAjantaCave 8 (Dhavalikar, Jadhav, Spink, Singh). Whilethe Kanheri example dates to 4th or 5th century CE,the Ajanta example has been dated to c. 462–478 CE(Spink). None of the rock-cut monasteries prior to thesedates, and other than these examples, show any Buddhaimage although hundreds of rock-cut caves were madethroughout India during the rst few centuries CE. And,in those caves, it is the stupa that is the object of ven-eration, not the image. Images of the Buddha are notfound in Buddhist sailagrhas (rock-cut complexes) untilthetimesof theKanheri (4th–5th centuryCE)andAjantaexamples (c. 462–478 CE).The caves of the second period, now all dated to the5th century, were typically described as “Mahayana”, butdo not show the features associated with later MahayanaBuddhism. Although the beginnings of Mahāyāna teach-ings go back to the 1st century there is little art and ar-chaeological evidence to suggest that it became a main-stream cult for several centuries. In Mahayana it is notGautama Buddha but the Bodhisattva who is important,including “deity” Bodhisattva like Manjushri and Tara,as well as aspects of the Buddha such as Aksobhya, andAmitabha. Except for a few Bodhisattva, these are notdepicted at Ajanta, where the Buddha remains the dom-inant gure. Even the Bodhisattva images of Ajanta arenever central objects of worship, but are always shown as

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5.1 Cave One 7

Entrance to Cave 19, with later “intrusive” sculptures

attendants of theBuddha in theshrine. If a Bodhisattva is

shown in isolation, as in the Astabhaya scenes, these weredone in the very last years of activities at Ajanta, and aremostly 'intrusive' in nature, meaning that they were notplanned by the original patrons, and were added by newdonors after the original patrons had suddenly abandonedthe region in the wake of Emperor Harisena’s death.

The contrast between iconic and aniconic representa-tions, that is, the stupa on one hand and the image ofthe Buddha on the other, is now being seen as a con-struct of the modern scholar rather than a reality of thepast. The second phase of Ajanta shows that the stupaand image coincided together. If the entire corpus of

the art of Ajanta including sculpture, iconography, ar-chitecture, epigraphy, and painting are analysed afresh itwill become clear that there was no duality between thesymbolic and human forms of the Buddha, as far as the5th-century phase of Ajanta is concerned. That is whymost current scholars tend to avoid the terms 'Hinayana'and 'Mahayana' in the context of Ajanta. They now pre-fer to call the second phase by the ruling dynasty, as theVākāţaka phase.

5 Caves

5.1 Cave One

Cave 1 was built on the eastern end of the horse-shoeshaped scarp, and is now the rst cave the visitor encoun-ters. This would when rst made have been a less promi-nent position, right at the end of the row. According toSpink, it is one of the latest caves to have been excavated,when the best sites had been taken, and was never fullyinaugurated for worship by the dedication of the Bud-dha image in the central shrine. This is shown by theabsence of sooty deposits from butter lamps on the baseof the shrine image, and the lack of damage to the paint-ings that would have been happened if the garland-hooksaround the shrine had been in use for any period of time.

Porch of cave 1

Although there is no epigraphic evidence, Spink believes

that the Vākāţaka Emperor Harishena was the benefactorof the work, and this is reected in the emphasis on im-agery of royalty in the cave, with those Jakata tales beingselected that tell of those previous lives of the Buddha inwhich he was royal.[61]

The cliff has a more steep slope here than at other caves,so to achieve a tall grand facade it was necessary to cutfar back into the slope, giving a large courtyard in frontof the facade. There was originally a columned porticoin front of the present facade, which can be seen “half-intact in the 1880s” in pictures of the site, but this felldown completely and the remains, despite containing ne

carving, were carelessly thrown down the slope into theriver, from where they have been lost, presumably carriedaway in monsoon torrents.[62]

Cave 1, porch: Nagendra panel anked by yaksa panels

This cave has one of the most elaborate carved façades,with relief sculptures on entablature and ridges, and mostsurfaces embellished with decorative carving. There arescenes carved from the life of the Buddha as well as anumber of decorative motifs. A two pillared portico, vis-ible in the 19th-century photographs, has since perished.The cave has a front-court with cells fronted by pillaredvestibules on either side. These have a high plinth level.

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8 5 CAVES

The cave has a porch with simple cells on both ends.The absence of pillared vestibules on the ends suggestthat the porch was not excavated in the latest phase ofAjanta when pillared vestibules had become a necessityand norm. Most areas of the porch were once coveredwith murals, of which many fragments remain, especiallyon the ceiling. There are three doorways: a central door-way and two side doorways. Two square windows werecarved between the doorways to brighten the interiors.[63]

Each wall of the hall inside is nearly 40 feet (12 m) longand 20 feet (6.1 m) high. Twelve pillars make a squarecolonnade inside supporting the ceiling, and creating spa-cious aisles along the walls. There is a shrine carved onthe rear wall to house an impressive seated image of theBuddha, his hands being in the dharmachakrapravartanamudra . There are four cells on each of the left, rear, andthe right walls, though due to rock fault there are none atthe ends of the rear aisle.[64] The walls are covered withpaintings in a fair state of preservation, though the fullscheme was never completed. The scenes depicted aremostly didactic, devotional, and ornamental, with scenesfrom the Jataka stories of the Buddha’s former existencesas a bodhisattva), the life of the Gautama Buddha, andthose of his veneration. The two most famous individualpainted images at Ajanta are the two over-life size guresof the protective bodhisattvas Padmapani and Vajrapanion either side of the entrance to the Buddha shrine on thewall of the rear aisle (see illustrations above).[65] Accord-ing to Spink, the original dating of the paintings to about625 arose largely or entirely because James Fegusson, a

19th-century architectural historian, had decided that ascene showingan ambassador being received, withguresin Persian dress, represented a recorded embassy to Per-sia (from a Hindu monarch at that) around that date.[66]

5.2 Cave Two

Detail from Cave 2

Cave 2, adjacent to Cave 1, is known for the paintingsthat have been preserved on its walls, ceilings, and pil-lars. It looks similar to Cave 1 and is in a better state ofpreservation.

Cave 2 has a porch quite different from Cave one. Eventhe façade carvings seem to be different. The cave issupported by robust pillars, ornamented with designs.The front porch consists of cells supported by pillaredvestibules on both ends. The cells on the previously“wasted areas” were needed to meet the greater hous-ing requirements in later years. Porch-end cells became atrend in all later Vakataka excavations. The simple singlecells on porch-ends were converted into CPVs or wereplanned to provide more room, symmetry, and beauty.The paintings on the ceilings and walls of this porch havebeen widely published. They depict the Jataka tales thatare stories of the Buddha’s life in former existences asBodhisattva. Just as the stories illustrated in cave 1 em-phasize kingship, those in cave 2 show many “noble andpowerful” women in prominent roles, leading to sugges-tions that the patron was an unknown woman.[57] Theporch’s rear wall has a doorway in the center, which al-lows entrance to the hall. On either side of the door is asquare-shaped window to brighten the interior.The hall has four colonnades which are supporting theceiling and surrounding a square in the center of the hall.Each arm or colonnade of the square is parallel to the re-spectivewallsof thehall, makingan aisle in between. Thecolonnades have rock-beams above and below them. Thecapitals are carved and painted with various decorativethemes that include ornamental, human, animal, vegeta-tive, and semi-divine forms.Paintings appear on almost every surface of the cave ex-

cept for the oor. At various places the art work hasbecome eroded due to decay and human interference.Therefore, many areas of the painted walls, ceilings, andpillars are fragmentary. The painted narratives of theJataka tales are depicted only on the walls, which de-manded the special attention of the devotee. They aredidactic in nature, meant to inform the community aboutthe Buddha’s teachings and life through successive re-births. Their placement on the walls required the devoteeto walk through the aisles and 'read' the narratives de-picted in various episodes. The narrative episodes aredepicted one after another although not in a linear order.Their identication has been a core area of research sincethe site’s rediscovery in 1819. Dieter Schlingloff’s iden-tications have updated our knowledge on the subject.

5.3 Cave Four

The Archaeological Survey of India board outside thecaves gives the following detail about cave 4:"This is thelargest monastery planned on a grandiose scale but wasnever nished. An inscription on the pedestal of thebuddha’s image mentions that it was a gift from a per-son named Mathura and paleographically belongs to 6thcentury A.D. It consists of a verandah, a hypostylar hall,sanctum with an antechamber and a series of unnishedcells. The rear wall of the verandah contains the panel of

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5.5 Cave 17 9

The Buddha in a preaching pose anked by bodhisattvas , Cave4

Litany of Avalokiteśvara".The sanctuary houses a colossal image of the Buddhain preaching pose anked by bodhisattvas and celestialnymphs hovering above.

5.4 Caves 9–10

Entrance of cave no. 9.

Caves 9 and 10 are the two chaitya halls from the rstperiod of construction, though both were also undergo-ing an uncompleted reworking at the end of the secondperiod. Cave 10 was perhaps originally of the 1st cen-tury BCE, and cave 9 about a hundred years later. Thesmall “shrinelets” called caves 9A to 9D and 10A alsodate from the second period, and were commissioned byindividuals.[67]

The paintings in cave 10 include some surviving fromthe early period, many from an incomplete programmeof modernization in the second period, and a very largenumber of smaller late intrusive images, nearly all Bud-dhas and many with donor inscriptions from individu-als. These mostly avoided over-painting the “official”

programme and after the best positions were used up aretucked away in less prominent positions not yet painted;the total of these (including those now lost) was proba-bly over 300, and the hands of many different artists arevisible.[68]

5.5 Cave 17

Cave 17 contains some of the best preserved and wellknown paintings of all the caves. Including a panel thattells of Prince Simhala’s expedition to Sri Lanka. This in-cludes details to a shipwreck and escaping from ogressesby a ying horse. Other notable paintings include aprincess applying makeup and a prince seducing a loverwith wine.[69]

5.6 Other caves

Plan of the caves

Cave 3 is merely a start of an excavation; according toSpink it was begun right at the end of the nal period ofwork and soon abandoned.[70] Caves 5 and 6 are viharas ,the latteron two oors, that were late works of which onlythe lower oor of cave 6 was ever nished. The upperoor of cave 6 has many private votive sculptures, and ashrine Buddha, but is otherwiseunnished.[70] Cave7 hasa grand facade with two porticos but, perhaps because offaults in the rock, which posed problems in many caves,was never taken very deep into the cliff, and consists onlyof the two porticos and a shrine room with antechamber,with no central hall. Some cells were tted in.[71]

Cave 8 was long thought to date to the rst period of con-struction, but Spink sees it as perhaps the earliest cavefrom the second period, its shrine an “afterthought”. Thestatue may have been loose rather than carved from theliving rock, as it hasnow vanished. Thecavewas painted,but only traces remain.[72] Cave 9 was found betweenCave 15 and 16 during debris clearance. It is a small vi-

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10 9 NOTES

hara with a narrow door opening into courtyard havingthree cells in each wall.[73]

6 Spink’s detailed chronology

Walter M. Spink has over recent decades developed avery precise and circumstantial chronologyfor the secondperiod of work on the site, which unlike earlier scholars,he places entirely in the 5th century. This is based on evi-dence such as the inscriptions and artistic style, combinedwith themany uncompletedelements of thecaves. Hebe-lieves the earlier group of caves, which like other schol-ars he dates only approximately, to the period “between100 BCE – 100 CE”, were at some later point completelyabandoned and remained so “for over three centuries”,as the local population had turned mainly Hindu. Thischanged with the accession of the Emperor Harishena ofthe Vakataka Dynasty, who reigned from 460 to his deathin 477. Harisena extended the Central Indian VakatakaEmpire to include a stretch of the east coast of India; theGupta Empire ruled northern India at the same period,and the Pallava dynasty much of the south.[17]

According to Spink, Harisena encouraged a group of as-sociates, including his prime minister Varahadeva andUpendragupta, the sub-king in whose territory Ajantawas, to dig out new caves, which were individually com-missioned, some containing inscriptions recording thedonation. This activity began in 462 but was mostly sus-pended in 468 because of threats from the neighbour-ing Asmaka kings. Work continued on only caves 1,Harisena’s own commission, and 17–20, commissionedby Upendragupta. In 472 the situation was such thatwork was suspended completely, in a period that Spinkcalls “the Hiatus”, which lasted until about 475, by whichtime the Asmakas had replaced Upendragupta as the lo-cal rulers.[74]

Panoramic view from “The Viewpoint” above the caves; the cavenumbers count up from right to left

Work was then resumed, but again disrupted byHarisena’s death in 477, soon after which major excava-tion ceased, except at cave 26, which the Asmakas weresponsoring themselves. The Asmakas launched a revolt

againstHarisena’s son, which brought about theend of theVakataka Dynasty. In the years 478–480 major excava-tion byimportantpatronswas replaced bya rash of “intru-sions” – statues added to existing caves, and small shrinesdottedabout where there was space between them. Thesewere commissioned by less powerful individuals, somemonks, who had not previously been able to make addi-tions to the large excavations of the rulers and courtiers.They were added to the facades, the return sides of theentrances, and to walls inside the caves.[75] Accordingto Spink, “After 480, not a single image was ever madeagain at the site”, and as Hinduism again dominated theregion, the site was again abandoned, this time for over amillennium.[76]

Spink does not use “circa” in his dates, but says that “oneshould allowa marginof errorof oneyearorperhaps eventwo in all cases”.[77]

7 Impact on modern Indian paint-ings

The Ajanta paintings, or more likely the general stylethey come from, inuenced painting in Tibet[78] and SriLanka.[79]

Therediscoveryof ancient Indian paintings atAjantapro-vided Indian artists examples from ancient India to fol-low. Nandalal Bose experimented with techniques tofollow the ancient style which allowed him to develophis unique style.[80] Abanindranath Tagore also used theAjanta paintings for inspiration.

8 See also

• Dharashiv Caves• Barabar Caves• Shivleni Caves, Ambajogai

9 Notes

[1] Gopal, Madan (1990). K.S. Gautam, ed. India throughthe ages . Publication Division, Ministry of Informationand Broadcasting, Government of India. p. 173.

[2] The precise number varies according to whether or notsome barely started excavations, such as cave 15A, arecounted. The ASI say “In all, total 30 excavations werehewn out of rock which also include an unnished one”,UNESCO and Spink “about 30”. The controversies overthe end date of excavation is covered below.

[3] ASI[4] Ajanta Caves, India: Brief Description, UNESCO World

Heritage Site. Retrieved 27 October 2006.

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[5] Ajanta Caves: Advisory Body Evaluation, UNESCO In-ternational Council on Monuments and Sites. 1982. Re-trieved 27 October 2006., p.2.

[6] “Ajanta Caves”. Retrieved 19 May 2012.

[7] variously spelled Waghora or Wagura in some sources

[8] UNESCO, Ajanta; ASI

[9] Spink (2006), 4; Spink (2009), xix, Cave 29 was origi-nally hidden by rubble and is out of sequence in terms oflocation.

[10] Spink (2006), 2

[11] Harle, 355–361; 460

[12] “UNESCO page – Ancient City of Sigiriya”. UN-ESCO.org. Archived from the original on 16 September2010. Retrieved 17 September 2010.

[13] Harle, 118–122

[14] Spink (2006) pp 4–6.

[15] Nagaraju 1981, pp. 98–103

[16] Michell, 335

[17] Spink (2006), 4

[18] The UNESCO World Heritage List website for examplesays “The 29 caves were excavated beginning around 200BC, but they were abandoned in AD 650 in favour of El-lora”

[19] For example Karl Khandalavala, A. P. Jamkhedkar, andBrahmanand Deshpande. Spink, vol. 2, pp. 117–134)

[20] Singh, 2012, pp. 32–37

[21] Spink (2006), 4–6 for the briefest summary of hischronology, developed at great length in his Ajanta: His-tory and Development 2005.

[22] Spink (2006), 5–6; 160–161

[23] See interview with Walter Spink lmed at Ajanta in Jan-uary 2012 conrming his dating; Spink (2006), 139 for

evidence of “sporadic residents in some later century”, ap-parently grinding corn and sharpening tools, and 161 fora later sadhu resident.

[24] Spink (2006), 139 and 3 (quoted): “Going down into theravine where the caves were cut, he scratched his inscrip-tion (John Smith, 28th Cavalry, 28th April, 1819) acrossthe innocent chest of a painted Buddha image on the thir-teenth pillar on the right in Cave 10...”

[25] Upadhya, 3

[26] Gordon, 231–234

[27] Cohen, 47–49, 51

[28] Cohen’s chapter 2 discusses the history and future of vis-itors to Ajanta.

[29] “Tourist centre to house replicas of Ajanta caves”, Timesof India, 5 August 2012, accessed 24 October 2012; seeCohen 51 for an earlier version of the proposal, recreatingcaves 16, 17 and 21.

[30] [aurangabad.nic.in/htmldocs/vision2020/10_groupnotourism.pdf VISION TOURISM 2020 –Aurangabad District], page 28, accessed 24 October2012

[31] Harle, 355

[32] Harle, 355 quoted, 355–361

[33] Harle, 355–361

[34] Harle, 361

[35] Spink (2008)

[36] Spink (2006), 28–29

[37] Detail from this painting in the V&A

[38] Upadhyay, Om Dutt (1994). The Art of Ajanta and Sopoćani . Motilal Banarsidas Publisher. pp. 2–3. ISBN81-208-0990-4.

[39] Gordon, 234–238; Conserving the copies of the Ajantacave paintings at the V&A

[40] Conserving the copies of the Ajanta cave paintings at theV&A, Victoria & Albert Museum, Conservation Journal,Spring 2006 Issue 52, accessed 24 October 2012

[41] Cohen, 50–51

[42] Rupert Richard Arrowsmith, “An Indian Renascence andthe rise of global modernism: William Rothenstein in In-dia,1910–11”, The Burlington Magazine , vol.152 no.1285(April 2010), pp.228–235.

[43] Gordon, 236; examplefrom the BritishLibrary(searchon“Gill, Robert Ajanta”)

[44] Upadya, 2–3

[45] M. L. Ahuja,Eminent Indians: Ten Great Artists, RupaPublications, 2012 p.51.

[46] Spink (2006), 148

[47] Harle, 118–122; Michell 335–343

[48] Spink (2006), 142

[49] Michell, 338

[50] UNESCO, Brief description

[51] Michell, 339

[52] Spink (2006), 12–13

[53] Spink (2006), 18, and in the accounts of individual caves;Michell, 336

[54] “horizontally bedded alternate ows of massive andamygdular lava” is a technical description quoted by Co-hen, 37

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[55] Spink (2006), 13

[56] Spink (2006), 28

[57] Spink (2006), 13–14

[58] Spink (2006), 4–6

[59] Spink (2006), 139

[60] Spink, 10; Michell 340

[61] Spink (2006), 17, 31

[62] Spink(2006), 17; 1869 photo byRobert Gill at theBritishLibrary, showing the porch already rather less than “half-intact”

[63] Spink (2006), 17–21

[64] Spink (2006), 20–23

[65] Spink (2006), 29–31; Harle, 359–361

[66] Spink (2006), 29

[67] Spink (2006), 9; 140–141

[68] Spink (2006), 137–139

[69] Remote Traveller

[70] Spink (2006), 8

[71] Spink (2006), 8–9

[72] Spink (2006), 9

[73] http://www.asiaurangabad.in/pdf/Tourist/Ajanta_Caves_-_Ajanta.pdf

[74] Spink (2006), 4–5

[75] Spink (2006), 5–6

[76] Spink (2006), 6

[77] Spink (2009), xx (quoted); Spink (2006), 15–16

[78] The Imprint of Ajanta in Tibetan Art, Eva Fernanadez delCampo Barbadillo,Buddhist Himalaya: A Journal of Na-garjuna Institute of Exact Methods, Vol. IX No. I & II(1998)

[79] [The Imperial Guptas: Cultural history, Volume 2 ofThe Imperial Guptas, Parmeshwari Lal Gupta, Vish-wavidyalaya Prakashan, 1979 p. 221]

[80] Vasudev Sharan Agrawal, Kala aur Sanskriti, 1952, p.282-299

10 References

• “ASI": Archaeological Surveyof Indiawebsite, witha concise entry on the Caves, accessed 20 October2012

• Cohen, Richard S. Beyond Enlightenment: Bud-dhism, Religion Modernity . (Oxford and New York:Routledge, 2006)

• Gordon, Sophie (2011), Monumental visions: archi-tectural photography in India, 1840–1901 , PhD the-sis, SOAS, University of London, PDF available

• Harle, J.C., The Art and Architecture of the IndianSubcontinent , 2nd edn. 1994, Yale University PressPelican History of Art, ISBN 0300062176

• Michell, George, The Penguin Guide to the Monu-ments of India, Volume 1: Buddhist, Jain, Hindu ,1989, Penguin Books, ISBN 0140081445

• Singh, Rajesh K.An Introduction to the Ajanta Caves (Baroda: Hari Sena Press, 2012). ISBN 978-81-925107-0-5

• Spink, Walter M. (2006). Ajanta: History and De-velopment Volume 5: Cave by Cave . Leiden: Brill.ISBN 90-04-15644-5.

• Spink, Walter M. (2008), Lecture, Korea May 2008(revised September 2008)

• Spink, Walter M. (2009). Ajanta: History and De-velopment Volume 4: Painting, Sculpture, Architec-ture, Year by Year . Leiden: Brill. ISBN 90-04-14983-X.

11 Further reading

• Burgess, James and Fergusson J. Cave Temples of India. (London: W.H. Allen & Co., 1880. Delhi:Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt Ltd., Delhi,2005). ISBN 81-215-0251-9

• Burgess, James, and Indraji, Bhagwanlal. Inscrip-tions from the Cave Temples of Western India , Ar-chaeological Survey of Western India, Memoirs, 10(Bombay: Government Central Press, 1881).

• Burgess, James. Buddhist Cave Temples and Their Inscriptions , Archaeological Survey of Western In-dia, 4 (London: Trubner & Co., 1883; Varanasi: In-dological Book House, 1964).

• Burgess, James. “Notes on the Bauddha Rock Tem-ples of Ajanta, Their Paintings and Sculptures,” Ar-chaeological Survey of Western India, 9 (Bombay:Government Central Press, 1879).

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• Behl, Benoy K. The Ajanta Caves (London: Thames& Hudson, 1998. New York: Harry N. Abrams,1998).

• Cohen, RichardS. “Ajanta’s Inscriptions.” In WalterM. Spink, Ajanta: History And Development, vol-

ume 2: Arguments About Ajanta (Leiden: E.J. Brill,2006), pp. 273–339.

• Cohen, Richard S. “Nāga, Yaksinī, Buddha: LocalDeities and Local Buddhism at Ajanta,” History of Religions . 37/4 (May 1998): 360–400.

• Cohen, Richard S. “Problems in the Writing ofAjanta’s History: The Epigraphic Evidence,” Indo-Iranian Journal . 40/2 (April 1997): 125–48.

• Cohen, Richard Scott. Setting the Three Jewels: TheComplex Culture of Buddhismat theAjanta Caves. APh.D. dissertation (Asian Languages and Cultures:Buddhist Studies, University of Michigan, 1995).

• Cowell, E.B. The Jataka, I-VI (Cambridge: Cam-bridge, 1895; reprint, 1907).

• Dhavalikar, M.K. Late Hinayana Caves of WesternIndia (Pune: 1984).

• Griffiths, J. Paintings in the Buddhist Cave Temples of Ajanta, 2 vols. (London: 1896 – 1897).

• Halder, Asit Kumar. “AJANTA” Edited and anno-tated by Prasenjit Dasgupta and Soumen Paul, witha Foreword by Gautam Halder LALMATI. Kolkata.2009

• Kramrisch, Stella. A Survey of Painting in the Dec-can (Calcutta and London: The India Society in co-operation with the Dept. of Archaeology, 1937).Reproduced: “Ajanta,”Exploring India’s Sacred Art: Selected Writings of Stella Kramrisch, ed. Miller,Barbara Stoler (Philadelphia: University of Penn-sylvania Press: 1983), pp. 273–307; reprint (NewDelhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts,

1994), pp. 273–307.• Majumdar, R.C. and A.S. Altekar, eds. The

Vakataka-Gupta Age. New History of Indian Peo-pleSeries,VI (Benares: Motilal Banarasidass,1946;reprint, Delhi: 1960).

• Mirashi, V.V. “Historical Evidence in Dandin’sDasakumaracharita,”Annals of the Bhandarkar Ori-ental Research Institute , 24 (1945), 20ff. Repro-duced: Studies in Indology, 1 (Nagpur: VidarbhaSamshodhan Mandal, 1960), pp. 164–77.

• Mirashi, V.V. Inscription of the Vakatakas . CorpusInscriptionum Indicarum Series, 5 (Ootacamund:Government Epigraphist for India, 1963).

• Mirashi, V.V. The Ghatotkacha Cave Inscriptions with a Note on Ghatotkacha Cave Temples by Srini-vasachar, P . (Hyderabad: Archaeological Depart-ment, 1952).

• Mirashi, V.V. Vakataka inscription in Cave XVI at

Ajanta . Hyderabad Archaeological Series, 14 (Cal-cutta: Baptist mission Press for the ArchaeologicalDepartment of His Highness the Nizam’s Domin-ions, 1941).

• Mitra, Debala. Ajanta , 8th ed. (Delhi: Archaeolog-ical Survey of India, 1980).

• Nagaraju, S. Buddhist Architecture of Western India(Delhi: 1981).

• Parimoo, Ratan; et al. The Art of Ajanta: NewPerspectives , 2 vols (New Delhi: Books & Books,1991).

• Schlingloff, Dieter. Guide to the Ajanta Paintings,vol. 1; Narrative Wall Paintings (Delhi: MunshiramManoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1999)

• Schlingloff, Dieter. Studies in the Ajanta Paint-ings: Identications and Interpretations (New Delhi:1987).

• Shastri, Ajay Mitra, ed. The Age of the Vakatakas (New Delhi: Harman, 1992).

• Singh, Rajesh Kumar. ‘The Early Development of

theCave 26-Complexat Ajanta,’South Asian Studies (London: March 2012), vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 37–68.

• Singh, Rajesh Kumar. ‘Buddhabhadra’s DedicatoryInscription at Ajanta: A Review,’ in Pratnakirti: Re-cent Studies in Indian Epigraphy, History, Archaeol-ogy, and Art , 2 vols, Professor Shrinivas S. Ritti Fe-licitation volume, ed. by Shriniwas V. Padigar andShivanand V (Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan, 2012),vol. 1, pp. 34–46.

• Singh, Rajesh Kumar, et al. Ajanta: Digital En-cyclopaedia [CD-Rom] (New Delhi: Indira Gandhi

National Centre for Arts, 2005).• Singh, Rajesh Kumar. “Enumerating the Sailagrhas

of Ajanta,” Journal of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai 82, 2009: 122–26.

• Singh, Rajesh Kumar. “Ajanta: Cave 8 Revisited,”Jnana-Pravah Research Journal 12, 2009: 68–80.

• Singh, Rajesh Kumar. “Some Problems in Fixingthe Date of Ajanta Caves,” Kala, the Journal of In-dian Art History Congress 17, 2008: 69–85.

• Sister Nivedita. “The Ancient Abbey of Ajanta”Edited and annotated by Prasenjit Dasgupta andSoumen Paul, with a Foreword by Dr Gautam Sen-gupta. LALMATI. Kolkata. 2009.

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14 12 EXTERNAL LINKS

• Spink, Walter M. (2009). Ajanta: History and De-velopment Volume 4: Painting, Sculpture, Architec-ture, Year by Year . Leiden: Brill. ISBN 90-04-14983-X.

• Spink, Walter M. “A Reconstruction of Events re-

lated to the development of Vakataka caves,” C.S.Sivaramamurti felicitation volume , ed. M.S. Na-garaja Rao (New Delhi: 1987).

• Spink, Walter M. “Ajanta’s Chronology: Cave 1’sPatronage,”Chhavi 2, ed. Krishna, Anand (Benares:Bharat Kala Bhawan, 1981), pp. 144–57.

• Spink, Walter M. “Ajanta’s Chronology: Cave 7’sTwice-born Buddha,” Studies in Buddhist Art of South Asia , ed. Narain, A.K. (New Delhi: 1985),pp. 103–16.

•

Spink, Walter M. “Ajanta’s Chronology: Politicsand Patronage,” Kaladarsana , ed. Williams, Joanna(New Delhi: 1981), pp. 109–26.

• Spink, Walter M. “Ajanta’s Chronology: The Cru-cial Cave,” Ars Orientalis , 10 (1975), pp. 143–169.

• Spink, Walter M. “Ajanta’s Chronology: The Prob-lem of Cave 11,” Ars Orientalis , 7 (1968), pp. 155–168.

• Spink, Walter M. “Ajanta’s Paintings: A Checklistfor their Dating,” Dimensions of Indian Art, Pupul Jayakar Felicitation Volume , ed. Chandra, Lokesh;and Jain, Jyotindra (Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan,1987), p. 457.

• Spink, Walter M. “Notes on Buddha Images,” TheArt of Ajanta: New Perspectives , vol. 2, ed. Pari-moo, Ratan, et al. (New Delhi: Books & Books,1991), pp. 213–41.

• Spink, Walter M. “The Achievement of Ajanta,”The Age of the Vakatakas , ed. Shastri, Ajaya Mi-tra (New Delhi: Harman Publishing House, 1992),pp. 177–202.

• Spink, Walter M. “The Vakataka’s Flowering andFall,” The Art of Ajanta: New Perspectives , vol. 2,ed. Parimoo, Ratan, et al. (New Delhi: Books &Books, 1991), pp. 71–99.

• Spink, Walter M. “The Archaeology of Ajanta,” Ars Orientalis , 21, pp. 67–94.

• Weiner, Sheila L. Ajanta: It’s Place in Buddhist Art (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of CaliforniaPress, 1977).

• Yazdani, Gulam. Ajanta: the Colour and

Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography , 4 vols. (London: OxfordUniversity Press, 1930 [31?], 1955).

• Yazdani, Gulam. The Early History of the De ccan,Parts 7–9 (Oxford: 1960).

• Zin, Monika. Guide to the Ajanta Paintings, vol. 2; Devotional and Ornamental Paintings (Delhi: Mun-shiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 2003)

12 External links

• ‘Ajanta,’ in Encyclopaedia of the History of Science,Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures ,ed. by Helaine Selin, 3rd ed. (Verlag Berlin Heidel-berg: Springer).

• An Introduction to the Ajanta Caves

• The Early Development of the Cave 26-Complex atAjanta

• National Geographic feature 'Faces of the Divine'

• The Greatest Ancient Picture Gallery. William Dal-rymple, New York Review of Books (23 Oct 2014)

• Video of the caves MTDC site

• Ajanta Caves in UNESCO List

• “Ajanta”, Jacques-Edouard Berger Foundation,World Art Treasures (choose French or English)

• Ajanta Caves Pictures

• Photographs

• Video Travelogue on Ajanta Cave Temples

• Ajanta Caves – rock cut Buddhist temples | Wonder-mondo

• Ajanta: Written in the Stone. Documentary by Lau-rence Castle based on Walter Spink’s nding.

• Ajanta: Some Kind of Miracle. Documentary byLaurence Castle, the history of Ajanta.

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13 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

13.1 Text• Ajanta Caves Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajanta_Caves?oldid=687865889 Contributors: SimonP, Olivier, Sannse, Yann, Sky-

smith, Ellywa, Ahoerstemeier, Mac, Docu, Snoyes, Usedbook, Bogdangiusca, Adam Bishop, KRS, Topbanana, Wetman, Dimadick, Tom-chiukc, RedWolf, Alan Liefting, Henry Flower, Kukkurovaca, Chowbok, Utcursch, Gdr, OverlordQ, MistToys, Anirvan, Ultratomio,Discospinster, Rich Farmbrough, Vsmith, Dbachmann, Alren, Yono, Bobo192, Giraffedata, Srlasky, Haham hanuka, Pearle, Mduvekot,Wiki-uk, Salilb, Mikeo, Geraldshields11, ~shuri, Dan100, Feezo, Davidkazuhiro, Tabletop, Mandarax, Gryffindor, Lairor, Sarabseth,FlaBot, Daderot, Gurch, Joefac3, DaGizza, Bgwhite, Kummi, YurikBot, Deeptrivia, DTRY,RussBot, HVH, Gaius Cornelius, Rsrikanth05,Veledan, Welsh, Howcheng, AbhishekGoyal, Rmky87, Raven4x4x, Wookipedia, BOT-Superzerocool, Tachs, Seemagoel, Pbwelch, As-natu wiki, Malaiya, Luk, SmackBot, YellowMonkey, Elonka, Gilliam, Hmains, Tree Biting Conspiracy, DHN-bot~enwiki, Rksingh1970,Suicidalhamster, Shivap, Stevenmitchell, Krich, Funky Monkey, Ohconfucius, Marco polo, Breno, Shyamsunder, RandomCritic, Inter-lingua, Shivashree, Chezhiyan, Hu12, Joseph Solis in Australia, Bruinfan12, Nmadhubala, Joostvandeputte~enwiki, Joey80, Ganeshbot,Boozio, CmdrObot, AshLin, Stefan Jansen, Cydebot, Jonathanawhite, Tawkerbot4, DBaba, Nishidani, Mattisse, JamesAM, Thijs!bot,Joy1963, Sacca, Whitesurf, Amitauti, Nick Number, Drbalajiprasad, Luna Santin, Larry Rosenfeld, Blair Bonnett, Raza 7226, JAnDbot,MER-C, ChinmayHota, PhilKnight, Guy0307, Dapsv~enwiki, Magioladitis, WolfmanSF, VoABot II, Jllm06, Ling.Nut, Tinucherian, Sfu,The Anomebot2, KConWiki, Daarznieks, Allstarecho, Spellmaster, Dharmadhyaksha, Purslane, Ashishbhatnagar72, CommonsDelinker,Fconaway, AlphaEta, J.delanoy, Abecedare, Fowler&fowler, Johnbod, Abhijitsathe, Nemo bis, (jarbarf), Mangwanani, Hotaru in med-itation, Brosi, DorganBot, Shamatt, Idioma-bot, Redtigerxyz, Kuhoo, Malik Shabazz, Rajasekhar1961, Part Deux, Harshabob, A.Ou,Philip Trueman, TXiKiBoT, Freakyyash, Baumfreund-FFM, Rei-bot, Qxz, Lanka07, Buddhipriya, Maharashtraexpress, Seb az86556,Rjm at sleepers, Jalo, Bonzon, Uditdandona, Adam.J.W.C., Falcon8765, Canvasguru, Scottywong, Vasudevan.sridharan, AdRock, SieBot,

BotMultichill, Ninington, Dawn Bard, Bentogoa, Flyer22 Reborn, Mimihitam, Ezelbaum, Lightmouse, Fratrep, Kudret abi, OKBot, Denis-arona, De728631, Biospeleologist, ClueBot, TransporterMan, Goldenhawk 0, Podzemnik, Poojakaul, Mild Bill Hiccup, Ssriram mt, Tes-sarman, Piledhigheranddeeper, Manishearth, DragonBot, Crywalt, Estirabot, Rhododendrites, Padmavasantha, SchreiberBike, Nandanu-padhyay, Ajyrds, Spinoff, Bellroth, Belasd, Apparition11, Jakemitra, Avoided, Noctibus, Lovaananda, Addbot, Jafeluv, Shilpasayura,Jncraton, Sillyfolkboy, More random musing, Anooljm, Numbo3-bot, Lightbot, Abhay.s.patil, Legobot, Luckas-bot, Yobot, Fraggle81,Jim1138, Zacherystaylor, Materialscientist, Dewan357, LilHelpa, Night w, Millahnna, GrouchoBot, Chandan Guha, FrescoBot, Sky At-tacker, Fuwad ca, Pinethicket, I dream of horses, Nolgreat95, Elekhh, Krishnachaitanyasadula, Alokprasad, Ashot Gabrielyan, Goge-unks1, Nagalakk, DASHBot, IXU79, EmausBot, Gitamishra, WikitanvirBot, Arpit88dawda, Dcirovic, Mozem121, PBS-AWB, Josve05a,Koresdcine, Tolly4bolly, Jay-Sebastos, Brandmeister, Shrigley, Mayur, Autoerrant, ChuispastonBot, Karthikeyan.pandian, 28bot, Shan-tanu5star, Kaleb Daark, ClueBot NG, Pebble101, Laurence.castle, Rscohen1, Snotbot, Delusion23, Widr, Helpful Pixie Bot, MediaJet,Thisthat2011, AnsarParacha, 14113ATM, BG19bot, PhnomPencil, 155blue, Supotmails, Ninney, Yowanvista, Parvathisri, Snow Bliz-zard, KartikMistry, Ashleshakadam1, ChrisGualtieri, GoShow, Keshavsolanki, Cpt.a.haddock, BrightStarSky, Kanghuitari, Dexbot, San-toshBot, Mogism, Mitra2412, Rajeshhire89, Wantsallanger, Graphium, Ekta abhishek, Dey.sandip, Faizan, Kalu Ukussa, Soniachauhan,ArmbrustBot, Bhooshannpy, Ginsuloft, Sayantakkarar, Soranoch, Notthebestusername, Miner Ed, , Ritish Banerjee, Filedelinker-bot, Aritramusta, Itsab28, Tulsi Bhagat, Rahul.alytus, Mahajandeepakv, Human3015, Srikant Panda, Entrepic, KasparBot, Jsenthilvasan,Ashutoshmondal23, Remote Traveler, Shrishti22, Dongar Kathorekar, Perceptive13, AryanG2000, Kolaa Pravin and Anonymous: 286

13.2 Images• File:Aj2.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Aj2.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Ajanta Paint-

ing Original artist: reproduction done by Lady Herringham 1915.• File:AjantaHoehle1HaupthalleCella.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/

AjantaHoehle1HaupthalleCella.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Christian Luczanits Original artist: Christian Luczan-its

• File:AjantaWik.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/AjantaWik.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contribu-tors: Own work Original artist: Daarznieks

• File:Ajanta_(63).jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Ajanta_%2863%29.jpg License: CC BY 2.5 Con-tributors: No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims). Original artist: No machine-readableauthor provided. Soman assumed (based on copyright claims).

• File:Ajanta_Ellora_buddha_statue_aurangabad_maharastra.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Ajanta_Ellora_buddha_statue_aurangabad_maharastra.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Karthikeyan.pandian

• File:Ajanta_Padmapani.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Ajanta_Padmapani.jpg License: Publicdomain Contributors: http: //www.national-geographic.ru/ngm/200801/article_168/gallery_1394/ Original artist: unknown

• File:Ajanta_and_Elora_caves_05.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Ajanta_and_Elora_caves_05.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Viral1997

• File:Ajanta_cave9_2010.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Ajanta_cave9_2010.jpg License: GFDLContributors: Own work Original artist: Marcin Białek

• File:Ajanta_cave_2,_girls_detail.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/Ajanta_cave_2%2C_girls_detail.jpg License: CC BY-SA 4.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Woudloper

• File:Ajanta_cave_no._9_2010.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Ajanta_cave_no._9_2010.jpg Li-cense: GFDL Contributors: Own work Original artist: Marcin Białek

• File:Ajanta_caves_10.JPG Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Ajanta_caves_10.JPG License: CC BY-SA3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Shaikh Munir

• File:Ajanta_dancing_girl_now_and_then.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Ajanta_dancing_girl_now_and_then.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: File:Iacuci11d0b62ppy.D.0.Ajanta-Cave-painting-Painting-Dance.jpg, File:Dancing girl ajanta.jpg Original artist: unknown, Robert Gill

7/21/2019 Ajanta Caves

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/ajanta-caves-56da70ba426c4 16/16

16 13 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

• File:Ajanta_viewpoint.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Ajanta_viewpoint.jpg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: photo taken by Freakyyash Original artist: Freakyyash

• File:Cave_01_porch.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Cave_01_porch.jpg License: Public domainContributors: Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons. Original artist: Rksingh1970 at English Wikipedia

• File:Commons-logo.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg License: ? Contributors: ? Original artist: ?

• File:Dharma_Wheel.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Dharma_Wheel.svg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0Contributors: Own work Original artist: Shazz, Esteban.barahona

• File:Ellora_cave10_001.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Ellora_cave10_001.jpg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: http://pipimaru.dyndns.org/india_2004/index.html Original artist: Y.Shishido

• File:Engravings_outside_one_of_the_caves_in_Ajanta.JPG Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Engravings_outside_one_of_the_caves_in_Ajanta.JPG License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Ekta AbhishekBansal

• File:Flag_of_India.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/41/Flag_of_India.svg License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?

• File:GrundrissAjantaHoehle1.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/GrundrissAjantaHoehle1.jpg Li-cense: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Erik128

• File:India_Maharashtra_location_map.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/India_Maharashtra_location_map.svg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: own work, using this le by Planemad Original artist: Maximilian Dörrbecker(Chumwa)

• File:Indischer_Maler_des_7._Jahrhunderts_001.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Indischer_Maler_des_7._Jahrhunderts_001.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei.DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. Original artist: Indischer Maler des 7.Jahrhunderts

• File:Karla_Amit_R_Mahadik_01.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Karla_Amit_R_Mahadik_01.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Amitmahadik100

• File:MaharashtraAurangabad.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/MaharashtraAurangabad.png Li-cense: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?

• File:Map_of_Ajanta_Caves.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Map_of_Ajanta_Caves.svg License: CC BY-SA 4.0 Contributors: © OpenStreetMaps contributors, [1] Original artist: Goran tek-en

• File:Meister_des_Mahâjanaka_Jâtaka_001.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Meister_des_Mah%C3%A2janaka_J%C3%A2taka_001.jpgLicense: Public domainContributors: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. Original artist: Meister des Mahâjanaka Jâtaka

• File:Reclining_Buddha_at_cave_no._26.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Reclining_Buddha_at_cave_no._26.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Nandanupadhyay

• File:Red_pog.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0c/Red_pog.svg License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?

• File:Sankaram1.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Sankaram1.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contribu-tors: Own work Original artist: Aitijhya

• File:Wikisource-logo.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg License: CC BY-SA 3.0Contributors: Rei-artur Original artist: Nicholas Moreau

13.3 Content license• Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0