AJANTA CAVES
The state of Maharashtra is blessed with a rich heritage of ancient monuments and
exquisite architectural marvels representing different phases of development
in the art and architectural style. The prime rock-cut architectural examples
of the cave temples that are spread all over the state are the caves of Ajanta
and Ellora.
Ajanta 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 of Ajanta
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.
Ajanta 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 Ajanta cave paintings started in
about the 5th 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'.
Ajanta cave paintings are executed on a ground of mud-plaster in the tempera
technique.
