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| Caves
of India > Ajanta Caves |
| Location
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Aurangabad |
| State
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Maharashtra |
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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.
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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
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Mahayana sect which did not shy away from giving the
Lord a human form. |
Mahayana
& Hinayana |
Mahayana |
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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. |
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Hinayana |
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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. |
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