Amazing AjanTha Caves

Amazing AjanTha Caves

Unique feature of Indian cultural heritage is cave temples - rock-cut chambers and monasteries.In total there are more than 1,500 such temples spread out throughout the country containing incomprehensible amount of art values - paintings, sculptures, inscriptions.

One of the best known and most impressive groups of cave temples is Ajanta Caves.

The Ajanta caves are cut into the side of a cliff that is on the south side of a U-shaped gorge on the small river Waghora and although they are now along and above a modern pathway running across the cliff they were originally reached by individual stairs or ladders from the side of the river 35 to 110 feet below.

In total there are 29 - 30 cave chambers in Ajanta. Caves traditionally are numbered starting with the one closest to the village.

These caves are located in the Indian state of Maharashtra, near Jalgaon, just outside the village of Ajintha,

The caves were previously heavily forested, and after the site ceased to be used the caves were covered by jungle, until rediscovered accidentally in 1819 by a British officer John Smith, of the 28th Cavalry, while hunting tiger, On 28 April 1819, accidentally he discovered the entrance to Cave No. 10 deep within the tangled undergrowth.There were local people already using the caves for prayers with a small fire, when he arrived. Exploring that first cave, Captain Smith vandalized the wall by scratching his name and the date, April 1819.this inscription still is faintly visible up to this day - out of reach now as the debris has been removed.

No one knows for sure when and why the caves were abandoned – whether it was a gradual desertion of some event of political and social magnitude took place which precipitated the neglect and final vacation of the site.These caves are created more then 2000 years ago. During the satavahana dynasty in 2nd - 1st century BC early Buddhist monks did something what is hard to do even today - they managed to carve huge halls in the hard basalt rock of Deccan trap.

There are paintings everywhere in the caves. Every surface apart from the floor is festooned with narrative paintings. Time has taken a serious toll on these marvelous works with many parts simply just fragments of what they were when first created. They were created using an ancient method. The surface was chiseled so it was rough and could hold plaster which was then spread across the surface. Then the master painter would, while the plaster was still wet, commence his work. The colors soaked in to the plaster and so became a part of the surface. Although this meant that it would not peel off as easily, perhaps not even the painters foresaw the temples persevering for over two thousand years

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