AJANTA CAVES

The presentation contain information about the Ajanta caves.

1. THE AJANTA CAVES BY-PARAS ARCHITECTURE STUDENT

2. GENERAL INFORMATION The Ajanta Caves in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state of India are about 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments which date from the 2nd century BCE to about 480 or 650 CE.  The caves are in the form of horse shoe. The majority of paintings has more than 1500 years . The walls and ceilings wonderfully had been decorated and with plaster applications had created colorful paintings.

3. HISTORY The caves include paintings and rock cut sculptures described as among the finest surviving examples of ancient Indian art, particularly expressive paintings that present emotion through gesture, pose and form. According to UNESCO, these are masterpieces of Buddhist religious art that influenced Indian art that followed. The caves were built in two phases, the first group starting around the 2nd century BC, while the second group of caves built around 400–650 CE according to older accounts, or all in a brief period of 460 to 480 according to Walter M. Spink.

4. Caves of the first ( Satavahana ) period The earliest group constructed consists of caves 9, 10, 12, 13 and 15A. This grouping and that they belong to the  Hinayana  (Theravada) tradition of Buddhism is generally accepted by scholars, but there are differing opinions on which century the early caves were built. they were made during the period 100 BCE to 100 CE, probably under the patronage of the Hindu  Satavahana dynasty (230 BCE – c. 220 CE) who ruled the region. Other datings prefer the period of the  Maurya Empire (300 BCE to 100 BCE). Of these, caves 9 and 10 are  stupa containing worship halls of  chaitya-griha  form, and caves 12, 13, and 15A are  vihāras  .

5. Caves of the later, or Vataka , period The second phase of construction at the Ajanta Caves site began in the 5th century. For a long time it was thought that the later caves were made over an extended period from the 4th to the 7th centuries CE, but in recent decades a series of studies by the leading expert on the caves, Walter M. Spink, have argued that most of the work took place over the very brief period from 460 to 480 CE,during the reign of Hindu Emperor  Harishena  of the Vataka dynasty. This view has been criticized by some scholars, but is now broadly accepted by most authors of general books on Indian art, for example Huntington and Harle . Cave 26, a second period Mahayana style worship hall with stupa and idols.

6. The second phase is attributed to the theistic  Mahāyāna , or Greater Vehicle tradition of Buddhism.  Caves of the second period are 1–8, 11, 14–29, some possibly extensions of earlier caves. Caves 19, 26, and 29 are  chaitya-grihas , the rest  viharas . The most elaborate caves were produced in this period, which included some refurbishing and repainting of the early caves. Spink states that it is possible to establish dating for this period with a very high level of precision; a fuller account of his chronology is given below.

7. Architecture and sculpture The caves are carved out of flood basalt rock of a cliff, part of the Deccan Traps formed by successive volcanic eruptions at the end of the Cretaceous geological period. The rock is layered horizontally, and somewhat variable in quality. This variation within the rock layers required the artists to amend their carving methods and plans in places. The in homogeneity in the rock have also led to cracks and collapses in the centuries that followed, as with the lost portico to cave 1.

8. The sculpture artists likely worked at both excavating the rocks and making the intricate carvings of pillars, roof and idols; further, the sculpture and painting work inside a cave were an integrated parallel tasks. A grand gateway to the site was carved, at the apex of the gorge's horseshoe between caves 15 and 16, as approached from the river, and it is decorated with elephants on either side and a  naga , or protective Naga (snake) deity. Similar methods and application of artist talent is observed in other cave temples of India, although many with very different themes such as those from Hinduism and Jainism. Architecture and sculpture

9. Cave 1 Cave 1 was built on the eastern end of the horse-shoe shaped scarp and is now the first cave the visitor encounters. This cave, when first made, would have been a less prominent position, right at the end of the row. It is one of the last caves to have been excavated, when the best sites had been taken and was never fully inaugurated for worship by the dedication of the Buddha image in the central shrine. he Vākāţaka Emperor  Harishena  was the benefactor of the work, and this is reflected in the emphasis on imagery of royalty in the cave, with those Jataka tales being selected that tell of those previous lives of the Buddha in which he was royal.

10. This cave has one of the most elaborate carved façades, with relief sculptures on entablature and ridges, and most surfaces embellished with decorative carving. There are scenes carved from the life of the Buddha as well as a number of decorative motifs. A two pillared portico, visible in the 19th-century photographs, has since perished. The cave has a porch with simple cells on both ends. The absence of pillared vestibules on the ends suggests that the porch was not excavated in the latest phase of Ajanta when pillared vestibules had become a norm. Each wall of the hall inside is nearly 40 feet (12 m) long and 20 feet (6.1 m) high. The walls and ceilings of Cave 1 are covered with paintings in a fair state of preservation, though the full scheme was never completed. The scenes depicted are mostly didactic, devotional, and ornamental, with scenes from the  Jataka  stories of the Buddha's former lives as a bodhisattva), the life of the Gautama Buddha, and those of his veneration. Cave 1 also features a fresco with characters with foreign looking faces and dresses.

11. PLAN

12. Cave 2 Cave 2, adjacent to Cave 1, is known for the paintings that have been preserved on its walls, ceilings, and pillars. It looks similar to Cave 1 and is in a better state of preservation. This cave is best known for its feminine focus, intricate rock carvings and paint artwork yet it is incomplete and lacks consistency. Cave 2 was started in the 460s, but mostly carved between 475 to 477 CE, probably sponsored and influenced by a woman closely related to emperor Harisena .

13. The hall has four colonnades which are supporting the ceiling and surrounding a square in the center of the hall. Major carvings include that of goddess  Hariti . She is a Buddhist deity who originally was the demoness of smallpox and a child eater, who the Buddha converted into a guardian goddess of fertility, easy child birth and one who protects babies. Paintings appear on almost every surface of the cave except for the floor. At various places, the artwork has become eroded due to decay and human interference. Therefore, many areas of the painted walls, ceilings, and pillars are fragmentary. The painted narratives of the  Jataka tales are depicted only on the walls, which demanded the special attention of the devotee. They are didactic in nature, meant to inform the community about the Buddha's teachings and life through successive rebirths. Their placement on the walls required the devotee to walk through the aisles and 'read' the narratives depicted in various episodes.

14. Cave 4 The Archaeological Survey of India board outside the caves gives the following detail about cave 4:"This is the largest monastery planned on a grandiose scale but was never finished. An inscription on the pedestal of the buddha's image mentions that it was a gift from a person named  Mathura  and paleographically belongs to 6th century A.D. It consists of a verandah, a hypostyle hall, sanctum with an antechamber and a series of unfinished cells. The rear wall of the verandah contains the panel of Litany of  Avalokiteśvara ". Spink, in contrast, dates this along with all other caves to pre-480 CE period. The sanctuary houses a colossal image of the Buddha in preaching pose flanked by bodhisattvas and celestial nymphs hovering ab

15. Caves 9–10 Caves 9 and 10 are the two  chaitya  halls from the first period of construction, though both were also undergoing an uncompleted reworking at the end of the second period. Cave 10 was perhaps originally of the 1st century BCE and cave 9 about a hundred years later. The small " shrinelets " called caves 9A to 9D and 10A also date from the second period, and were commissioned by individuals. The paintings in cave 10 include some surviving from the early period, many from an incomplete programme of modernization in the second period, and a very large number of smaller late intrusive images for votive purposes, around the 479–480 CE, nearly all Buddhas and many with donor inscriptions from individuals. These mostly avoided over-painting the "official" programme and after the best positions were used up are tucked away in less prominent positions not yet painted; the total of these (including those now lost) was probably over 300, and the hands of many different artists are visible.

16. Cave 17 Cave 17 along with Cave 16 with two great stone elephants at the entrance and Cave 26 with sleeping Buddha, were some of the many caves sponsored by the Hindu Vakataka prime minister Varahadeva . Cave 17 had additional donors such as the local king Upendragupta , as evidenced by the inscription therein.  It features a large and most sophisticated vihara design, along with some of the best-preserved and well known paintings of all the caves. The Vihara includes a colonnaded porch, a number of pillars each with a distinct style, a peristyle design for the interior hall, a shrine antechamber located deep in the cave, larger windows and doors for more light, along with extensive integrated carvings of Indian gods and goddesses.  The grand scale of the carving also introduced errors of taking out too much rock to shape the walls, states Spink, which led to the cave being splayed out toward the rear.

17. The paintings in Cave 17 include those of the Buddha in various styles, Avalokitesvara , frescoes with the story of Udayin and Gupta, the story of Nalagiri , the Visvantara Jataka , the Hamsa Jataka , the Wheel of life, a panel celebrating various ancient Indian musicians, a panel that tells of Prince Simhala’s expedition to Sri Lanka.  This includes details of a shipwreck and the escape from ogresses by a flying horse. Other notable paintings include a princess applying makeup, lovers in scenes of dalliance, and a wine drinking scene of a couple with the woman and man amorously seated, while attendants watch them.

18. Other caves Cave 3 is merely a start of an excavation; according to Spink it was begun right at the end of the final period of work and soon abandoned. Caves 5 and 6 are  viharas , the latter on two floors, that were late works of which only the lower floor of cave 6 was ever finished. The upper floor of cave 6 has many private votive sculptures, and a shrine Buddha, but is otherwise unfinished.  Cave 7 has a grand facade with two porticos but, perhaps because of faults in the rock, which posed problems in many caves, was never taken very deep into the cliff, and consists only of the two porticos and a shrine room with antechamber, with no central hall. Some cells were fitted in.

19. Cave 8 was long thought to date to the first period of construction, but Spink sees it as perhaps the earliest cave from the second period, its shrine an "afterthought". The statue may have been loose rather than carved from the living rock, as it has now vanished. The cave was painted, but only traces remain.  Cave 9 was found between Cave 15 and 16 during debris clearance. It is a small vihara with a narrow door opening into courtyard having three cells in each wall.