Ajanta caves

Topic: Early Indian Art and Architecture: Stupas, Rock-cut Caves, Temples · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 6 "The Age of Reorganisation"; Class 7, Ch 7 "The Gupta Era: An Age of Tireless Creativity"

Meaning

The Ajanta caves are a group of 30 Buddhist rock-cut caves, counting unfinished ones. They are cut into a cliff above the Waghora river in Maharashtra. Work on them ran from the 2nd century BCE to the 6th century CE, and the later caves were cut with Gupta-Vakataka support. [2] They matter because they show three things in one place: Buddhist prayer halls, monks' living quarters, and some of the finest early Indian wall paintings, such as the Bodhisattva Padmapani. They also show the Buddha slowly becoming an image to worship, not only a symbol.

Explanation

Background: part of a long rock-cut tradition

• Rock-cut means the building was not built up from blocks. Workers cut into a hill and removed stone until a hall was left behind. The whole thing is one piece of rock, with no joints and no mortar.
• This tradition began with the Barabar caves in Bihar. They were cut in the 3rd century BCE on Asoka's orders. It then spread to the Satavahana caves of the western Deccan, such as Karla and Pitalkhora.
• Ajanta was cut with Gupta-Vakataka support. It is the high point of Buddhist cave art before the tradition turned to Hindu temples like Kailashnatha at Ellora in the 8th century.

Main features: layout and types of caves

• Setting: the caves are cut into a vertical cliff above the left bank of the river Waghora. [2]
• Number: 30 caves, counting unfinished ones. [2]
• Two types of cave:
• Chaityagrihas (prayer halls where monks gathered to worship). There are five: caves 9, 10, 19, 26 and 29. [2]

• Viharas / sangharamas (monasteries, the places where monks lived). All the other caves are of this type. [2]

• Carving: pillars, brackets, door jambs, shrines and facades are richly carved. [2]

• Wooden forms copied in stone: in one cave the roof has carved stone ribs that copy real wooden beams. The Lomas Rishi cave at Barabar does the same thing centuries earlier. Since the wooden buildings have rotted away, these stone copies are our evidence for them.

How it changed: the stupa gets a Buddha

• The early stupa was a plain mound with no Buddha figure. People worshipped the symbol.
• At Ajanta, one cave has a central stupa from which a seated Buddha emerges. Stupa and image are merged into one.
• So the Buddha's body now comes out of the stupa itself.
• This shows the move from symbol-worship to image-worship.
• The cave copies a temple: worshippers now face an image, as they would in a temple.

The paintings

• Bodhisattva Padmapani is the most famous painting. It is in Cave 1. [3]
• A Bodhisattva is a being who can reach nirvana (freedom from rebirth) but stays back to help others.

• Padmapani means "lotus in hand".

• Technique: tempera. Colour was mixed with a binder (a sticky substance that holds the colour) and painted on a prepared plaster surface. It was not painted on wet plaster. [2]

• The murals also show stories from the Buddha's life and his earlier births (the Jataka tales).

Time, place and evidence

• Place: a cliff above the left bank of the Waghora river, Maharashtra. [2]
• Period: 2nd century BCE to 6th century CE. [2]
• Two phases of work: the second phase belongs to the Vakataka period, 5th–6th centuries CE. [2] The first phase is the older, earlier work.
• Patrons (named donors):
• Varahadeva, minister of the Vakataka king Harishena (c. 475–500 CE), gave Cave 16 to the Buddhist Sangha (the community of monks). [2]

• Cave 17 was gifted by a prince who was a feudatory (a lesser ruler under a bigger king) of the same Harishena. [2]

• How we know: donor records in the caves name Varahadeva and the feudatory prince. [2] The surviving carvings, architecture and paintings are the main evidence.

• Heritage status: a UNESCO World Heritage Site. [2]
• NCERT: Class 7, Ch 6 "The Age of Reorganisation" and Ch 7 "The Gupta Era".

Don't confuse with

• Ellora (Maharashtra): Ajanta is only Buddhist and spans the 2nd century BCE to the 6th century CE. Ellora has 34 monasteries and temples. Its most famous one is the 8th-century Hindu Kailashnatha temple (Cave 16), cut downward from the top of the rock. [4][5] Trap: Cave 16 at Ajanta is Varahadeva's gift. Cave 16 at Ellora is Kailasa.
• Karla (near Lonavala): a Satavahana-period Buddhist chaitya with a plain rock-cut stupa replica. Ajanta's later stupa has a seated Buddha coming out of it, and Ajanta's support came from the Vakatakas and Guptas.
• Barabar caves (Bihar): the earliest artificial caves. They were cut under Asoka in the 3rd century BCE for the Ajivikas, not for Buddhists, and they have no paintings.
• Fresco vs tempera: a true fresco is painted on wet plaster. The Ajanta murals are in tempera, painted on a prepared plaster surface and not on wet plaster. [2]

Prelims Hooks

• Ajanta has 30 caves, cut above the Waghora river, Maharashtra. [2]
• The chaityagrihas are caves 9, 10, 19, 26 and 29. All the rest are viharas. [2]
• Cave 16 was given by Varahadeva, minister of the Vakataka king Harishena (c. 475–500 CE). Cave 17 was given by a feudatory prince of Harishena. [2]
• The Bodhisattva Padmapani painting is in Cave 1. [3]
• The murals use the tempera technique, not true fresco. [2]
• Order of rock-cut sites: Barabar (3rd century BCE) → Karla / Pitalkhora (Satavahana) → Ajanta second phase (Vakataka, 5th–6th century CE) → Ellora Kailasa (8th century). Ajanta is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. [2]

Mains Points

• Patronage moved down the social ladder.
• Barabar was a gift from an emperor (Asoka).
• At Ajanta, the named donors are a minister (Varahadeva) and a feudatory prince. [2]

• So art was now paid for by officials and local rulers, not only by the king. This fits a wider pattern: Indian art came to rely on a broad base of merchants, officials and regional dynasties.

• From symbol to image: a change in Buddhist worship.

• The early stupa had no Buddha figure.
• At Ajanta, a seated Buddha comes out of the stupa itself.

• This shows the move to image-worship and points ahead to temple-style worship. Use it in answers on how Buddhist art changed over time.

• Ajanta as an archive of Indian heritage.

• The stone roof ribs copy lost wooden buildings.
• The tempera murals, such as Padmapani in Cave 1 [3], are rare surviving examples of early Indian painting.
• Together with the rich carving [2], they make Ajanta key evidence for the "classical" art of the Gupta-Vakataka age.

Related concepts

• Rock-cut architecture
• Barabar caves
• Lomas Rishi cave
• Nagarjuni caves
• Rock-cut monasteries
• Chaitya and vihara
• Bhaja caves
• Karla caves
• Kanheri caves
• Nasik caves

Read more

• The rock-cut tradition