Ajanta
caves are thirty in all, out of which several are unfinished.
Five of these caves are chaitya-grihas (meaning inner sanctums)
while the rest are sangharamas or viharas (meaning monasteries).
They were declared as world heritage site in 1983. In 1819, they
were re-discovered by the modern world. Its structures belong to
two distinct phases. The caves of the first phase were built
between 2nd century BC to 2nd century AD while caves of the
second phase belong to the period of Vakatakas and Guptas. The
inscriptions in the cave reveal that Varahadeva, the minister of
the Vakataka king, dedicated Cave 16 to the Buddhists while Cave
17 was the gift of the prince. Abhayanandi from Mathura had his
name inscribed here by gifting the image of Buddha in Cave 4.
The themes of the cave paintings are focused on Buddha and his
life events, Bodhisattvas and the Jatakas. 104 km from
Aurangabad, these caves have been cut from the volcanic rocks of
the Deccan. British Captain John Smith discovered them while on
a hunting trip in 1819 and was touched by its unique
architecture, sculpture and paintings. The first phase of cave
construction speaks of the Hinayana Phase that is depicted in
two Chaitya Halls and 4 Viharas while the rest of the caves that
belong to latter phase speak of the Mahayana Phase. Mahayana
caves exhibit formal religious imagery while Hinayana caves are
almost devoid of any carvings or ornamentations. The finest of
all monasteries with the most beautiful paintings in Ajanta
caves is Cave l, where the Bodhisattvas named Padmapani and
Vajrapani are shown with elaborate headdresses at the
antechamber doorway.
