Ajanta Caves: Buddhist Rock-Cut Monasteries and Murals of India

The Ajanta Caves are about 30 Buddhist monasteries and prayer halls cut into a horseshoe-shaped basalt cliff in Maharashtra, western India. They were created in two phases, the first around the 2nd century BC and the second in a burst of activity in the late 5th century AD. Their wall paintings are the finest surviving examples of ancient Indian painting and have shaped how the world imagines classical India.

The site

The caves lie in a steep, curving gorge of the Waghur river, about 100 km north-east of Aurangabad (now Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar). The cliff face, made of layered volcanic basalt of the Deccan Traps, rises above the stream and was ideal for carving. The caves were cut along a stretch of roughly 550 metres, many linked originally by steps and paths down to the water.

Each cave was excavated directly from the living rock, from the top downwards, with hammers and chisels. Nothing was built; pillars, beams, ceilings and statues were all left standing as the stone around them was removed. The caves are numbered from one end of the gorge to the other, not in the order in which they were made.

There are two types of space. A chaityagriha, or chaitya hall, is a long prayer hall with an apse at the end containing a stupa, the domed monument representing the Buddha. A vihara is a monastery: a square hall surrounded by small cells where monks lived, and in the later phase usually a shrine with a Buddha statue at the back.

The first phase: Satavahana period

The oldest caves are numbers 9, 10, 12, 13 and 15A. They were cut when much of the Deccan was ruled by the Satavahana dynasty, around the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. Cave 10, a large chaitya hall, is generally considered the earliest; an inscription on its façade records the gift of the front by a donor named Vasisthiputra Katahadi.

These early caves follow the older Buddhist tradition in which the Buddha was not shown in human form. He was represented instead by symbols such as the stupa. Their architecture copies timber construction, with ribbed ceilings and sloping pillars, a style that goes back to the Barabar Caves of the Mauryan period.

Fragments of paintings from this phase survive in Caves 9 and 10. They show processions of figures in a style close to the carved reliefs of Sanchi and Bharhut. After this phase, work at the site appears to have stopped for several centuries.

The second phase: the Vakataka golden age

The second and far larger phase began in the 5th century AD, under the Vakataka dynasty, which ruled much of the Deccan in alliance with the Gupta Empire of the north. Most of the caves, from Cave 1 to Cave 29, belong to this period.

The art historian Walter Spink, who studied the site for decades, argued for a “short chronology”. In his view almost all of this work was carried out in less than two decades, between about AD 460 and 480, during the reign of the Vakataka emperor Harishena (c. 460–477). Other scholars accept the link with Harishena but allow a longer period, with some work continuing into the 6th century.

Inscriptions name some of the patrons. Cave 16 was dedicated by Varahadeva, a minister of Harishena. Caves 17 to 20 are linked with a local ruler, a feudatory of Harishena whose name is usually read as Upendragupta. Cave 26, a great chaitya hall, was given by a monk named Buddhabhadra.

This phase belongs to Mahayana Buddhism, which encouraged images of the Buddha and of bodhisattvas, enlightened beings who delay their own liberation to help others. The caves are full of carved Buddhas, seated in shrines and standing on façades. Cave 26 contains a reclining Buddha about 7 metres long, depicting his parinirvana, or passing into final release.

The two later chaitya halls show how far the style had developed since the first phase. Cave 19 has a richly carved façade with a large horseshoe window, and its stupa carries a standing Buddha on its front, combining the old symbol with the new image. Cave 26 is larger still, with walls crowded with sculpted figures and scenes, including the temptation of the Buddha by the demon Mara and his daughters.

According to Spink, the death of Harishena around 477 and the collapse of Vakataka power left many caves unfinished. Some halls stop abruptly, with half-cut pillars and rough walls, offering a rare view of how the carvers worked.

The murals

The paintings are the main reason for Ajanta’s fame. The walls and ceilings were coated with a plaster of clay, plant fibre and rice husk, finished with a thin layer of lime. Artists then drew outlines in red and filled them with colours from local minerals and plants, with blue made from imported lapis lazuli. Because the paint was applied to dry plaster, the technique is closer to tempera than to true fresco.

Most murals tell stories from the jatakas, tales of the Buddha’s previous lives, and episodes from his last life. Crowds of princes, servants, dancers, merchants, animals and gods fill palaces, forests and city streets. They provide a detailed picture of dress, jewellery, architecture and court life in 5th-century India.

The most celebrated paintings are in Caves 1, 2, 16 and 17. In Cave 1 the bodhisattva Padmapani, holding a lotus, and his companion Vajrapani flank the shrine door; Padmapani’s gentle, downcast face has become one of the best-known images of Indian art. Cave 16 includes a scene often called “the dying princess”, usually identified as Sundari grieving after her husband Nanda leaves to become a monk. Cave 17 holds the largest number of jataka narratives.

The ceilings are covered with decorative panels of flowers, birds, fruit and geometric patterns, some of which still keep strong colour after 1,500 years.

Abandonment and rediscovery

After the end of the second phase, the site was gradually abandoned and the forest closed in. The caves were not entirely forgotten by local people, but they lay outside the main routes of travel and study for over a thousand years.

On 28 April 1819 a British officer of the Madras Cavalry, John Smith, was hunting tiger in the hills when he saw the arch of Cave 10. He scratched his name and the date on a pillar inside, where it can still be seen. Reports of the paintings soon spread.

Copying began in the following decades. The painter Robert Gill spent around 20 years, from 1844, copying the murals for the East India Company, but most of his copies were destroyed in a fire at the Crystal Palace in London in 1866. Later copies made by students under John Griffiths in the 1870s and 1880s were partly lost in another fire, at the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum), in 1885.

Early visitors and conservators also caused damage. Some painted panels were cut out, and varnishes and shellac applied in the 19th and early 20th centuries darkened parts of the murals. Modern conservation has removed some of these coatings.

Myths and facts

Ajanta is often described as a single monastery built over a long and continuous period. In fact the site had two quite separate phases, roughly six centuries apart, with a long gap in between.

The paintings are also commonly called frescoes. Strictly, they are not, since they were painted on dry rather than wet plaster. Finally, the 1819 “discovery” was a rediscovery for Western scholarship: villagers and local rulers knew of the caves before Smith arrived.

Timeline

• c. 2nd–1st century BC: First phase; Caves 9, 10, 12, 13 and 15A are cut under the Satavahana period.
• c. AD 460: Harishena becomes Vakataka emperor; the second phase begins (Spink’s chronology).
• c. 460–477: Main period of excavation and painting, including Caves 1, 2, 16, 17 and 26.
• c. 477–480: Death of Harishena; many caves are left unfinished.
• 28 April 1819: John Smith, a British cavalry officer, rediscovers the caves while hunting.
• 1844: Robert Gill begins copying the murals.
• 1866: Most of Gill’s copies are destroyed in the Crystal Palace fire.
• 1983: Ajanta is inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Legacy

Ajanta’s style of painting influenced Buddhist art far beyond India, and similar figures and compositions appear in Sri Lanka, Central Asia and China, including at the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang. In the 20th century the murals inspired Indian artists of the Bengal School and became a symbol of India’s cultural heritage.

Today the site, managed by the Archaeological Survey of India, receives large numbers of visitors each year. To protect the fragile paintings, the number of people allowed into some caves at once is limited, lighting is kept low and replicas have been built at a visitor centre nearby.

Why it matters

The Ajanta Caves preserve almost the only large body of painting to survive from ancient India, along with a complete record of how Buddhist cave monasteries developed. They show the wealth and religious devotion of the Vakataka court and the artistic achievements of the Gupta age. For historians, artists and pilgrims alike, they remain one of the great monuments of world art.