ajanta caves

The Ajanta caves depict paintings and sculptures that shows heavy religious influence, revolving around Buddhist philosophy, Bodhisattvas, incidents from the life of Gautama Buddha and the Jataka Tales. The caves are embellished with paintings of infinite charm, sculpted with skills of the highest craftsmanship, narrating scenes of semi mythological history, the royal court and lifestyle of the ancient times.Though the sculptures are of Buddhist origin, Gautama Buddha was against paintings and sculptures and even forbade images of him. He preached that life was painful and the best way to achieve salvation (Nirvana) was to suppress happiness. But after the death of Buddha, the suppressed or illiterate people who embraced Buddhism, wanted to worship images of Buddha like Hindus worshipped their gods.

To spread the faith, Buddhist monks also made up many stories of Buddhas previous incarnations. Gradually these stories were sculpted in stone by the monks and pilgrims began to worship these paintings and images. Slowly, perhaps under the influence of Hinduism, this kind of image worship transformed into a holy ritual.The exploration starts at the 1st cave of Ajanta and the visitors are greeted by the great Buddha image. The doorway to the cave is decorated with auspicious motifs. This cave has numerous sculptures and paintings of Bodhisattvas Padmapani and Vajrapani; carvings of princesses, lovers, maids and dancing girls; scenes depicting the Persian Embassy, Golden Geese, Pink Elephants and Bull Fights.

In the early 19th century, some British soldiers spotted a horseshoe shaped rock while out hunting in the Deccan plateau. What caught his attention was the entrance of a cave and this made the soldiers cross the ravine of the Waghora River.They discovered several caves, against which bush, shrubs earth, stones had piled up and some were even being used as shelters. Archaeologists started excavations and the news of the discovery spread far and wide. All the rock cut caves had paintings on verandahs, inner walls and ceilings, these revealed some of the most beautiful masterpieces of world art.More symbolic Buddhist mounds like the stupas and the dwelling cells for monks, called the viharas, were also discovered in these caves. An inscription of King Harisena of the Vakataka dynasty was also unearthed in cave No.17. It seems that the local Vakatakas had relations, through marriage, with the great Gupta kings of North India.

Shopping in Ajanta is restricted to the government shops near the bus stop.However Aurangabad is famous for shopping where one can alight or stopover to buy Himroo shawls, Paithani sarees or fabric like Mashru and Kimkhab.Also available are a wide display of jewellery made of semiprecious stones and decorative pieces.