Ajanta Caves

On our tour of Maharashtra, we stayed in Aurangabad for two days to see the local sites as well as Devgiri, Ajanta, Grihaneshwar and Ellora. Our next destination is Ajanta which is 107 kms away from the city. This is a World Heritage site famous for ancient rock-cut caves which are in the form of a gigantic horseshoe-shaped cliff, overlooking a bend of the Waghora river. 



These caves about 30 in total showcase earliest Buddhist architecture and sculptures. They are known more for finest cave paintings (Ajanta Masterpieces) of exceptional quality depicting several moral stories, and stories illustrating diverse stories relating to the previous incarnations of the Buddha as Bodhisattava.



These Caves comprise Chaitya Halls, or shrines, dedicated to Lord Buddha and monasteries, used by Buddhist monks for meditation and the study of Buddhist teachings. The Caves of Ajanta can be classified into two distinct phases.

Phase I, the earlier Hinayana phase, in which the Buddha was worshipped only in the form of certain symbols during the period 2nd century BC to 1st century BC.

Caves 9 & 10: Chaitya Halls or shrines

Caves 12 & 13: Viharas or monasteries

Phase II, the later Mahayana phase, in which the Buddha was worshiped in his physical form. Here shrines and monasteries are of the period 5th century AD to 6th century AD

Caves 19, 26 & 29: Chaitya Halls or shrines

Caves 1, 2, 3, 4 - 7, 9, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27 & 28: Viharas or monasteries

Unfinished Caves: 2, 3, 5, 8, 23-25.



These caves are in the forest area and were hidden and covered by the monks when they left this place. They were discovered early in the 19th century quite by chance by a party of British Officers on man oeuvres.

The entry to the place is closed on Monday and on other days it is open from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm. We shall explore some of these cave sin more details in the subsequent posts.