Trip to the awesome Ajanta caves
It was yet another busy day in the city of Aurangabad,
home to the awe-inspiring Ajanta & Ellora caves. My parents and I had come
to Aurangabad just the previous night for a short vacation. And today we were
going to see the first UNESCO world heritage site in India, visited by thousands
of people from all over the world - the Ajanta caves. It was a trip
which we were all looking forward to for the past month, and we couldn’t wait
to get started.
We had booked a taxi and a guide and were all set to go. Our guide Mr. Golati was a very nice and knowledgeable person. He explained about the paintings in the caves and the history behind them. He also took extra interest in explaining all the concepts to me. He told me that he would be asking me questions at the end of the trip, so I took out a paper and pencil, ready to jot down everything he was saying. Being a big fan of history, I couldn’t wait for the tour to begin.
We drove past the Delhi Gate, a gate build by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb to fortify his city, Aurangabad. An old gate in ruins, all its glory lost, it was now crowded by vendors trying to sell their products. I could barely see the Western Ghats all around us due to the pollution and smog that covered it. As we went further away from the city, the air became cleaner and the Ghats clearer.
Soon we stopped for breakfast (thank god!) at a place called Sai Restaurant. We were the only ones there, probably because it was really early in the morning. After quickly giving our order, we settled down in the chairs and looked around. I could hear music but couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. Around us were a lot of trees and a few swings hanging down from them. Then I realized that the music was coming from a radio placed between the branches of one of the trees. Just then our order of poha and poori bhaji came. In this cold weather, the warm food felt refreshing. We gobbled up the food gratefully and just as we finished, a big group of people arrived in a bus. Thankful that we had finished just it time while it was still calm and peaceful, we hit the road again.
Ajanta flourished due to the patronage of not just the royals, but more importantly due to the support and generous contribution of the merchants and traders. Sadly, when there were no more Buddhist patrons in India, the caves were deserted and left to rot. The jungle grew around them and they were soon lost to the outside world for a thousand years before they were discovered by an Englishman, John Smith. The story goes that when he was out hunting tigers one day, he saw the top of a vihara jutting out from dense foliage. Upon clearing the forest, he found all the 30 Buddhist caves.
All the caves were arranged on the hill in a horseshoe shape. Each cave was cut out of a single piece of rock.
Out of these, 25 were viharas (place where the Buddhist monks used to live) and the remaining 5 were chaityas (place of worship). The type of rock that was used to build these caves are igneous rocks – in this case Basalt.
There are mainly 3 types of paintings in these caves - narrative, decorative and portrait. Narrative paintings usually depict a story, decorative paintings are used to beautify the look of a wall while portrait paintings show the picture of a particular person. All the colors used in these paintings were made out of minerals. The color blue, as we would notice later, was very sparsely used since blue came from Lapis Lazuli, which was very expensive at that time.
After this brief history lesson and buying the tickets, we headed towards the caves. Since the caves were at a height, we would have to take a bus to reach it. After waiting in a line for a few minutes, an old, rickety bus came tumbling down the road. I was having second thoughts about getting into the bus but I was pushed along with the crowd before I could protest.
The bus took off at flying speed, up the winding mountain slope. The seats creaked and the roof looked like it would blow away any moment now. Since it was the only vehicle on the road, it could drive however it wanted to, without any risk! Finally, after a very bumpy ride, we reached the top. I am sure even in the absence of a bus, the artisans who worked at Ajanta had a more peaceful morning commute 😊
The first cave we visited, Cave no.1 was a vihara. This cave was probably the most important cave of Ajanta. One of the walls had a beautiful painting of Bodhisatva Padmapani, where Padma means lotus and pani means hand or ‘the one who holds the lotus in his hand’. The posture in which he stood is called ‘Thribhanga’ - posture with three bends. You wouldn’t normally see people standing in such a position. In fact, try it now yourselves. Stand up and tilt your head to the right, your hip to the left and your leg to the right! If you can do it and stand in this position for 30 seconds, then consider yourselves extraordinary flexible!
We also saw an entire wall covered with the story of King Mahajanak. The story is from the Jataka tales recounting the story of one of the previous incarnations of the Buddha. Every scene of the story was painted so vividly that just by paying a little attention, we could understand the entire story. We also saw Bodhisatva Vajrapani where Vajra means thunder and pani means hand or ‘the one who holds the thunder in his hand’. Unlike Padmapani, who had a serene and peaceful expression, Vajrapani had a ferocious expression on his face!
In the center of the hall, there was a huge sculpture of Buddha. I wondered how in the earlier days, they got any light at all inside these dark caves. Our guide Mr. Golati told us that they would fill the caves with water and then sunlight that falls on the cave floor would get reflected to the ceiling and there would be light inside the cave. And then when the work was over, they would drain the water out. Phew! Such hard work!
I wondered what would have motivated people to spend
an entire lifetime on a project that they may not even live to see completed.
Faith was the answer. Faith can make people do almost anything! As they say, Faith can move mountains!
Moving on to the second cave which was also a vihara, we were greeted by an intricate design at the doorway itself and an interesting sight! We saw the God of wealth Jambhala and his two potbellied faithful assistants – Padma nidhi and
Shanka nidhi wearing modern clothes. Then we
saw a painting of two people who were wearing clothes the same color as their socks.
They did have an amazing sense of fashion after all in those ages!
Amused, we
went in and saw a painting across a wall explaining Buddha’s birth and the
miracle of Sravasti.
The wall depicting the Miracle of Sravasti was covered with a thousand carvings of Buddha himself. It is said that in Sravasti, Buddha was challenged by a few people who didn’t believe in his divine powers. To make them believe in him, he created a thousand forms of himself and this is what was represented on the wall.
We also saw yet another funny modern concept – a guru sitting under a tree and teaching. One half of the class sitting in the front was paying attention and taking notes. The other half or the ‘back benchers’ were fighting. That is just like how it is now – front benchers pay attention while the back benchers have fun!
Cave 3
Main highlights : Bodhisatva Avalokateshwara
In this cave, we were greeted with a very intricate carving of Bodhisatva Avalokateshwara who was the person people prayed to before embarking on a journey. They believed that he would ward off the dangers of travelling. Beside the statue, carved on either side were 4 dangers of travelling (that totally made it 8 dangers of travelling). They were – wild elephants, lions, demons, shipwreck, jungle fire, snakes, thieves and pangs of childbirth.
Despite the impressive entry, the inside was unfinished because the roof had collapsed.
This cave was a chaitya (the place of worship for the Buddhist monks) and it had an interesting aspect – the mixing of the two sects of Buddhism, the old and new Buddhism, that is the Hinayana and Mahayana sects. For those of you who haven’t heard about them, here is a brief introduction – the Hinayana’s or the old Buddhist don’t believe in idol worship. Rather they worship the various relics of Buddha. Generations later, the Buddhist who hadn’t ever seen Buddha, wondered how he actually looked and started creating pictures and sculptures of Buddha. And the Mahayana sect came into being.
This cave is a merging of old and new Buddhism. It is indeed unique. The paintings on the walls are from the Hinayana times and show common people going about their day -to – day life while the Mahayana pillars show sculptures and pictures of Buddha.
The 10th cave had inscriptions in the name of the king Vashistaputra Satakarni (for those who have read my previous post on the Satavahanas, you would know that he was the 2nd greatest king of the Satavahanas). Here we found 2200-year-old paintings. We also saw a graffiti by John Smith, the same guy who discovered the caves. He had carved his name and the date 28th April 1819 on the wall - this was the date when he rediscovered the caves. I think this started a history of people carving their initials into the centuries old rock, and many of the walls are defaced by tourists and travellers over the last few centuries!
In this cave we also saw another interesting site, a picture of a baby. Now you may wonder, what was so unusual or special about that picture. Well, the baby had four hands and wherever you stood in the room all its hands and its face would magically re-adjust and it would appear that the face was looking at you. It looked so cool. This shows us that we Indians were so skilled that we managed to create a three-dimensional figure in such an age where even drawing two-dimensional figures were hard.
All these concepts of 3-dimensional paintings, showing different degrees of perspectives, and being able create them on hard Igneous rocks is so amazing. And we always thought that that these techniques had originated only during the Renaissance in the 15th century in Europe. Imagine the ancient Indians had already mastered these things in the 2nd century BCE itself. We were the most advanced civilization in the world at that time.
After seeing these caves and many more, we headed down via the same old rickety bus, had lunch at MTDC (Maharashtra Tourism restaurant), brought a few mandatory fridge magnets and hit the road again for a long journey back.
As we drove, I kept thinking about all the wonderful things we saw there- Padmapani, the baby with four hands, Shanka-nidhi and Padma-nidhi(the potbellied assistant of the god of wealth). I couldn't comprehend the fact that the artists managed to forget cut, but actually sculpt out such symmetrical figures of unimaginable beauty. And that too at a time when there was no advanced technology to cut the hard basalt rock.
I truly believe that this is a site worth seeing, a true wonder of the world.
We had booked a taxi and a guide and were all set to go. Our guide Mr. Golati was a very nice and knowledgeable person. He explained about the paintings in the caves and the history behind them. He also took extra interest in explaining all the concepts to me. He told me that he would be asking me questions at the end of the trip, so I took out a paper and pencil, ready to jot down everything he was saying. Being a big fan of history, I couldn’t wait for the tour to begin.
Travel to Ajanta
Our journey started around 6 in the morning. Breakfast was to be on the way and I hoped it wouldn’t be a long wait, as my stomach was already grumbling.We drove past the Delhi Gate, a gate build by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb to fortify his city, Aurangabad. An old gate in ruins, all its glory lost, it was now crowded by vendors trying to sell their products. I could barely see the Western Ghats all around us due to the pollution and smog that covered it. As we went further away from the city, the air became cleaner and the Ghats clearer.
Soon we stopped for breakfast (thank god!) at a place called Sai Restaurant. We were the only ones there, probably because it was really early in the morning. After quickly giving our order, we settled down in the chairs and looked around. I could hear music but couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. Around us were a lot of trees and a few swings hanging down from them. Then I realized that the music was coming from a radio placed between the branches of one of the trees. Just then our order of poha and poori bhaji came. In this cold weather, the warm food felt refreshing. We gobbled up the food gratefully and just as we finished, a big group of people arrived in a bus. Thankful that we had finished just it time while it was still calm and peaceful, we hit the road again.
Quick intro to the caves
As we approached the caves our guide Mr. Golati gave us an introduction to the caves and their history. There were 30 caves in all. To compare, the Ellora caves are from a slightly later period, although Mr.Golati pointed out that from a close study of the art and architecture involved we can make out that some of the later caves in Ajanta were worked on around the same time as the early Ellora caves.Ajanta flourished due to the patronage of not just the royals, but more importantly due to the support and generous contribution of the merchants and traders. Sadly, when there were no more Buddhist patrons in India, the caves were deserted and left to rot. The jungle grew around them and they were soon lost to the outside world for a thousand years before they were discovered by an Englishman, John Smith. The story goes that when he was out hunting tigers one day, he saw the top of a vihara jutting out from dense foliage. Upon clearing the forest, he found all the 30 Buddhist caves.
All the caves were arranged on the hill in a horseshoe shape. Each cave was cut out of a single piece of rock.
 |
| The 30 caves of Ajanta in a horseshoe shape |
Out of these, 25 were viharas (place where the Buddhist monks used to live) and the remaining 5 were chaityas (place of worship). The type of rock that was used to build these caves are igneous rocks – in this case Basalt.
Paintings
There are mainly 3 types of paintings in these caves - narrative, decorative and portrait. Narrative paintings usually depict a story, decorative paintings are used to beautify the look of a wall while portrait paintings show the picture of a particular person. All the colors used in these paintings were made out of minerals. The color blue, as we would notice later, was very sparsely used since blue came from Lapis Lazuli, which was very expensive at that time.
Bus ride to the cave
After this brief history lesson and buying the tickets, we headed towards the caves. Since the caves were at a height, we would have to take a bus to reach it. After waiting in a line for a few minutes, an old, rickety bus came tumbling down the road. I was having second thoughts about getting into the bus but I was pushed along with the crowd before I could protest.
The bus took off at flying speed, up the winding mountain slope. The seats creaked and the roof looked like it would blow away any moment now. Since it was the only vehicle on the road, it could drive however it wanted to, without any risk! Finally, after a very bumpy ride, we reached the top. I am sure even in the absence of a bus, the artisans who worked at Ajanta had a more peaceful morning commute 😊
Cave no.1
Main highlights : Bodhisatva Padmapani, King Mahajanak, Bodhisatva VajrapaniThe first cave we visited, Cave no.1 was a vihara. This cave was probably the most important cave of Ajanta. One of the walls had a beautiful painting of Bodhisatva Padmapani, where Padma means lotus and pani means hand or ‘the one who holds the lotus in his hand’. The posture in which he stood is called ‘Thribhanga’ - posture with three bends. You wouldn’t normally see people standing in such a position. In fact, try it now yourselves. Stand up and tilt your head to the right, your hip to the left and your leg to the right! If you can do it and stand in this position for 30 seconds, then consider yourselves extraordinary flexible!
 |
| Bodhisatva Padmapani |
We also saw an entire wall covered with the story of King Mahajanak. The story is from the Jataka tales recounting the story of one of the previous incarnations of the Buddha. Every scene of the story was painted so vividly that just by paying a little attention, we could understand the entire story. We also saw Bodhisatva Vajrapani where Vajra means thunder and pani means hand or ‘the one who holds the thunder in his hand’. Unlike Padmapani, who had a serene and peaceful expression, Vajrapani had a ferocious expression on his face!
In the center of the hall, there was a huge sculpture of Buddha. I wondered how in the earlier days, they got any light at all inside these dark caves. Our guide Mr. Golati told us that they would fill the caves with water and then sunlight that falls on the cave floor would get reflected to the ceiling and there would be light inside the cave. And then when the work was over, they would drain the water out. Phew! Such hard work!
 |
| Bodhisatva Vajrapani |
Faith was the answer. Faith can make people do almost anything! As they say, Faith can move mountains!
Cave no.2
Main highlights : Miracle of Sravasti, Padma nidhi and Shanka nidhiMoving on to the second cave which was also a vihara, we were greeted by an intricate design at the doorway itself and an interesting sight! We saw the God of wealth Jambhala and his two potbellied faithful assistants – Padma
 |
| Men wearing modern clothes like blue socks and matching caps! |
The wall depicting the Miracle of Sravasti was covered with a thousand carvings of Buddha himself. It is said that in Sravasti, Buddha was challenged by a few people who didn’t believe in his divine powers. To make them believe in him, he created a thousand forms of himself and this is what was represented on the wall.
 |
| Miracle of Sravasti |
We also saw yet another funny modern concept – a guru sitting under a tree and teaching. One half of the class sitting in the front was paying attention and taking notes. The other half or the ‘back benchers’ were fighting. That is just like how it is now – front benchers pay attention while the back benchers have fun!
Cave 3
Main highlights : Bodhisatva Avalokateshwara
In this cave, we were greeted with a very intricate carving of Bodhisatva Avalokateshwara who was the person people prayed to before embarking on a journey. They believed that he would ward off the dangers of travelling. Beside the statue, carved on either side were 4 dangers of travelling (that totally made it 8 dangers of travelling). They were – wild elephants, lions, demons, shipwreck, jungle fire, snakes, thieves and pangs of childbirth.
 |
| Bodhisatva Avolakateshwara and the 8 dangers of travelling |
Despite the impressive entry, the inside was unfinished because the roof had collapsed.
Cave 9
Main highlights : The mixing of Hinayana and Mahayana.This cave was a chaitya (the place of worship for the Buddhist monks) and it had an interesting aspect – the mixing of the two sects of Buddhism, the old and new Buddhism, that is the Hinayana and Mahayana sects. For those of you who haven’t heard about them, here is a brief introduction – the Hinayana’s or the old Buddhist don’t believe in idol worship. Rather they worship the various relics of Buddha. Generations later, the Buddhist who hadn’t ever seen Buddha, wondered how he actually looked and started creating pictures and sculptures of Buddha. And the Mahayana sect came into being.
This cave is a merging of old and new Buddhism. It is indeed unique. The paintings on the walls are from the Hinayana times and show common people going about their day -to – day life while the Mahayana pillars show sculptures and pictures of Buddha.
 |
| A sculpture of Buddha on the pillar |
Cave 10
Main highlights : Vashistiputra Satakarni, John SmithThe 10th cave had inscriptions in the name of the king Vashistaputra Satakarni (for those who have read my previous post on the Satavahanas, you would know that he was the 2nd greatest king of the Satavahanas). Here we found 2200-year-old paintings. We also saw a graffiti by John Smith, the same guy who discovered the caves. He had carved his name and the date 28th April 1819 on the wall - this was the date when he rediscovered the caves. I think this started a history of people carving their initials into the centuries old rock, and many of the walls are defaced by tourists and travellers over the last few centuries!
 |
| Graffiti by John Smith - look carefully and you can see his name, the year 1819 when the cave was discovered and the Army unit he was a part of (Cavalry) |
In this cave we also saw another interesting site, a picture of a baby. Now you may wonder, what was so unusual or special about that picture. Well, the baby had four hands and wherever you stood in the room all its hands and its face would magically re-adjust and it would appear that the face was looking at you. It looked so cool. This shows us that we Indians were so skilled that we managed to create a three-dimensional figure in such an age where even drawing two-dimensional figures were hard.
All these concepts of 3-dimensional paintings, showing different degrees of perspectives, and being able create them on hard Igneous rocks is so amazing. And we always thought that that these techniques had originated only during the Renaissance in the 15th century in Europe. Imagine the ancient Indians had already mastered these things in the 2nd century BCE itself. We were the most advanced civilization in the world at that time.
 |
| One of the many paintings in Ajanta showing perspective in different levels |
After seeing these caves and many more, we headed down via the same old rickety bus, had lunch at MTDC (Maharashtra Tourism restaurant), brought a few mandatory fridge magnets and hit the road again for a long journey back.
As we drove, I kept thinking about all the wonderful things we saw there- Padmapani, the baby with four hands, Shanka-nidhi and Padma-nidhi(the potbellied assistant of the god of wealth). I couldn't comprehend the fact that the artists managed to forget cut, but actually sculpt out such symmetrical figures of unimaginable beauty. And that too at a time when there was no advanced technology to cut the hard basalt rock.
I truly believe that this is a site worth seeing, a true wonder of the world.
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