If Major John Smith of the Madras Cavalry Regiment had not noticed it on July 8, 1819, standing at the top of a hill, the Ajanta caves would have remained hidden and forgotten forever. But the fact remains that he saw the topmost carved portion of a cave and ordered immediate excavation! Or else this man-made treasure would have remained in oblivion.
The state of Maharashtra is blessed with various ancient monuments and structures. One of them is the famous Ajanta caves. The Ajanta caves have been declared as a World Heritage site. A set of about 29 caves located around the Waghora River. I had the opportunity of visiting Ajanta with a Global Exchange Student’s team. The team had come all the way from America to study Indian culture and I was supposed to accompany them. It was their first experience as well as mine. Ajanta caves are located at a distance of 99 kilometers from Aurangabad. The drive to the caves was full of excitement, as all the five of us traveling to visit the caves had done quite a good study of the various paintings and sculptures in the caves. A parking space allotted for all the vehicles coming to Ajanta is at about a distance of 3 kilometers from the caves and buses are provided for tourists to reach the vicinity of the caves. These buses are non-polluting and thus helpful in preventing further degradation of the paintings in the caves. The Archaeological department of India has started cleaning the paintings with various chemicals and strengthening its colour and hue. These steps have been taken to preserve and protect an ancient and magnificent heritage of our nation. After paying for the tickets and appointing a guide to lighten our path through the discovery of a new world we found our way to cave no.1.
The construction of these caves took place in two phases from 2nd century BC to 6th century AD. Earlier phase was between the 2nd century BC to AD and the second phase was during the supremacy of the Vakatakas and Guptas. Some paintings in the caves are from 2nd century BC while some are from 5th century AD. The themes of the paintings are intensely religious in tone and center around Buddha, Bodhisattvas, incidents from the life of Buddha and the ‘Jatakas’. Paintings are made on a ground of mud plaster, consisting of cow-dung and various other preservative materials available in those days. The technique used to paint is the tempera technique. The colours used are mostly blue, white, green, black and yellow made from bone calcium, stones etc. various studies reveal that the monks or craftsmen who made the caves first dug vertically down to a certain depth and then dug horizontally to increase the length.
Cave no.1 has the world famous painting of ‘Bodhisattva Padmapani’ i.e., Prince Buddha holding a fragile blue lotus in his hand and bent sideways as if the weight of his ornate jeweled crown is too heavy for his head. This painting according to some experts has a 3-dimensional view giving the observer a feeling one gets while looking at Mona Lisa made by the famous artist Leonardo Da Vinci. The half-closed eyes of Prince Buddha create illusion for the observer as to where he is looking. Another wall has the painting of ‘Bodhisattva Vajrapani’, the speciality of this painting are the different types of earrings worn in both the ears. Cave no.2 shows Maya, Buddha’s mother standing in the garden of Lumbini with Mahajanaka Jataka and her attendants. Here, the Buddhist icons seen were sculpted according to a set of codified rules that used symbolic hand gestures and motifs such as the wheel, the deer, the throne and sacred Bodhi tree. Each represents a stage of Buddha’s life. One of the caves has an inscription, which records that – Buddha’s image in cave no.4 was the gift of some Abhayanandi who hailed from Mathura. As per another inscription Varahadeva, minister of King Vakataka, Harishena (475-500 AD) dedicated cave no.16 to Buddhist Sangha and cave no.17 was a gift of the prince. Another cave has a scene of about a thousand monks deep in meditation known as the Miracle of Sravasti. Cave no.17 has the statue of Buddha seated in ‘Padmasana’ the lotus pose of meditation. His hair is sculpted as tied in a topknot surrounded by a halo of light, representing ‘nirvana’ or enlightenment. At one of the verandahs’ is a scene identified by scholars as the scene from the ‘Vishvantara Jataka’, which is about a prince who gave away his belongings in alms. This scene provides interesting information of the contemporary wooden architecture. Cave no.9, 10, 19, 26, 29 are Chaitya Grihas while the rest are Sangharamas or Viharas. The viharas contain two beds cut out of rock in a small chamber for the monks to rest. The monks living in these monasteries were not allowed to visit the next monastery, which can be considered as the ‘cave next door’. Their daily routine consisted of prayer, meditation asking for alms, decorating their monasteries and taking rest. Then comes cave no.19 with the best surviving examples of a rock cut Chaitya Griha. The elephant porch cut out on the exterior of this cave is toped by the distinctive ‘horseshoe’ shaped window flanked by ‘Yakshas’ or guardians, standing Buddha’s figure and elaborate decorative motifs. The interior is carved with pillars; a monolithic carved symbolic stupa and images of Buddha, which herald the introduction of the Mahayana phase. Cave no.26 has the sculpture of Buddha seen seated under a Bodhi tree at Bodhgaya, meditating while Mara and her voluptuous daughters attempted to tempt him. Then, Buddha touched the earth with his left hand and witnessed his enlightenment. The ‘Parinivana’ (ultimate enlightenment or liberation) came when Buddha left the world as depicted in the 7m (23ft) long image of the reclining Buddha in cave no.26. Another painting was the story of a white elephant that is considered as one of the births of Buddha. The story goes that a queen falls in love with the beautiful white pearl-like tasks of the elephant and orders her soldiers to get it for her. When the elephant sees the soldiers approaching him he stops them and takes out his tasks. He asks one of the soldiers to tell the queen to bring the task in the form of the necklace, which she wants to be made out of the task to heaven when she dies. This shows that the elephant knows that he will go to heaven because he goes thought pain without the task but will the queen get to heaven as she has only brought others pain to fulfill her own desires. The queen comes to know of this and understands her mistake. There are numerous tales painted on the walls of these caves, which are popularly known today as the ‘Jataka Tales’. The scene of the waterfall formed by Waghora River was also a rejuvenating sight to witness. The greenery-laden region, as my trip was during the rainy season was also a breath taking experience. The trek to the viewpoint provided on the highest of the hills from where the caves can be clearly seen was also an exhilarating experience. The shops available at the foot of the caves are a nice but costly place to take home some materialistic symbols of memories of Ajanta.
But as the cliché is ‘every coin as two sides.’ There are not many dustbins placed around the caves to throw the trash. The beautiful paintings on the walls here have been covered by graffiti. Even Major John Smith has his name and date of discovery of the caves written down on a pillar in cave no. 19. People consider writing in such places as great fun but they forget that they are playing a major role in the extinction of an entire culture. Their silly mistakes could bring down the heritage of India and nations around the world.
As India is standing on the threshold of a new era and preparing to make her contribution to the world of the future every citizen of the nation has an equally important role to play in evolving the culture of the New world which is emerging slowly from the wreckage of the old. This is the momentous period of her history, pregnant with precious possibilities, and any disinterested offer of co-operation or irresponsible move by the citizen of India will bring about an immense moral value decline. Hence we must all join hands to save our heritage and culture from doom and destruction so that the coming generation will be able to see the form and shape of the great and noble dreams cherished by the immortal prophets and philosophers of the past.
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