Rocks Of Faith

The religious art and architecture of the Ajanta and Ellora caves have been hailed as some of the finest masterpieces of antiquity

- Abhijit Nag

The buddhist cave murals at Ajanta have been hailed by the British historian John Keay as “the finest gallery of pictures to survive from any ancient civilisation”. Breathtaking, too, is the art and architecture found in the Ellora caves. Anyone who wants to see the wonders of ancient India will marvel at these sites deep in the heart of Maharashtra. Both are protected monuments under the Archaeological Survey of India and Unesco World Heritage Sites. While Ajanta dazzles with its Buddhist art and sculpture, Ellora has caves and temples made by the Buddhists, Hindus and Jains.

Nestled in the sheer cliffs of a horseshoe-shaped gorge, the Ajanta caves are awesome in their spectacular setting. The Waghur river runs through the gorge. Waterfalls cascade nearby. Originally an unspoilt wilderness located close to trade routes, Ajanta was an ideal location for the Buddhist monks who built monasteries there to pray and meditate in peace and tranquillity.

Ajanta was abandoned, however, sometime in the seventh century when caves and temples began to be built in Ellora, about 100 km away. Ajanta was swallowed up by the jungle. And a wilderness it remained, forgotten by the outside world, for a thousand years. It was “rediscovered” only in 1819 when a British army officer on a tiger hunt was led to the entrance to Cave No 10 by a local shepherd boy.