Introduction
Location. The ancient saṅghārāma (Buddhist monastery) of Ajanta is located in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state in India (latitude 20°33′9.94′′N and longitude 75°42′0.69′′E). There are nearly 30 rock-cut edifices.
Geography. The geographical setting of the saṅghārāma is typical. It is near a waterfall, recessed deep into the glen of a ravine. The entire saṅghārāma is carved out of a monolithic stretch of scarp, which is in the shape of a horseshoe. The particular stretch of the scarp belongs to the Sahyādri range of the Western Ghats (ghāṭ = slope), recently listed in UNESCO’s World Heritage list as an eco-sensitive zone.
Antiquity. Chronologically, the caves are divided into two groups. The first group of five caves is dated between the third and first centuries BCE (Nagaraju, 1981). The second group of some 26 caves has been dated recently between circa 462 CE and circa 480 CE (Spink, 2009, Fig. 39).
Political background. During the first phase, the region of...
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References
Fergusson, J., & Burgess, J. (1880). The cave temples of India. London: W. H. Allen.
Mirashi, V. V. (1963). Inscriptions of the Vakatakas: Corpus inscriptionum indicarum series (Vol. V). Ootacamund: Government Epigraphist for India.
Nagaraju, S. (1981). S. Buddhist architecture of western India, c. 250 B.C. – c. A.D. 300. Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan.
Schlingloff, D. (2013). Ajanta: Handbook of the paintings. New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts.
Singh, M. (2011). Microclimatic condition in relation to conservation of cave no. 2 murals of Ajanta. Current Science, 89–94.
Singh, R. K. (2012a). The early development of the cave 26-complex at Ajanta. South Asian Studies, XXVIII(1), 37–68.
Singh, R. K. (2012b). An introduction to the Ajanta caves: With examples of six caves (1st paperback edition). Baroda: Hari Sena Press.
Spink, W. M. (2009). In J. Bronkhorst (Ed.), Painting, sculpture, architecture year by year: Ajanta, history and development series – Handbuch der Orientalistik (HDO) series (Vol. V). Leiden: Brill.
Yazdani, G. (1952). Ajanta: Monochrome reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes based on photography, with an explanatory text by G. Yazdani and appendices on the painted and incised inscriptions by N.P. Chakravarti and B.Ch. Chhabra (Vol. 6). London: Oxford University Press.
Zin, M. (2003). Guide to the Ajanta paintings: Devotional and ornamental paintings (Vol. 2). New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers.
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Singh, R.K. (2014). Ajanta. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3934-5_9797-1
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