The Ajanta Caves: The Hidden Treasure of Indian Art

One day in April 1819, a group of officers of the British East India Company who were on maneuvers in the Sahyadri mountains, in the current state of Maharashtra, in the center of the subcontinent, They decided to go tiger hunting near the village of Ajanta.

They followed a boy who promised to take them to a place where these animals abounded, and they came to a promontory overlooking a wide, horseshoe-shaped gorge. One of the soldiers, John Smith, walked away from the group and brushed aside some branches with his hands. Suddenly he found himself face to face with a gigantic Buddha statue carved out of a cliff staring at him. imparting with his hands a mute blessing. Impressed, he called his companions, who upon approaching verified that, next to the Buddha, a dark entrance penetrated the mountain. The soldiers had discovered one of the great artistic treasures of India: the Ajanta caves, hidden for over a thousand years.

a buddhist shrine

The Ajanta Buddhist shrine is made up of 29 caves that run along a deep U-shaped cliff; five of them are chaytas or temples and the rest are viharas or monasteries. All were excavated in the rock by the monks, in difficult conditions. The temples contain splendid sculptures carved into the stone (Sleeping Buddhas, tall columns covered by motley friezes of characters, huge elephants flanking the facades…). The monasteries have austere interiors, but their walls are decorated with magnificent paintings that constitute the greatest treasure of Ajanta: vibrant murals that cover almost all its walls and that represent episodes from the life of Buddha and his jackasses or reincarnations, compassionate bodhisattvas who have attained enlightenment, apsaras or celestial dancers, court scenes… All the figures, of great realism and chromatic richness, express a spirituality destined to arouse the devotion of those who contemplated them.

All the figures, of great realism and chromatic richness, express a spirituality destined to arouse the devotion of those who contemplate them.

The caves began to be excavated in the second century BC, coinciding with the rise of Buddhism in India, and work on them ended in the 7th century AD, when this religion went into decline. Its maximum splendor took place under the patronage of the northern Gupta emperors (4th-5th centuries AD), and continued with the southern Vakataka dynasty, from the 6th century AD Located at 800 meters high, well protected, but at the same time in the center of trade routes, Ajanta became an important sanctuary, enriched by donations from pilgrims. But from the 6th century AD it housed only a small community of monks, who continued to live there until the 8th century AD, when it was definitively abandoned.

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in search of fame

Despite its spectacular nature, Ajanta did not come to the attention of scholars until the great British architectural historian James Ferguson visited the site in 1843. Ferguson, who would publish a comprehensive study of the art of Ajanta in 1895, complained of its deterioration to the East India Company, who sent the captain and artist Robert Gill there. He enthusiastically threw himself into the titanic task of copying the cave murals; he lived in a shack in the neighboring village and even married an Indian woman. He worked in harsh conditions for twenty years, sending their copies to London via Bombay. But when his work was going to be exhibited at the Crystal Palace, a terrible fire destroyed the building and the paintings. Gill, desperate, had to start over, but died five years later leaving his life’s work unfinished. Years later, from 1870 to 1874, a team from the Bombay School of Art set about copying the murals. The copies were sent to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, but bad luck caused another fire to destroy them.

Despite its spectacular nature, Ajanta did not come to the attention of scholars until the great historian James Ferguson visited the site in 1843.

Despite everything, there have been many efforts to preserve the paintings. In 1918, Ghulam Yazdani, the first director of the Department of Archeology in Hyderabad, commissioned the restoration of the murals by two Vatican experts, Lorenzo Cecconi and Count Orsini. They did an excellent job, which ended in 1922. It was then, more than a century after its discovery, when the West began to take an interest in this treasure of Indian art. The Burlington Magazine British declared the paintings to be “perhaps Asia’s greatest artistic wonder”, and even the famous Russian ballerina anna paulova in 1923 he performed an “Ajanta Ballet” at Covent Garden – the London opera house – whose movements were based on the sensuous postures of the celestial dancers in the Ajanta paintings.

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The gem of Buddhism

Since India’s independence in 1947, the Archeology Service of this country has been in charge of the immense task of control, restoration and conservation of the Ajanta cave complex, declared a World Heritage Site by the unesco in 1983. In 1991, Indian photographer and filmmaker Benoy K. Behl first visited Ajanta and decided to photograph the murals using only natural light. For several years, Behl photographed each figure and each scene by leaving his camera shutter open for up to twenty minutes to capture the maximum light. The result was spectacular. The smallest aspects were revealed with a detail that had not been achieved until then. Behl published the photos and has organized several exhibitions to showcase the wonderful paintings of Ajanta and the incredible painting skills displayed by their creators.

The Archeology Service of this country has been in charge of the immense task of control, restoration and conservation of the Ajanta cave complex.

Ajanta was the result of the dream of some Buddhist monks who sought enlightenment in the mountains, and the desire of some rulers who wanted their greatness to be eternal. As the inscription on one of the caves says: “A man continues to enjoy paradise as long as his memory is green in the world. Thus, one should erect a memorial in the mountains that lasts as long as the Sun and Moon follow.”