Ancient Indian Art & Architecture: The whole chapter

The ASI and UNESCO records say that the Ajanta caves, in a horseshoe-shaped scarp above the Waghora river, were 'discovered' in 1819. The officer was John Smith of the Madras cavalry, who came upon them while hunting a tiger and scratched his name and the date, 28 April 1819, on a pillar painting in Cave 10. Later, Robert Gill spent years making copies of the Ajanta paintings for the East India Company.

The ASI's Vadodara Circle protects the Buddhist cave groups of Junagadh in Gujarat: the Uparkot caves inside the old fort, the Baba Pyara caves and the Khapra Kodia caves. Carved in the early historic period, they include chaitya and vihara elements and carved pillars. Junagadh is also the site of the Girnar rock with Ashoka's edicts and Rudradaman's inscription.

The Lomas Rishi cave belongs to the Mauryan period (third century BCE). The Bhaja chaitya is one of the earliest chaitya halls of western India (about second century BCE). Ajanta's chaitya Cave 26 belongs to the later phase of the late fifth century CE, when Buddhabhadra was its donor. The Kailasa temple at Ellora was carved under the Rashtrakutas in the eighth century CE. So the order is 2-4-3-1.

NCERT says Ajanta has four chaitya caves: Cave Nos. 10 and 9 of the earlier phase (second and first centuries BCE) and Cave Nos. 19 and 26 of the later phase (fifth century CE), the later ones with facades carved with Buddha and Bodhisattva images. The ASI notes a break of nearly four centuries between the two phases, the later one under the Vakatakas. The later caves are vihara-chaityas: a pillared veranda, a pillared hall, cells along the walls and the main Buddha shrine in the back wall.

Ellora's twelve Buddhist caves are mostly viharas; Cave 10, known as Vishvakarma or Sutar-ki-jhopdi ('carpenter's hut'), is the only chaitya hall. Its ceiling is carved with stone ribs imitating wooden beams, and a large seated Buddha sits in front of the stupa. NCERT illustrates the 'seated Buddha, chaitya hall, Cave No. 10'. Cave 12, Teen Tal, is a three- storeyed vihara, which NCERT calls a unique achievement of Ellora.

Nalanda Mahavihara in Bihar was inscribed by UNESCO in 2016. The excavated site, spanning the fifth to thirteenth centuries CE, has a planned layout with a row of viharas on the east and a row of temples and stupas, such as the great Sariputra stupa (Site 3), on the west. The structures are built mainly of brick, with stone and stucco sculpture and bronze images found inside.

At Ellora, Cave 12 (Teen Tal) is the three-storeyed Buddhist monastery with Vajrayana images; Cave 15 (Dashavatara) is a two-storeyed Brahmanical cave with Vishnu's incarnations and the Gajasura-Shiva panel; and Cave 29 (Dhumar Lena) is a large Shaiva cave whose plan NCERT likens to the main cave at Elephanta. Cave 21 is the Rameshwar cave; Indra Sabha is Cave 32, the finest of the Jain group. So three pairs are correct.

The inscription in Cave 16, edited by V.V. Mirashi, gives the Vakataka genealogy down to Harishena (c. 475-500 CE) and records that his minister Varahadeva, son of the minister Hastibhoja, excavated the cave and dedicated it to the Buddhist Sangha. NCERT lists Ajanta's patrons as Varahadeva (Cave 16), Upendragupta, the local king and Vakataka feudatory (Caves 17-20), Buddhabhadra (Cave 26) and Mathuradasa (Cave 4).