Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 7 Bagh, Dandin, Cells and Cell Doorways 9004319689, 9789004319684

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Ajanta: History and Development

HANDBOOK OF ORIENTAL STUDIES HANDBUCH DER ORIENTALISTIK SECTION TWO

SOUTH ASIA SÜDASIEN edited by

j. bronkhorst VOLUME 18/7 AJANTA: HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

BAGH, DANDIN, CELLS AND CELL DOORWAYS

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ho2

AJANTA: HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT VOLUME 7

BAGH, DANDIN, CELLS AND CELL DOORWAYS BY

WALTER M. SPINK (TEXT) AND

NAOMICHI YAGUCHI (ILLUSTRATIONS)

LEIDEN • BOSTON 2017

Cover illustration: From our intensive analysis of door fittings: Cave 1, L4 (B)/D mode, 469–473. Library of Congress Control Number: 2014932192

Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 0169-9377 isbn 978-90-04-31968-4 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-32192-2 (e-book) Copyright 2017 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.

For Albert Friend of Harisena

CONTENTS List of Illustrations Part 1 and 2 ................................................................... xi Acknowledgements ......................................................................................... xxi PART ONE

AJANTA, BAGH AND DANDIN (BY WALTER M. SPINK) Chapter 1: Ajanta: An Introduction ........................................................... 3 Chapter 2: Dandin, Ajanta, Bagh, and the Historicity of the Visrutacarita ................................................................................................. 11 Bagh and Ajanta .......................................................................................... 16 Appendix I: The Development of the Vihara Shrine from Bagh to Ajanta ............................................................................................. 31 Appendix II: Shortening the “Short Chronology” ................................... 37 Chapter 3: Solstitial Concerns: Ajanta’s Vakataka Caitya Halls ........ 41 Cave 26 .......................................................................................................... 42 Cave 19 .......................................................................................................... 46 Cave 29 .......................................................................................................... 53 Chapter 4: Ajanta; Four Painted Viharas: 1, 2, 16, 17 .......................... 56 Ajanta Cave 1 ............................................................................................... 56 Ajanta Cave 2 ............................................................................................... 58 Ajanta Cave 16 ............................................................................................ 61 Ajanta Cave 17 ............................................................................................ 64 Chapter 5: Comments and Comparisons ................................................. 68

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contents PART TWO

AJANTA’S CELLS AND CELL DOORWAYS (BY WALTER M. SPINK (TEXT) AND NAOMICHI YAGUCHI (ILLUSTRATIONS)) Chapter 1: Ajanta and the Trajectory of Vakataka History ................ 195 Chapter 2: Ajanta’s Cells and Cell Doorways .......................................... 207 Summary Analysis of Caves 17 and 1 .................................................. 217 The Basic Door Fitting Modes Found at Ajanta ............................... 219 A Mode 465 through 467 ..................................................................... 219 B Mode (468–469) ................................................................................. 220 C Mode (470–471) ................................................................................ 220 D Mode (473–478) ................................................................................. 221 E Mode (478–479) .................................................................................. 222 A+ Mode (468–471) ............................................................................... 222 Minor Mode-transformations ............................................................. 223 Cells: Cave by Cave .................................................................................... 223 Cave 1 ......................................................................................................... 223 Cave 2 ........................................................................................................ 230 Cave 4 ........................................................................................................ 233 Cave 5 ........................................................................................................ 235 Cave Lower 6 (Cave 6L) ....................................................................... 237 Cave Upper 6 (Cave 6U) ...................................................................... 239 Cave 7 ........................................................................................................ 241 Cave 8 ........................................................................................................ 243 Cave 11 ....................................................................................................... 244 Cave 14 ....................................................................................................... 248 Cave 15 ....................................................................................................... 248 Cave 16 ...................................................................................................... 249 Cave 17 ....................................................................................................... 252 Cave 19 ....................................................................................................... 252 Cave 20 ...................................................................................................... 255 The Asmaka Caves ...................................................................................... 258 Cave 21 ....................................................................................................... 258 Cave 22 ...................................................................................................... 258 Cave 23 ...................................................................................................... 259 Cave 24 ...................................................................................................... 260 Cave 25 ...................................................................................................... 261 Cave 26 ...................................................................................................... 262



contents

ix

Cave 26LW ............................................................................................... 263 Cave 26RW ............................................................................................... 265 Cave 27 ...................................................................................................... 267 Porch and Shrine Doorways at Ajanta ................................................. 269 Cave 15: Shrine Doorway (penetrated 467) .................................... 271 Cave 26 Developments ......................................................................... 271 Cave 26RW Porch Doorway ................................................................ 273 Cave 26LW Porch Doorway ................................................................ 273 Cave 26LW Shrine Doorway ............................................................... 273 Cave 25 Porch Doorway ....................................................................... 273 Variants of the B Mode ............................................................................. 274 Cave 6L: Shrine Doorway .................................................................... 274 Cave 11: Porch Doorway ....................................................................... 274 Cave 15: Porch Doorway ....................................................................... 275 Cave 20: Shrine Doorway .................................................................... 276 Later Porch and Shrine Doorways ......................................................... 276 Detailed Discussion of Door Fittings in Cave 17 ............................... 277 Cell and Fitting Count for the Vakataka Caves at Ajanta .............. 303 Illustrations ........................................................................................................ 307 ABCD Mode Door drawings .................................................................... 307 A: Illustrations for Trajectory (chapter 1) ........................................... 311 B: Cave plans ................................................................................................ 331 C: Cell Door fittings .................................................................................... 355 D: Defining Features and Time Charts ................................................. 413 Bibliography ...................................................................................................... 419 Index .................................................................................................................... 427

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Part 1: All images belonging and referred to in Part 1 PL. 1 Ajanta fl. 462–478 PL. 2 Bagh fl. 462–477 PL. 3 Ajanta fl. 462–478 PL. 4 Bagh fl. 462–477 PL. 5 Ajanta fl. 462–478 PL. 6 Bagh fl. 462–477 PL. 7 Ajanta fl. 462–478 PL. 8 Bagh fl. 462–477 PL. 9 Ajanta fl. 462–478 PL. 10 Bagh fl. 462–477 PL. 11 Ajanta fl. 462–478 PL. 12 Bagh fl. 462–477 PL. 13 Ajanta fl. 462–478 PL. 14 Bagh fl. 462–477 PL. 15 Ajanta fl. 462–478 PL. 16 Bagh fl. 462–477 PL. 17 Ajanta fl. 462–478 PL. 18 Bagh fl. 462–477 PL. 19 Ajanta fl. 462–478 PL. 20 Bagh fl. 462–477 PL. 21 Ajanta fl. 462–478 PL. 22 Bagh fl. 462–477 PL. 23 Ajanta fl. 462–478 PL. 24 Bagh fl. 462–477 PL. 25 Ajanta fl. 462–478 PL. 26 Bagh fl. 462–477 PL. 27 Ajanta fl. 462–478

The Hinayana Nucleus: c. 100 BCE–100 CE ........................................ 68 Site at left River at right ............................. 69 Site Cave 20 (left) to 15 ............................... 70 Giant Yaksha and Caves 4–6 ..................... 71 Site Cave 26 (left) to 24 .............................. 72 Caves 4 to 6 .................................................... 73 Site View from Cave 17 (left) toward Cave 1 .............................................................. 74 Caves 7 to 9 .................................................... 75 Cave 19 façade yaksha at upper left ........ 76 Giant Yaksha (see also PL 4) ..................... 77 Cave 16 Nagaraja near entrance ............... 78 Remains of naga on scarp ......................... 79 Cave 2 shrinelet, right rear Hariti and consort ................................................... 80 court shrinelet Pancika and Hariti ......... 81 Cave 19 façade lower left ............................ 82 Cave 3 fragments from façade .................. 83 Cave 24 porch view from right end ......... 84 Cave 6 porch pillars lost ............................. 85 Cave 1 shrine doorway ................................ 86 Cave 4 porch doorway ................................ 87 Cave 23 porch doorway goddess upper right ..................................................... 88 Cave 4 porch doorway upper right ......... 89 Cave 23 porch doorway lower left ........... 90 Cave 4 porch doorway, lower left ............ 91 Cave 17 porch doorway detail at top center ....................................................... 92 Cave 4 porch doorway, inhabited scroll ................................................................ 93 Cave 16 right wall ......................................... 94

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list of illustrations

PL. 28 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 blackened wall .................................. 95 PL. 29 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 4 Cell R8 niche ..................................... 96 PL. 30 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 Cell with niche ................................. 97 PL. 31 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 2 Cell L3 door fitting ........................... 98 PL. 32 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 modern cell door ............................. 99 PL. 33 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 1 Cell R3 door fitting ........................... 100 PL. 34 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 rear door fittings. ............................. 101 PL. 35 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 19 left ambulatory ceiling detail ................................................................ 102 PL. 36 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 wall decoration ............................... 103 PL. 37 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 19 left ambulatory ceiling detail ................................................................ 104 PL. 38 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 wall decoration with festoons ........................................................... 105 PL. 39 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 1 ceiling ................................................. 106 PL. 40 Bagh fl. 462–477 Painting in storage flowers and ducks ............................................................... 107 PL. 41 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 2 nidhi shrine at left rear geese ...... 108 PL. 42 Bagh fl. 462–477 Painting in storage: goose .......................... 109 PL. 43 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 1 left rear with bodhisattva .............. 110 PL. 44 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 antechamber; bodhisattvas at rear .............................................................. 111 PL. 45 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 1 left rear Avalokitesvara (477) ....... 112 PL. 46 Bagh fl. 462–477 painting in storage: bodhisattva .............. 113 PL. 47 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 1 painting of attendants (477) ........ 114 PL. 48 Bagh fl. 462–477 Painting in storage jataka detail .............. 115 PL. 49 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 1 right rear Vajrapani (477) .............. 116 PL. 50 Bagh fl. 462–477 Painting in storage crowned figure ......... 117 PL. 51 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 1 ceiling celestials (477) .................... 118 PL. 52 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 3 shrinelet ceiling (begrimed) with celestials ............................................... 119 PL. 53 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 4 shrine antechamber Buddhas ..... 120 PL. 54 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 3 mandorlas for attached images .... 121 PL. 55 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 6U shrine antechamber incense bearer .............................................................. 122 PL. 56 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 3 incense bearer at foot of Buddha ............................................................ 123 PL. 57 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 17 antechamber pillar musicians (470) ............................................ 124

PL. 58 Bagh

list of illustrations

xiii

fl. 462–477 Cave 3 feet and hand of seated Buddha (see PL 56) ............................... 125 PL. 59 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 1 ceiling (477) ................................ 126 PL. 60 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 ceiling showing ritual grime . 127 PL. 61 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 17 interior view to rear ............... 128 PL. 62 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 interior ........................................ 129 PL. 63 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 1 interior ......................................... 130 PL. 64 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 4 view to front right .................... 131 PL. 65 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 26 complex; view toward Cave 24 ..................................................... 132 PL. 66 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 7 interior ........................................ 133 PL. 67 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 24 interior unfinished (477) ...... 134 PL. 68 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 4 damaged cells ............................ 135 PL. 69 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 1 Groundplan (Burgess) ............. 136 PL. 70 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 Plan (Marshall) ......................... 137 PL. 71 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 6L storage area at right .............. 138 PL. 72 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 4 storage vault in rear corner ... 139 PL. 73 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 1 view to rear ................................. 140 PL. 74 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 7 antechamber with shrine beyond ...................................................... 141 PL. 75 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 26 view to rear .............................. 142 PL. 76 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 7 shrine with projection for Buddha group ......................................... 143 PL. 77 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 11 shrine .......................................... 144 PL. 78 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 antechamber ............................. 145 PL. 79 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Ajanta Cave 4 Shrine Buddha ............. 146 PL. 80 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 4 stupa base .................................. 147 PL. 81 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 19 view to rear ............................... 148 PL. 82 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 antechamber Buddha group at left ......................................................... 149 PL. 83 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 17 Shrine Buddha ......................... 150 PL. 84 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 antechamber Buddha group at right ...................................................... 151 PL. 85 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 26 façade intrusive Buddha (“post-Gupta”) ........................................ 152 PL. 86 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 antechamber Buddha group at right: bodhisattva .............................. 153 PL. 87 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 26 right aisle intrusive Buddhas  154 PL. 88 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 begrimed wall paint lost at base ....................................................... 155

xiv PL. 89 PL. 90 PL. 91

list of illustrations

Ajanta Cave 26 462–478 view of front .................................... 156 Ajanta Cave 19 462–471 view of front ...................................... 156 Ajanta Cave 29 469–471 Excavated only at vault level. Placed by Upendragupta at a higher level above Cave 19 ............................................................................... 157 PL. 92 Ajanta Caves 9–12 (right to left) 1st BCE–1st CE .................. 157 PL. 93 Ajanta Cave 26, 462–478 interior, view to stupa .................. 158 PL. 94 Ajanta Cave 26 462–478 Stupa: showing uncharacteristic wide space behind stupa, after being shifted forward for solstitial reasons ....................................... 159 PL. 95 Ajanta Cave 10, 1st CE interior, view to stupa ....................... 159 PL. 96 Ajanta Cave 26, 462–478 interior ............................................. 160 PL. 97 Ajanta Cave 26, 462–478 façade, upper level ........................ 161 PL. 98 Ajanta Cave 26 462–478 The porch pillars retain their original positions but both the main doorway and the caitya arch have been shifted very slightly rightward for solstitial reasons. To compensate, the inner frame of the great arch is made wider at the left than on the right .............. 162 PL. 99 Ajanta Cave 26, 462–478 porch doorway, rear ..................... 163 PL. 100 Ajanta Cave 26, 462–478 façade ............................................... 163 PL. 101 Ajanta Cave 19 462–471, façade; note curvature .................. 164 PL. 102 Ajanta Cave 19 462–471 Plan (Burgess) measurements taken (without proper equipment!) on Dec 21, when sun’s rays at dawn fell directly on left end of façade ........................................................................... 165 PL. 103 Ajanta Cave 25 462–466 interior .............................................. 166 PL. 104 Ajanta Cave 19 462–471; view to stupa .................................... 166 PL. 105 Ajanta Cave 19 462–471 When Cave 19 was started, the doorway and the stupa inside were aligned as expected; but a few years later, when the excavators were trying to achieve a solstitial connection, the portico was shifted to the right, affecting the expected view of the stupa within. Compare Fig h, page 185 .................................................................. 167 PL. 106 Ajanta Cave 19 462–471, interior .............................................. 168 PL. 107 Ajanta Cave 19, 462–471 façade, view from below ............... 169 PL. 108 Ajanta Cave 19 462–471 showing angled positioning of façade elements, due to solstitial adjustments (see also 107). Original positioning of cave is shown by the line of the eave at the top .................. 169



list of illustrations

xv

PL. 109 Ajanta Cave 19, 462–471 courtyard floor ................................ 170 PL. 110 Ajanta Cave 19, 462–471 interior, front ................................... 171 PL. 111 Ajanta Cave 19, 462–471 interior, looking out ....................... 172 PL. 112 Ajanta Cave 19, 462–47 interior, vault ..................................... 173 PL. 113 Ajanta: Asmaka complex—Caves 21 to 28 (far left), with Upendragupta’s Cave 29 at higher level ................... 174 PL. 114 Ajanta view of Caves 16–23 (left) ............................................. 174 PL. 115 Ajanta Cave 29 469–471 façade. Vault level (only) under excavation ........................................................................ 175 PL. 116 Ajanta Cave 29, 469 façade arch .............................................. 176 PL. 117 Ajanta Cave 29, 469 interior ...................................................... 177 Figures Fig a Map of the Deccan (from Weiner) .................................................. 178 Fig b Ajanta Cave 26  462–478  conceptual plans earlier (top) and later (lower) by Ajit Rao  .......................................................... 179 Fig c Ajanta Cave 26  462–478  Plan (Burgess) Added broken lines show original position of stupa before being shifted forward and to the left (7 inches) for solstitial reasons ............ 180 Fig d Chart re solstices ................................................................................. 181 Fig e Ground plans of various caitya halls .............................................. 182 Fig f Ajanta Cave 19  462–471  Solstitial adjustments desired (C) and partially achieved (B) ................................................................. 183 Fig g Ajanta Cave 19  462–471  Showing the draftsman’s (and visitor’s) typical error in assuming that the stupa and great arch are aligned .................................................................................... 184 Fig h Ajanta Cave 19  462–471  distant view showing close to original alignment of doorway and stupa (with added outline). Compare Fig 105, page 167 ............................................... 185 Fig i Ajanta Cave 19 (Yaguchi sketch)  Conceptual view showing excavation of portico, as shifted rightward in attempt to effect a solstitial alignment .............................................................. 185 Fig j Ajanta Cave 29 Plans (Suresh Vasant) ............................................ 186 Fig k Time Chart A: Vakataka Patronage at Ajanta and Related Sites .......................................................................................... 187 Fig l Site Plan with patrons ........................................................................ 188 Fig m Map of India: adjusted to show VAKATAKAS equal to the GUPTAS .................................................................................................. 189 Fig n Reconstruction of events related to the development of the Vakataka caves .............................................................................. 190

xvi

list of illustrations

Fig o Defining Features 1 .............................................................................. 191 Fig p Defining Features 2 ............................................................................. 192 Part 2: All images belonging and referred to in Part 2 Door Mode Drawings by Naomichi Yaguchi Type A doorway ............................................................................................. 307 Type B doorway .............................................................................................. 308 Type C doorway ............................................................................................. 309 Type D doorway ............................................................................................. 310 A Trajectory of Vakataka History 1 Ajanta: Site from Viewpoint ............................................................. 311 2 Ajanta: Site plan with patrons ......................................................... 312 3 Ajanta: Cave 16 Interior from front right 462–478 ...................... 313 4 Ajanta: Cave 17 Interior view to rear 462–471 .............................. 314 5 Ajanta: Cave 19 Façade 462–471; intrusions at sides .................. 315 6 Ajanta: Cave 19 Yaksha at left of arch c. 467 ................................. 316 7 Ajanta: Asmaka complex at western end of site ......................... 317 8 Ajanta: Cave 26 Mara’s attack, upper left 477–478 ..................... 318 9 Ajanta: Cave 1 Façade 466–477 ........................................................ 319 10 Ajanta: Cave 1 rear aisle from left 466–477 ................................... 320 11 Ajanta: Cave 1 façade, detail of hunt c. 469 .................................. 321 12 Ajanta: Cave 1 interior ceiling detail c. 476 ................................... 322 13 Ajanta: Cave 1 interior, view to front left ....................................... 323 14 Ajanta: Cave 1 interior, right rear wall, Vajrapani ........................ 324 15 South Asia in the Vakataka Age (from J. Schwartzberg Historical Atlas of South Asia) ......................................................... 325 16 Ajanta: Cave 4 shrine antechamber Buddhas 477–478 ............. 326 17 Ajanta: Cave 26, interior: left with Parinirvana 477–478 .......... 327 18 Ajanta: Cave 26, interior, right wall; intrusions 479–480 .......... 328 19 Ajanta: Cave 1, antechamber, no ritual grime 476–477 ............. 329 20 Elephanta: Great Cave, north, Dancing Siva c. 540 .................... 330 B Plans of Cells in numerical order Ajanta Cave 1 ........................................................................................................ 331 Ajanta Cave 2 ....................................................................................................... 332 Ajanta Cave 4 ....................................................................................................... 333



list of illustrations

xvii

Ajanta Cave 5 ....................................................................................................... 334 Ajanta Cave 6L .................................................................................................... 335 Ajanta Cave 6U .................................................................................................... 336 Ajanta Cave 7 ....................................................................................................... 337 Ajanta Cave 8 ....................................................................................................... 338 Ajanta Cave 11 ...................................................................................................... 339 Ajanta Cave 13 ...................................................................................................... 340 Ajanta Cave 14 (477) suggested plan ............................................................. 341 Ajanta Cave 15 ..................................................................................................... 342 Ajanta Cave 16 ..................................................................................................... 343 Ajanta Cave 17 ...................................................................................................... 344 Ajanta Cave 19 ..................................................................................................... 345 Ajanta Cave 20 ..................................................................................................... 346 Ajanta Cave 21 ..................................................................................................... 347 Ajanta Cave 22 ..................................................................................................... 348 Ajanta Cave 23 ..................................................................................................... 349 Ajanta Cave 24 ..................................................................................................... 350 Asmaka complex: positives of Cave 24 and upper portion of cave 26 and 27 plan by Naomichi Yaguchi ............................................................. 351 Ajanta Cave 26RW, 26 and 26LW Complex plan by Naomichi Yaguchi ............................................................................................................. 351 Ajanta Cave 26 Complex plan ......................................................................... 352 Aurangabad Cave 3 ............................................................................................ 353 Ghatotkach Cave ................................................................................................ 354 C Cell Doorways 1 Cave 1 2 Cave 1 3 Cave 1 4 Cave 4 5 Cave 1 6 Cave 1 7 Cave 1 8 Cave 1 9 Cave 1 10 Cave 1 11 Cave 1 12 Cave 2 13 Cave 2 14 Cave 2

CLa L2 L4 R1 R3 R3 R3 R4 R4 R4 rL1 L3 L3 L5

D mode niche at rear (B)/D mode D mode B/D mode B/D mode B/D mode (C)/D mode (C)/D mode (C)/D mode (C)/D mode D mode D mode D mode

477  473  469/473  473  469/473  469/473  469/473  470/474  470/474  470/474  471/474  476  476  476 

....................................... 355 ....................................... 355 ....................................... 356 ....................................... 356 ....................................... 357 ....................................... 357 ....................................... 358 ....................................... 358 ....................................... 359 ....................................... 359 ....................................... 360 ....................................... 360 ....................................... 361 ....................................... 361

xviii 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53

list of illustrations Cave 2 Cave 2 Cave 2 Cave 2 Cave 4 Cave 4 Cave 4 Cave 4 Cave 4 Cave 6L Cave 6L Cave 6L Cave 6L Cave 6U Cave 6U Cave 6U Cave 6U Cave 6U Cave 7 Cave 7 Cave 7 Cave 7 Cave 7 Cave 7 Cave 7 Cave 7 Cave 11 Cave 11 Cave 11 Cave 11 Cave 13 Cave 13 Cave 15 Cave 15 Cave 16 Cave 16 Cave 16 Cave 16 Cave 16

PRa PRa PRa R2 L1 L1 R8 rR1 rR1 L2 L2 R3 R3 L2 L2 L3 L4 L4 CL CR L3 L3 L5 R1 R1 R5 L2 PR (left) PR (left) rR1 L2 L2 L1 L2 L2 L4 L6 R1 R1

D mode D mode D mode (B)/D mode (B) mode (B) mode D mode D mode D mode (A)/D mode (A)/D mode (A)/D mode (A)/D mode (B)/D mode (B)/D mode D mode D mode D mode D mode (D) mode (B)/D mode (B)/D mode D mode (re-fitted) B mode B mode E mode (A)/A+ mode (A)/A+ mode (A)/A+ mode (A)/A+ mode C mode C mode (A)/A+ mode (A)/D mode (A)/D mode (B) mode (A)/E mode (A)/D mode (A)/D mode

476 ............................. 362 476 ............................. 362 476 ............................. 363 468/476 ..................... 364 468 ............................. 364 468 ............................. 365 477 .............................. 365 477 .............................. 366 477 .............................. 366 466/473 ..................... 367 466/473 ..................... 367 466/473 ..................... 368 466/473 ..................... 368 468/475 ..................... 369 468/475 ..................... 369 475 .............................. 370 476 ............................. 370 476 ............................. 371 477 .............................. 371 477 .............................. 372 468/476 ..................... 372 468/476 ..................... 373 474/476 ..................... 373 468 ............................. 374 468 ............................. 374 478/479 ..................... 375 464/468 ..................... 375 464/468 ..................... 376 464/468 ..................... 376 464/468 ..................... 377 100 BC–100 CE ......... 377 100 BC to 100 CE ..... 378 466/468 .................... 378 467/475 ..................... 379 467/477 ..................... 379 468 ............................. 380 468/478 ..................... 380 467/477 ..................... 381 467/477 ..................... 381

54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92

list of illustrations Cave 16 Cave 17 Cave 17 Cave 17 Cave 17 Cave 17 Cave 17 Cave 17 Cave 17 Cave 17 Cave 17 Cave 17 Cave 19 Cave 19 Cave 19 Cave 19 Cave 20 Cave 20 Cave 20 Cave 20 Cave 20 Cave 20 Cave 20 Cave 20 Cave 20 Cave 21 Cave 21 Cave 23 Cave 24 Cave 25 Cave 26 Cave 26 Cave 26 Cave 26LW Cave 26LW Cave 26LW Cave 26RW Cave 26RW Cave 26RW

rL1 (A)/E mode PL (A)/D mode L3 B mode L5 B-/A+/D mode L5 B-/A+/D mode L6 (C) mode R2 (A)/A+ mode R4 (B)/C mode R4 (B)/C mode R6 (C) mode rL1 C mode rL1 C mode CL (right) C mode CR (right) D mode CR (left) C mode rR1 CR (right) (C) mode L1 A (enframement) L1 (A)/(D) mode PL B mode PL B mode PR (B)/D mode R1 (A)/D mode R2 (B)/E mode R2 (B)/E mode R1 A/D PL D R1 D L1, L2 D, (D) L1 D mode interior Pla (A)/D PLa (A)/D PRb (A)/D PR (A)/D Pra (A)/D rL1 (A)/D L1 (B)/D L1 (B)/D L1 (B)/D

xix 468/478 ............. 382 467/475 ............. 382 468 ..................... 383 469/470/475 ..... 383 469/470/475 ..... 384 471/475 .............. 384 467/469 ............. 385 468/470 ............. 385 468/470 ............. 386 471 ..................... 386 471 ..................... 387 471 ..................... 387 470 ..................... 388 470–471 ............ 388 471 ..................... 389 470 ..................... 389 467 .................... 390 467–479 ........... 390 469 .................... 391 469 .................... 391 469/479 ............ 392 467/479 ............ 392 469/479 ............ 393 469/479 ............ 393 462/479 ............ 394 468 .................... 395 475 ..................... 396 473 ..................... 397 477 ..................... 398 466 .................... 399 467/477 ............ 399 467/477 ............ 400 467/477 ............ 400 467/477 ............ 401 467/477 ............ 401 467/478 ............ 402 468/478 ............ 403 468/478 ............ 404 468/478 ............ 404

xx

list of illustrations

93 Cave 26RW L1 (B)/D 468/478 ................ 405 94 Cave 26RW L1 (B)/D 468/478 ................ 405 95 Cave 26RW L1 (B)/D 468/478 ................ 406 96 Cave 27 PR D 468/478 ................ 407 97 Ghatotkacha R1 A/D 467 ......................... 408 98 Ghatotkacha R3–R5 475–477, 468 ....... 409 99 Ajanta Door Modes, types A, B, C, D overview ................................ 410 100 Ajanta Door Modes, types A+, B–D, C–D, E overview ................... 411 101 B-Mode Cell Interior  .............................................................................. 412 D Defining Features and Time Charts Defining Features for the Vakataka Phase at Ajanta 462–470 A.D. ...... 413 Painted Caves at Ajanta by Vinod Pancharath .......................................... 415 Time Chart B: Ajanta and Related Sites ...................................................... 416

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The present volume is concerned, in particular, with the previously unexplored connections between Bagh and Ajanta on the one hand; and the even more surprising manner in which the Vakataka caitya halls at Ajanta were wrenched around in the rock in a remarkable attempt to shift them into alignment with the solstices, even after their excavation had been started. As usual, I am particularly grateful to Dr. Naomichi Yaguchi, co-author of this volume, who has supplied the majority of the photographs, as well as valuable insights on the written material. His grounding as an architect has clearly contributed to his remarkable understanding of the complex development of cell doorway forms and features, which comprise the whole of the related part of this volume. Also, I am still in debt to Dr Suresh Vasant, who over the years before his death was so instrumental in helping me in my research. Much of his work has been preserved in the many photographs available to all in the AIIS photo archive. Particularly for the otherwise poorly documented wealth of material at the Bagh caves, I have been immensely grateful for the generous expense of thought and time offered by Vandana Sinha of The American Institute of Indian Studies nearly a decade ago, when she supplied me with much publishable material, and an equal share of encouragement. This made some of my long delayed work on Bagh finally emerge in the present volume. I want to thank her in particular for her help, as well as for the many fine photographs of that collapsing site made by the AIIS staff photographers. For much good (and often relevant!) talk, I must thank my friends Dr. Arvind Jamkhedkar and Dr. Suraj Pandit for always being willing to carry on with me in discussing Vakataka and Traikutaka complexities, aided when possible by appropriate brews. I am also grateful for the friendship and help of Dr. Shreekant Jadhav and Sumeet Jadhav, as well as that of Dr. Anita Rane, who have so generously shared both laughs and photographs—both important for our work. And I must also warmly thank Dev and Renu Mehta for wonderful talk and food and whatever; even an occasional bed to nap on. That impressive conservator, Manager Singh, also has always had much of significance to write and to say. If he comes up with the bottle of wine that he has promised, I would sug-

xxii

acknowledgements

gest sharing it with Abha Narain, since seeing her is always such a great pleasure. The chapter on solstitial connections will, I hope, not only be controversial but convincing in the end! It owes much to the generous in-situ work done with Dr. McKim Malville over a decade ago. In the meantime, I have learned much (when it was not beyond me!) of solstitial complexities outlined in impressive detail by Dr Rajesh Kumar Singh; hopefully, our constant and challenging disagreements only contribute to the significance of our discussions. The fine photographer Sumeet Jadhav, who has worked with me for many years, has taken the remarkable photographs of Ajanta Cave 19, that do much to explain the solstitial adjustments made in that important excavation. Finally, I must thank my long-suffering friends Albert Hoffstädt and Patricia Radder for guiding me and my seven volumes Ajanta: History and Development through the press and through the years. It has been a great pleasure, not only once but twice, for Albert to honor that great emperor, the Vakataka Harisena, by visiting the caves with me; and the emperor and I are looking forward to Patricia’s travelling in the same direction before too many years have passed. In fact, both Saskia van der Knaap and Clara DeGalan should come too, after the pain and the pleasure of getting this complex volume into print.

PART ONE

AJANTA, BAGH AND DANDIN (BY WALTER M. SPINK)

CHAPTER ONE

AJANTA: AN INTRODUCTION The vast Deccan plateau, stretching over much of Maharashtra in west central India, is composed of hard volcanic basalt some six hundred meters deep. Over the course of millions of years, as the rain fell, it cut deep river courses into the harsh rock landscape. In one of the most startling of the curving ravines thus formed, Buddhist monks founded a remote monastery some two thousand years ago, cutting caves in which to live and worship into the steep cliff. (See Part 1 Pl. 91) This isolated but soon vigorously active community, with two ceremonial halls (caityas) and three residences (viharas) for the monks, formed part of a surge of Buddhist excavating activity that took place over much of Maharashtra between the second century BCE and the second century CE. (See Part 1 Pl. 1) Indeed, hundreds of such sacred monuments, at numerous different cave sites, attested to the rapid development of the Buddhist faith in this early period, both here and in other parts of India. But then, starting in the mid second century CE, a surprising gap appears in the growth of Buddhism. During the next three centuries, the chisels and hammers of the past were mysteriously put away, as Buddhist activity, most notably in western India, went into an unexplained decline. There are many things that make Ajanta’s later (i.e. main) phase remarkable. (See Part 1 Pl. 114) When it was begun, shortly after 460 CE, such caves had not been excavated in India for some three hundred years. Excavation was now a lost art. It had to be learned completely anew, with nothing to guide the planners and the excavators except for the Buddhist caitya halls and viharas of the distant past. Happily, however, these ancient excavations, notably at Ajanta itself, provided useful models, even though these rather severe excavations of the past would ultimately be exuberantly transformed by the energy and the lavish tastes of the new age. (See Part 1 Pl. 49) How the patronage of what could be called Ajanta’s “fifth century renaissance” developed after this long hiatus is remarkable. In about 460 CE, the emperor of the Vakataka dynasty, Harisena, “the ornament of (his) race, . . . a partial incarnation, as it were, of the Lord of Justice”, ascended to the throne, to start his auspicious reign. Surely encouraged by his

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enthusiastic support, and probably having access to a burgeoning treasury as well, a number of his highborn courtiers decided—for the first time in 300 years and for the first time anywhere in India—to acquire both merit and fame by excavating a new and up-to-date cave site in the old scarp. (See Part 1 Fig. k) It is clear from the evidence of the very beginning of this new work at Ajanta, that at least fourteen of these enthusiastic new patrons started their Buddhist offerings all within the first year or two of activity, driven by faith and power and pride. Eager to make a worthy offering to the Buddha, they were also eager to outdo their rival donors if they could. Ajanta is a very “human” site. All those involved—not just the great patrons, but also the eager workmen coming in increasing numbers from the cities of the region—were watching everyone else at the now burgeoning site. Indeed, it is in large part this creative and self-aggrandizing fervor that explains the startling speed with which work at the site progressed over the course of the next brief fifteen years. It is hardly surprising that the two most important patrons from this eager consortium of courtiers were the Vakataka Prime Minister Varahadeva) on the one hand, and the local king (Upendragupta) on the other. Nor is it surprising that, given their positions of authority, they chose the very best locations, at the very center of the curving ravine, for their own splendid offerings. (See Part 1 Pl. 3) By and large, the site rapidly spread out to either side—to the left and to the right—from these first central caves, the viharas #16 and #17. With so many eager patrons hurrying to get in on the act, often bringing with them already skilled artisans from their own domains, the race at the site, fueled by faith and pride and other very human energies, rushed onward. Within the span of a mere three or four years, (462–465), a staggering twenty out of twenty-six of Ajanta’s viharas and caitya halls were already underway, and the best and most convenient level of the ravine was almost filled up with the developing caves. (See Timechart) Remarkably, the most splendid and most important excavation at the site—Cave 1—had still not been started at this early date. (See Part 1 Pl. 73) It was not underway until 466, at a point when all of the best locations in the curving scarp had already been taken. (See Part 1 Pl. 7) This may seem the more surprising because Cave 1 was the donation of the great emperor Harisena himself. It is possible that, having ascended the throne so recently, he was too occupied with concerns of statecraft during the first few years of his reign to get very involved at Ajanta. However, a more likely explanation is that he was not a Buddhist like most of Ajanta’s major patrons,



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but a Hindu. This would explain why he did not at first join his Buddhist courtiers in their great effort. However, he must have early realized what an amazing development, sponsored by his own subjects, was going on at the old site and, as their emperor, must have soon wanted “to get in on the act”. Happily, this was not difficult to do, because there was such a strong ecumenical connection between Buddhism and Hinduism in this so-called “Classic Age”. Although we hardly need to believe that Harisena actually “became” a Buddhist, what must be recognized is that he created the most beautiful and innovative Buddhist vihara to be found anywhere in India. (See Part 1 Pl. 63) It is evident, merely from looking at what was accomplished at Ajanta, that Harisena’s reign, during which all of the site’s excavations were made, was a rich and energetic one. Furthermore, it was also a peaceful one, and it was this “pax Vakataka” that allowed the great undertakings at Ajanta to get off to such a promising start. Of course, there were sometimes troubled interactions that affected Ajanta’s proud courtly patrons. However, happily, during the first few years of the site’s development, these tensions happily expressed themselves in a relatively peaceful competition, wherein the donors, the overseers, and the busy workmen were all eagerly competing with their rivals, and constantly benefitting from productively stealing and sharing ideas and techniques. However, no matter how vigorously the site flourished from such interactions, by 468 the situation suddenly changed due to the mounting concerns of the local king, Upendragupta, the lord of Risika, the region in which Ajanta lies. (See Part 1 Fig. a) Clearly threatened by the aggressiveness of his powerful neighbors, the Asmakas, Upendragupta peremptorily ejected them from the site. (See Part 1 Pl. 65) Not only did he force the Asmakas to break off work on their developing excavations—all the caves at the western extremity of the site—but he also put a sudden halt to nearly all other work at Ajanta too. The only exceptions to this sumptuary edict were his own caves (17, 19, 20) (See Part 1 Pl. 3) and (understandably!) that of his emperor (Cave 1). (See Part 1 Pl. 90) Since Upendragupta clearly knew that the Asmakas were a very serious threat, Upendragupta’s general work-stoppage surely reflected a realistic fear of a coming conflict and a determination to now seriously focus on building up his military forces in anticipation of an Asmaka attack. It is perhaps understandable that both Upendragupta and the emperor Harisena, being in very special positions, were able to vigorously continue work on their own caves during this period of “waiting for war”. (See Part 1

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Pl. 43) Indeed, it was now, starting in 468, that their ambitious excavations (Caves 1, 17, 19, 20) flourished with a particular vigor. (See Part 1 Pl. 81) Their supervisors now had no problem in picking the very best workmen to produce the increasingly rich and complex decorations that characterize these privileged royal caves. Reflecting this situation, Harisena’s great Cave 1, benefiting from his position as imperial overlord, progressed exuberantly at this time. However, Upendragupta’s own beautiful caves, only a year or two after 468, began to show distinct signs of haste, with significant cutbacks in their development. Obviously anticipating an Asmaka attack, Upendragupta was more and more concerned about getting his beautiful caves completed while there was still time, even if it was becoming increasingly difficult to do so. In about 472, the blow fell. The Asmakas did indeed attack, and soon took over the control of the site. Now, with the tables turned, the first thing the victorious Asmakas did was to expel the unfortunate (and previously all too extravagant) king Upendragupta from the site. Upendragupta, just before fleeing from the area, did manage to dedicate (even if he could not quite finish) his lavishly decorated caitya hall (Cave 19), as well as his fine viharas (Caves 17 and 20), but this was to little avail. (See Part 1 Pl. 83) The victorious Asmakas were also vengeful. They forbade worship in Upendragupta’s beautiful caitya hall—once intended to be the ceremonial center of the site—and, not satisfied with that, they even broke straight through two of the monks’ cells in the same cave to make a more convenient path to their own developing complex lying to the west. The site was now totally under Asmaka control, and Upendragupta, banished, was permanently gone. We never hear of him again. Now, starting in 473, under Asmaka’s firm control, the site—except for the defeated Upendragupta’s caves—flourished as never before. (See Part 1 Pl. 65) The many caves upon which work had been forced to stop due to Upendragupta’s sumptuary impositions, now started up vigorously again, benefiting both artistically and technologically from the rich developments that took place in the privileged Caves 1, 17, 19, and 20 in the few years just before. The first task now facing the pious—even if aggressive—Asmaka conquerors was to rush their own long-unfinished caitya hall (Cave 26) to completion, as a new focus of worship at the site. However, since Cave 26 was much larger than Upendragupta’s abandoned Cave 19, and had a complex of associated viharas all around it, this was going to take a lot of money. Some of such funds might have been ransacked from the defeated Upen-



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dragupta’s own treasury, as well as from devotees eager to make merit for their future existences, but most of it was surely drawn from the Asmakas’ governmental resources (See Part 1 Fig. c). The Asmaka’s splendid caitya hall, Cave 26, was donated by a great monk, Buddhabhadra, who had the valuable distinction of having been “attached in friendship (to the powerful minister of Asmaka) through many successive rebirths”. (See Part 1 Pl. 96) The same dedicatory inscription goes on to describe the minister (“renowned the world over for his pious character . . . and “devoted only to the Buddha”) in such excessively flattering terms that one can well imagine that the Asmaka exchequer was freely opened to him at his request. After all, his determined goal was to fill up the western extremity of the site not only with his costly caitya hall (Cave 26), but also with a cluster of associated and elaborate viharas on either side. The aggressive compulsions that had delivered the site over to Asmaka control after Upendragupta’s defeat and expulsion in 472, gave Buddhabhadra and Ajanta’s other patrons a few happy years to continue working on their increasingly elaborate caves. But the time was short, and the further development of Ajanta was ultimately doomed by the desire of the powerful Asmakas to take over the empire for themselves. To aid in this insidious plan, the Asmaka minister’s wily son, “under the pretext of being expelled by his father” came to the imperial court “accompanied by a train of musicians and dancing girls, and numerous retainers and spies in various guises”. His goal, of course, was to corrupt the young prince (Sarvasena III), who was Harisena’s heir apparent. He can probably also be accused of plotting the emperor Harisena’s tragic assassination—a wrenching event that Dandin explains, perhaps by indirection, as “owing to the want of religious merit on the part of his subjects.” However this may be, Harisena’s death was certainly sudden, for he never finished and (most important) never dedicated his splendid Cave 1, by all counts a matter of the highest priority. (See Part 1 Pl. 79) It was this tragic event, and its immediate aftermath—the accession of his incompetent successor, Sarvasena III—that in the shortest order now doomed the site. (See Part 1 Pl. 67) And when it doomed Ajanta, it doomed the great Vakataka empire too, for it too had been nourished by Harisena’s virtue and the energy of his dream. Ajanta’s demise, under the shadow of the Asmaka’s hunger for power, was startlingly rapid; and perhaps even more tragic, the same was true of Harisena’s vast empire too which, having arrived at an apogee, both politically and culturally/could not long survive the same great loss of its imperial guiding spirit. Ajanta’s descent into silence was

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only too soon paralleled by the descent of Harisena’s vast empire, after his dying into a score of years of darkness; and central India did not recover from this fallow time until the following century, still drawing upon the great emperor’s heritage, had begun. Due to the mounting fear in Ajanta’s Vakataka patrons that, with Harisena’s death, the site too would soon be doomed, all of these deeply anxious courtiers now rapidly decided to flee the literally disheartened site. With time obviously short, they completely gave up any more actual excavation work on their caves. (See Part 1 Pl. 53) However, they did make every effort to get their shrine images finished and dedicated before time ran out, for it was only by so doing that they would receive the spiritual benefit promised by such donations. Although in the whole course of Ajanta’s development only seven shrine Buddhas had been completed by 477 or earlier, in the single desperate year (478) after Harisena’s death no less than twelve and probably thirteen were rushed to completion before the anxious patrons hastily departed. In fact, even the less troubled Asmaka donors, now in control of the site, also departed now, because of the demands of the preparation for war, and the toll that it was taking of both men and money. What is remarkable—and this ultimately impacts upon our concept of Indian history—is that the twelve or thirteen patrons who were rushing their caves to a hasty dedication in 478 were the very same individuals who had inaugurated their caves in the early 460s. In some cases these patrons, who both inaugurated work at the site and then were still present at the site’s demise were known by name: Varahadeva (Cave 16); Upendragupta (Cave 17); Mathura (the rich patron of Cave 4) and finally Buddhabhadra, Dharmadatta, and Bhadrabandhu, the triad responsible for developing Cave 26. Even Harisena himself, although he never got his Buddha image dedicated, can be included in the group, since he was still alive and active hardly more than a year before the established patronage of the site collapsed. Furthermore, it is surely reasonable to add a number of “nameless” or anonymous patrons to our count, for one can identify at least six or seven caves that develop with such consistency that it seems likely that they were connected from start to finish with the same donor. This would hardly be surprising given the short time span, and the obvious obsession of Ajanta’s patrons about making religious merit by seeing their donations completed and dedicated. Thus it is surely safe to say that no fewer than about a dozen of Ajanta’s patrons both inaugurated the development of the site and were still alive at its collapse.



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From an actuarial point of view what does this mean? Since most of our rich and established patrons were surely in (or more likely well past) their twenties, in a period when the life expectancy even of the privileged few was soberingly short, the likelihood that this number of patrons would all still be alive as much as twenty years later would seem to be almost impossible. In fact, only by reducing the site’s span of consistent development to less than twenty years can we better satisfy the demands of reason, when actuarial considerations are taken into account. Although some decades ago most scholars like myself typically believed that Ajanta, in its great main phase, flourished for at least two hundred years (from the middle of the fifth century to the middle of the seventh) no one could (or should) believe that now. A span of fifteen or even fourteen years would better define the remarkable rise, and the suddenly traumatic fall, of Ajanta’s established patronage. Understandably, Ajanta itself could now no longer flourish; in fact it could no longer exist at all without a continuation of the political and economic support that had made it so briefly great. With the defeated Vakatakas all fled, and the Asmaka patrons now forced to give up the development of their own caves in the midst of their preparations for war, the only devotees left at the site after 478 were, on the one hand, the monks themselves, who in the mounting troubles had no other place to go and, on the other hand, the remaining residents of the area, along with many now highly skilled (and hungry) artists eager to find work at the dying site. Now, finally, in this Period of Disruption (479–480) after years when only the privileged Vakataka courtiers themselves had been allowed to sponsor excavation at the site, both the monks and the local people eagerly began to fill up the caves, helter-skelter, with scores of devotional Buddha images, both carved and painted. (See Part 1 Pl. 87) However, by the early years of the 480s, due to the troubles so heavily visited on the once great Vakataka house, even this spastic devotional activity had to come to a rapid stop. The speed with which the established patronage at Ajanta rushed to its troubled conclusion in 478, and yielded to the intrusions that characterize the Period of Disruption (479–480) was not only due to the painful reality of Harisena’s death. It was equally due to the disastrous reality of the nature of his weak son and successor, Sarvasena III, who is darkly remembered as being “totally averse to the science of politics”. Indeed, as soon as he had become the new Vakataka overlord in 478, the Asmakas utilized his incompetence by developing a military coalition with other ambitious Vakataka feudatories, aiming to take over the whole Vakataka imperium by force; and it was only shortly after 480 that they were, ominously, on the move.

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It was when Sarvasena III, “having the border of his kingdom invaded, mobilized his army”, that he finally took action against the invading forces. However, engaging them on the banks of the Narmada river the shattered Sarvasena III “became mincemeat”. Then, exulting in the Vakataka defeat, the wily Asmakas tried “to swallow the whole plunder”. However, failing to do so, the Asmakas disappeared from history, along with the Vakatakas themselves. (See Part 1 Fig. l) After the 480s neither the conquerors nor the conquered, neither the Asmakas nor the defeated Vakatakas, were ever heard from again. The days of glory were over, lost in the enveloping darkness. (See Reconstruction of Events) Ajanta itself, left alone in its deep ravine, was in fact was in fact remarkably protected and preserved by its very desertion. Now, for nearly fifteen centuries, there would be—as Buddhabhadra himself had once declared— only “the chattering of the monkeys and the chirping of the birds” in the deep ravine.

CHAPTER TWO

DANDIN, AJANTA, BAGH, AND THE HISTORICITY OF THE VISRUTACARITA Preface Maharaja Subandhu, ruling in 486 CE, provided money “for repairing the broken and rent portions” of the Bagh caves. This is convincing evidence that they were finished well before 486. Since Ajanta and Bagh are closely contemporaneous, Ajanta must also be dated well before 486, confirming the validity of the “Short Chronology”. (Suggested timespan: 462–478) In fact, the same conclusion can be reached through actuarial considerations: see Appendix: Shortening the “Short Chronology”. However our chief concern here is with arguments for a precise dating of late Vakataka history, and of the related establishment of the rule of Maharaja Subandhu of Mahismati in Anupa. The discussion is primarily based on the evidence supplied by Dandin’s Visrutacarita, a great story in its own right.1 It is only when we can accept the Short Chronology for the development of both the Ajanta and the Bagh caves that we can justify the view that India’s so-called Golden Age reached its apogee during the reign of the Vakataka emperor Harisena (460–477 CE) rather than in earlier Gupta times. Furthermore, since Ajanta’s development ends at the very same time that the late history of the Vakatakas, as described in Dandin’s remarkable Visrutacarita, begins, we can follow the course of late Vakataka history, almost year by year, between 478 and the rule of Maharaja Subandhu of Mahismati in 486. This strongly confirms the historicity of Dandin’s account, a matter of great interest to historians, because of the common belief that such works cannot be “serious” history. 1 The Visrutacarita (“The story of Visruta”) is the eighth section (uchchhvasa) in Dandin’s Dasakumaracarita (“The Tale of the Ten Princes”). I am using the translation by M.R. Kale, the most authoritative of a number available. The page numbers for Kale’s translation, as reprinted in my Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 1, pages 393–411, are listed in the present text, preceded by the italicized letter K. I am also much indebted to Robert DeCaroli’s insightful article “An Analysis of Dandin’s Dasakumaracarita and ts Implications for Both the Vakataka and Pallava Courts”, JOAS 115.4 (1995), 670–678. I list all references to that study as DeCaroli, with page number.

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Dandin, as the court poet for the young Pallava king Narasimhavarman II (695–722), constructed an arresting tale of the final years of the ancient Vakataka dynasty, from about 478 to about 484 CE. This is a story that had a special meaning for Dandin, because his ancestors had been closely connected with the Vakataka court in the fifth century.2 Transmitted in surprising detail via India’s remarkable oral tradition, Dandin’s recounting of ancient events made it a perfect vehicle for the listening pleasure—and the moral and political instruction!—of the poet’s young Pallava auditor. The young king would have been engrossed, in particular, by the actions of the heroic Visruta, a young prince from Magadha, who served as protector of his Vakataka queen and her children after their flight to Mahismati when the Vakataka imperium was collapsing around 478 CE. But although the future for these Vakataka “refugees” was to be all too brief, Dandin in fact “edits” his story, with its pro-Vakataka focus, to give it a “happy ending”, in which Visruta’s helpful stance remains unchanged. At the same time, what we know from our history books, and what Dandin must have known from his family traditions—but what the Pallava prince did not know and had no reason to know—is that in the end Visruta apparently used his powerful Vakataka connections as the very foundation of a new dynasty. This would be known later as the powerful Early Kalacuri house, founded in ca 486 by one Maharaja Subandhu of Mahismati who, so it appears, was none other than the wily Visruta himself. As will be clear later, the date of the collapse of Ajanta’s established patronage (478) must be coordinated with what we shall see of late Vakataka history, as revealed by Dandin. He describes the flight of the Vakataka prime minister with the queen and her children from Vidarbha to the presumed safety of Mahishmati, where a son of Harisena was Vakataka viceroy.3 This in turn must be coordinated with the known date (486 in “real” time) of Maharaja Subandhu’s rule over the city of Mahismati.4 Since 2 DeCaroli, 672. 3 Dandin (K405) describes the viceroy as the queen’s “husband’s brother by another mother”. 4 V.V. Mirashi in Inscriptions of the Kalachuri-Chedi Era, xliv–xlvi reviews many later references to the founding of the Early Kalachuri era in Mahismati. However, he admits “it is not known whether the Early Kalachuris were descended from Maharaja Subandhu who ruled from Mahishmati in an earlier age; for there is a long period of nearly 150 years which separates them and for which no records have yet been discovered.” However the problem is in part because Mirashi wrongly dated Subandhu’s Barwani inscription according to the Early Kalachuri era (= 419 CE) instead of according to the Gupta era (= 486 CE). When the Gupta period date is used, it significantly closes the gap about which he is concerned. Indeed, sometime between 505 and 533 we know that the Kalachuris were dominating the Konkan, quite possibly under the rule of Subandhu himself or (more likely) his



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Subandhu was already established as Maharaja in 486, we should conclude that his accession date was 485 (if not slightly earlier). This would be the terminus ante quem for the activities of the royal family and their “protector”, the hero Visruta, in the city of Mahismati. It is reasonable to assume that the flight of the Vakataka Prime Minister with the royal family from the Vakataka capital (Vatsagulma) to the (presumed) safety of Mahismati—would have taken place in the same year (i.e. 478) as the traumatic collapse of established patronage at Ajanta, and the flight of the anxious Vakataka patrons from the site, as a consequence of the emperor Harisena’s sudden death the year before. Following Dandin’s surprisingly detailed account, much happened with the Vakataka queen and her children and with their constant “protector”, the heroic Visruta, while they were getting to and living in Mahismati. Starting with the flight of the family in 478, all of these involvements in Mahismati had to take place before the end of 484 (i.e. prior to Maharaja Subandhu’s accession in (suggested) 485.5 This allows a maximum of seven years for their travel to Mahismati and their residence in the city. We can locate these various events, involving the displaced royal family and the actions of their “protector” Visruta as follows, arbitrarily assigning a “reasonable” sequence to the events:6 478 The Vakataka Prime Minister—known to be Varahadeva, one of Ajanta’s major inaugurators—flees with the Vakataka queen, princess, and crown prince to Mahismati, where a second son of Harisena is viceroy. 479 The royal family takes up residence in Mahismati, but is already concerned about the crown prince’s safety, since the now-ruling uncle appears, ominously, to have imperial ambitions of his own. 480 The prince is taken into the Vindhya forest for safety, where he is found by the adventurous Gupta prince, Visruta, and under the latter’s protection taken back to Mahismati.

Early Kalachuri successor. See discussion in Spink, The Great Cave of Elephanta: A Study of its Sources, in Bardwell Smith, Essays on Gupta Culture, Delhi, 1983, esp 240 ff. 5 Since Maharaja Subandhu was already well established in 486, the latest date for his succession would be 485, and might even have been earlier. However, as we shall see, it could not have been much earlier than 485, because one must allow sufficient time for the many Vakataka development that took place after Harisena’s death. 6 Following Dandin’s account, I have divided the actions of Visruta and the Vakataka family into seven “time-sections” between 478 and 484, although the reader should understand that there would be some overlapping of attitudes and actions. I think it is fair to say that these dates are close to the “real” ones, although obviously they must be thought of as close approximations.

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481 Visruta and the queen, anxious about the Vakataka viceroy’s plans “to put her son to death” (K405) before she could “raise her son to the throne” (K405) successfully arrange for his death by poisoning. 482 Threatened by the Malwa prince’s intended marriage to the Vakataka princess, the concerned Visruta, disguising himself as a dancer in the connected celebration, stabs his rival to death and (still unrecognized) quickly escapes. 483 After hiding in the temple of the goddess Durga, Visruta emerges “miraculously”, declaring her support and her blessing upon his role as the counselor of the young prince and as the betrothed of the Vakataka princess. 484 Well established now within the royal family, and “carrying on the work of administration for the prince” (K410), Visruta wins the hearty approval of the court, declares his determination to uproot any remaining menace by the Asmakas, and (as Dandin’s account ends) is zealously taking “all the proper measures” (K411) for the benefit of both court and country. 485 As far as Vakataka affairs in Mahismati are concerned Dandin has no more to say; his story ends abruptly by the end of 484. The fate of the young Vakataka prince, Visruta’s own expected marriage to the Vakataka princess, and Visruta’s own future, all await resolution or clarification. 486 Together with “485” this is the year when its ruler, Maharaja Subandhu was starting his rule over Mahismati, the city previously governed by Visruta, who, although the young prince’s counselor, had become, in effect, the Vakataka regent. The hardly coincidental coordination of both time and location evident here—the very last year (484) of the heroic Visruta’s control of the city on behalf of the young prince on the one hand and with the very first years of Subandhu’s accession on the other (485) is too remarkable to be ignored. Surely, Visruta was no other than Subandhu! Indeed, the identity of Visruta, a young prince” on the make” and Subandhu, who had already “made it”, is supported by a significant similarity in their origins: Visruta is one of the Dasakumara (Ten Princes), with their birth in the Gupta heartlands, while Subandhu himself surely came from the same Gupta context, for he uses the Gupta era for his one known dated (Barwani) inscription.7 7 For the Barwani inscription of “Maharaja Subandhu of Mahismati”, dated Gupta era 486, and the related Bagh inscription, see V.V. Mirashi, The Inscriptions of the KalachuriChedi Era, pp. 18–219.



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Furthermore, the exercise of his new position as the powerful head of a new and independent dynasty helps to explain the final disappearance of the Asmaka aggressors from history. In fact it may have been his triumph over the troubling Asmaka aggressors that both suggested and validated the founding of what comes to be known later as the (his) Early Kalacuri dynasty, with its many links to Mahismati. It seems clear that this final triumph over the continually bothersome Asmaka aggressors finally was achieved only after Visruta’s years of attendance upon the displaced Vakataka family, who both needed and wanted the help of their swashbuckling Gupta relative to ward off those “border raiders”. In any case, we hear no more about the Asmakas after Subandhu’s new dynasty was established; in fact, they disappear from India’s history altogether at this point.8 So, ultimately, Subandhu (or Visruta/Subandhu) was able to use this significant connection to incorporate the remaining aura of that longestablished (even if weakened) Vakataka dynastic line into his new one, becoming in the process, no longer the merely helpful prince Visruta, but Maharaja Subandhu of Mahismati. Also highly significant, if we can believe that he and Visruta are the same historical figure, would be the validation and consolidation of Subandhu’s new dynasty through his (probable) marriage to the Vakataka princess. Although we have no absolute proof that this politically profitable marriage actually took place after Subandhu became the ruler in Mahismati, the fact that Dandin makes so much of the expected event and that the goddess herself heartily approved it, strongly suggests that the marriage did indeed take place.9 It may be that Subandhu justified the extension of his rule from Anupa into previous “Vakataka” territories, because of this family linkage.10 Just as his connection with the Vakataka princess would have been important in the achievement of Subandhu’s goals, his disconnection with the young Vakataka prince would have been of equal importance. To say that he killed the prince (in his characteristically clandestine way) might be to put it too crudely; but it is certainly the case that the young prince

8 The Asmakas and the Vakatakas, equally victims of fallout from their conflict in the late 470s and the 480s both disappear from history by the end of the fifth century. 9 Hearing how Visruta is praised by the goddess Vindhyavasini (= Durga), the people exclaimed: “very fortunate, indeed, is the race of Bhoja, that has a guardian like you granted by the goddess.” (K410) 10 The assumption that Subandhu (or his immediate successors) extended his rule to other regions is based on his apparent connection with subsequent Early Kalacuri developments.

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somehow disappeared from history—or at least from Dandin’s story—at precisely the time that Subandhu came to power in Mahismati. In fact, now with a royal wife, and with his long experience as the virtual Vakataka regent, it is even possible that he was rapidly identified, in the mind of the public, as the legitimate heir to the Vakataka power long before his new royal house became known as the “Early Kalacuri” dynasty. That new power, in its remarkable expansion to the south, would gradually encompass most of the territories once held by his wife’s Vakataka ancestors; they would now become the domains of the Early Kalacuris by “right”. In any case, the abrupt and “pointless” ending of the Vakataka’s history, as Dandin has preserved it, is the very moment, one way or the other, at which Subandhu’s history begins. What I have tried to show is not only that the Barwani inscription of 486 can be used to locate the final history of the already largely destroyed Vakataka house in real time, but that, beyond that, it can confirms the “short span” of Ajanta’s development with a precision impossible before, to approximately 462 through 478. But to confirm this understanding of Ajanta’s development, and at the same time to confirm the identity of Visruta and Subandhu, explaining the transfer of Vakataka rule in Anupa to that of the nascent Early Kalacuri dynasty, we must turn to the once flourishing Buddhist establishment at Bagh—a site that indissolubly connects Maharaja Subandhu’s rule with the history of his Vakataka forbears. Bagh and Ajanta Bagh and Ajanta are “sister sites”, about one hundred fifty miles apart as the crow flies. The two sites share many developmental features, with Bagh sometimes directly influencing Ajanta, as in its prior introduction of stupa shrines to viharas, and Ajanta sometimes influencing Bagh, as in its introduction of focal Buddha images to the site.11 Although both Bagh and Ajanta were started only shortly after the emperor Harisena’s accession to the Vakataka throne in 460, the ending of their development is significantly different. With the attack of the Asmaka coalition on the Vakataka forces early in the reign of Sarvasena III (acc.

11 See herein Chapter Two, Appendix One, p. 31, ff.



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478), Ajanta’s established development suddenly and painfully ends, first (during 478) with the flight of the Vakataka courtiers and, during the same troubled year, the hasty departure of the now-ruling Asmaka patrons from their complex at the western extremity of the site.12 At this point, starting in 479 and continuing only for the next year or so, new and previously “uninvited” donors took over Ajanta, putting a helterskelter array of hundreds of votive images in and on the otherwise abandoned caves. With the established patrons gone by the end of 478, during 479 and 480 the local villagers and many of the still-resident monks took over the site, which rapidly became a chaos of “selfish” spiritual activity.13 And then, shortly after that, the site was abruptly and essentially abandoned as part of the fallout of the Asmaka coalition’s attack on the region.14 By the early 480s, although a few remaining monks with no better place to go were probably still living in the caves, there was little happening now— or indeed for the next many centuries—in the deep ravine. The fate of Bagh at the time of the Asmaka coalition’s assault on the Ajanta region was remarkably different from that of Ajanta. This was clearly because Anupa, in which Bagh lies, had never fallen under the Asmaka onslaught that destroyed or damaged so much of the Vakataka imperium. We know this because Dandin’s account of the flight of the Vakataka queen and her children to Anupa (and specifically to Mahismati), is not “just a story”. It fits too neatly in this crucial moment of dynastic change not to be believed. When we consider the implications of the “Short Chronology” for our understanding of this final stage of Vakataka history as it was played out in Mahismati, it is hard to deny the high credibility of the overall reconstruction presented. Furthermore, this fusion of the fading Vakataka power with the rising energies of Maharaja Subandhu leads toward a remarkable later development: namely, the rise of the nascent Early Kalacuri 12 The rather abrupt ending of the established development of the Asmaka caves at Ajanta’s Western extremity can probably be explained by their need, in 478, to concentrate their money and their work-force on the preparations for war. 13 Prior to the “Period of Disruption” (479–480), there were only five inscriptions recording donations at the site written during the fifth century (Ajanta Caves 4, 16, 17, 20, 26), while in 479–480 there were close to ninety, mostly painted, given by remaining monks and local residents eager to make merit from such votive donations, and taking advantage of the presence of many remaining highly skilled and now out-of-work sculptors and painters. 14 This “Period of Disruption” can be said to suddenly have ended when, fearful because of the Asmaka coalition’s victory over the Vakataka forces, the sculptors and painters at Ajanta, working on “intrusive” donations, all abruptly broke off their work at the end of 480. See Spink, Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 6, pages 8–10.

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dynasty—nourished by the somewhat protected situation of Anupa in these troubled times.15 Happily, the developmental history of the Bagh caves coincides revealingly with the political history of Anupa at the time of the general breakdown of the once widespread Vakataka supremacy. When, in about 478–480 Ajanta was in chaos, the Bagh caves show no sign of trouble whatsoever. There was no traumatic shift in their patronage, in contrast to the situation at Ajanta, where a small horde of new donors rapidly took over the site. Bagh has no such “uninvited” intrusions whatsoever. Instead, judging from the thickness of the pervasive coating of grime created by the smoke of the oil lamps, it is clear that the caves were in worship over many years. Such long and uninterrupted usage suggests that the region must have been relatively untroubled in the very period (about 478–480) when Ajanta was rapidly falling apart. Indeed, this is confirmed by (or confirms) Dandin’s claim that this is the very time when the Vakataka Prime Minister took the queen and her children for safety to Mahismati, where a second son of Harisena was ruling as viceroy. A comparison of Bagh’s development with that of Ajanta suggests that the Bagh caves were probably all completed (both excavation and painting) somewhat before 478.16 This was the time when, throughout the greater part of central India the Vakataka imperium was falling apart. But it is clear that, in Anupa, the viceroy was able to hold off any inroads by the Asmaka coalition, and at the same time he must have had a strong enough family or dynastic interest to prevent any encroachments in the nearby caves. Indeed, they must have owed their continued existence to his approval and/or support.17 Indeed, this consistent protection of the caves and of the monks who lived and worshipped in them, presumably involved the support (quite possibly direct) of the royal family, just as had been the case at Ajanta. This relationship must have continued from the beginning of work in 462

15 Anupa appears to have been one of the few areas of the assaulted Vakataka imperium not to be taken over by the Asmaka’s coalition, although in Dandin’s account Asmaka was obviously still a menace to Visruta, who was determined to “smash the pot . . . of Asmaka”. (K409) 16 See Time Chart. 17 Subandhu’s Bagh plate, found in Bagh Cave 2 in 1928, refers to “the Monastery called Kalayana (the Abode of Art) caused to be constructed by Dattataka”. Whether the “abode of art” refers to Cave 2 alone, or to the whole cave complex, is not clear. Nor do we have further information about Dattataka, although it seems quite certain that he had some close connection with the Vakataka authority in the region.



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through the long stretch of time right up to 486. 486 (or I suggest 485) is when the Maharaja Subandhu took over the rule of the region, and about the same time that he made a generous donation to the clearly long established and very active sangha at Bagh. The fact that there appears to have been no interruption in the worship of the Bagh caves over that long period—while the grime seems to have been getting thicker and thicker and during which time there were no disruptive intrusions at all—suggests that when the Vakataka authority over the region ended in about 484 Subandhu himself must have continued the protection of both the caves and the sangha without a break. Revealing evidence for this is based on the content of a remarkable document, the inscribed copper plate found in the debris of Bagh Cave 2 in 1928. It records the gift of a village by Maharaja Subandhu of Mahismati to support the needs and the activities of the sangha established at the site.18 Significantly for our considerations Subandhu’s order included funds “for repairing broken and rent portions” of the caves, confirming that they had been in existence well before the time of Subandhu’s reign. The inscription is related to another inscription recording a gift of the same donor, and introduced in the same way: “Om (or success)! Hail! From the city of Mahismati—Maharaja Subandhu, being in good health, issues the (following) order . . .” Although the date of the Bagh plate has been lost due to breakage, it must have been issued at roughly the same time as the closely related (Barwani) inscription, which can be assigned to 486 CE according to the Gupta era.19 The body of the revealing Bagh plate follows: Be it known to you that for the increase of the religious merit of my parents and myself, this village has been granted by me . . . in order that it may be used for (defraying the expense of ) perfume, frankincense, flowers and offerings, for (the worship of) the divine Buddha, as well as for maintaining an almshouse, for repairing broken and rent portions (of the vihara) and for providing the Community of Venerable Monks coming from (all) the four quarters, with clothing, food, nursing of the sick, beds, seats as well as medicine in the Monastery called Kalayana (the Abode of Art) caused to be constructed by

18 The village was situated “in the pathaka of Dasilakapalli”. According to Mirashi, Dasilakapalli may be identical with Deswalia which lies about 14 miles almost due south of the Bagh Caves. See V.V. Mirashi, Inscriptions of the Kalachuri-Chedi Era. 19–21. 19 Since Subandhu probably did not come to power until about 485 because (according to our suggested sequence of events) the Vakatakas were still ruling Anupa until about 484. It seems likely that the Bagh inscription is somewhat later than the Barwani inscription of 486, given the likelihood that Subandhu did not even come to power until 485.

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Line 10 Having known this, our officers and rulers of other countries should not cause obstruction out of their love [for religion] and regard for us, while the monks (of this Vihara) are enjoying (the village). The site at Bagh had plenty of available space in the fields around the cave for various useful structures, now long since lost, as well as a convenient supply of water from the nearby river, so we must think of the whole site as probably once much more extensive than the sadly collapsing cave site that it is today. Although much of the space along the mountainside, understandably, is taken up with rock-cut viharas, it also has a few excavations, such as Caves 3, 5, 6, and 9, that have always puzzled scholars as to their purpose. Quite possibly these atypical excavations were planned for some of the functions, such as “for providing . . . the monks . . . with clothing, food, nursing of the sick, beds, seats as well as medicine”, as well as the support of an “almshouse”, that are mentioned in the inscription. Such references bring the site to life, giving an unequalled description (at least for these times) of the day to day as well as long term functioning of what was obviously a remarkably active institution. Where else can we be given such immediate insights into the importance, in the midst of all of the other workaday functions, of the “worship of the divine Buddha (with) perfume, frankincense, flowers, and (other) offerings”, even while the normal housekeeping tasks—such as the repair of the “broken and rent portions of the vihara” was going on. The reference to the need for such repairs to the Bagh caves is hardly surprising, because the sandstone from which the excavations were cut is notorious for its softness and friability. But at the same time such a reference does help us to distance the original creation of the caves from the time of Subandhu’s Bagh inscription (about 486) and supports the assumption that they had a long and continuous life from 462 right up to the time that they are so tellingly described in Subandhu’s record. Although it is perhaps reasonable to believe that Subandhu’s generous support of the Bagh site and its controlling sangha was not made until he was solidly settled on the throne, sometime after 485, the very content of the inscription tells us that the “community of venerable monks” at Bagh was surely a thoroughly established long-term one, both in terms of its facilities and its activities. Although the reference to monks “coming from all the four quarters” or the later warning to “rulers of other countries” may be somewhat formulaic, when we add these references to the accounting of the daily charitable and administrative duties in which the



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sangha was involved, the conclusion must be that the site was a vigorous and well known community in itself. It must have evolved and been active over many years—presumably starting from the time of its inauguration in about 462, when “it was caused to be constructed by Dattataka”. All in all, reading the inscription one must conclude that the busy site must have been something of an entrepot—a busy world unto itself to which traders and travelers and monks and even scholars must have been eager to come—a world now newly energized by the ambitions and achievements of the heroic Gupta prince Subandhu. And of course, with such positive energy vitalizing it, it was expected to last “as long as the moon, the sun, the oceans, planets, constellations and the earth would endure.”20 Although it is very possible that the sangha and the site itself had suffered during the understandably stressed hard years between 478 and the accession of Maharaja Subandhu in c. 485, it is nonetheless evident that the care of the caves had been an ongoing and active concern right up to the time when Maharaja Subandhu, once he was ruling in Mahismati took it under his care. Although he himself may have been Hindu rather than Buddhist, his obviously generous support of the sangha and a concern for its needs, would surely have been an important way to enhance his new position as ruler of the region from the start.21 The fact that the Bagh caves, as Subandhu’s own Bagh inscription confirms, had already been completed and been in use well before Subandhu’s accession in 485, proves, due to the close association of the two sites, that Ajanta’s development, too, must have been completed well before 485. Indeed, they both must have been completed by or before 478 if our judgment about the general impact of the collapse of the Vakataka imperium is correct.22 And since we can now confidently locate our Vakataka family events in (and going to) Mahismati between our upper limit of 484 (just before the accession of Subandhu in 485) and the lower limit of 478 (the probable date of the family’s flight to Mahismati) we can turn to Dandin’s “subtle, captivating, and persuasive text” (in DeCaroli’s words), to elaborate upon the character and timing of these final years of the once powerful Vakataka house. 20 Ajanta: Cave 26 inscription (see Spink, Volume 1, 419–420. 21 It seems clear from Dandin’s Visrutacarita that Visruta and the Vakataka family were under the protection of the (Hindu) goddess, and it might be noted that Subandhu’s Early Kalacuri descendants generally were Saivites, even though there were strong ecumenical ties between Buddhism and Hinduism in central India in the fifth and sixth centuries. 22 I omit from present consideration the Period of Disruption at Ajanta (479–480), which occurred just after the collapse of the established Vakataka patronage in 478.

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R. DeCaroli, in his study, “An Analysis of Dandin’s Dasakumaracarita and its Implications for Both the Vakataka and Pallava Courts”, convincingly argues that Dandin may well have composed the Dasakumaracarita (and in particular the Visrutacarita) for the moral and political “instruction” and listening pleasure of the young king Paramesvaravarman I (670– 695, and possibly even in the time when the latter was a young prince in the court of Narasimhavarman II (695–722). Thus his account belongs to a period over two hundred years from that of the events described.23 But why, DeCaroli asks, did Dandin select this particular period and this particular cast of characters—all connected with the long-defunct Vakataka house—to write about and to relate to the young courtier. The choice of the Vakataka dynasty’s last days for his story surely was largely determined by what Dandin knew of his own family’s history, if we can accept, with DeCaroli and a number of other scholars the account of Dandin’s ancestry as described in the Avantisundarikatha.24 As DeCaroli tells us, Dandin came from a long line of court poets; “his family had held that position since the time of his great-grandfather, Damodara, who left Vidarbha, the Vakataka capital, and migrated south to the Pallava court of Simhavisnu at Kanci in the late fifth century.” So the fact that Dandin’s family roots were in Vidarbha—indeed, in the Vakataka court itself—would explain his particular interest in that area. But, even more than that, it must have been the startling collapse of the great Vakataka dynasty—at the court of which his ancestors had served— that compelled his interest; for the destruction of the great Vakataka imperium under the onslaught of the Asmaka coalition had dealt a wrenching blow to the stability of the whole central Indian world. In fact, it must have been, particularly for Dandin, as for his forebears, a disaster that was “literally unforgettable”. However, even the unforgettable can be forgotten if it is not in some way preserved; and this is where the remarkable phenomenon of India’s long oral tradition must be called upon to help us understand how stories from the past, like the one that Dandin told the Pallava prince, could still be being told with such apparent precision over two hundred years later.

23 DeCaroli, deferring to the opinions of those scholars who do not accept the “short chronology” for Ajanta, suggests that “Dandin was writing over one hundred and fifty years after Vakataka rule”, but my own cut-off date for Vakataka rule—approximately 484 CE— would mean that the gap was over two centuries. 24 DeCaroli, 673, referring (with bibliographic references given) to the opinions of De, Raghavan, Pillai, Gupta, and Kane.



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In this regard, we can do no better than to follow the footsteps of the adventurous historian William Dalrymple into a simple village in presentday Rajasthan. There he brings the old tradition to life by involving himself, in his insightful way, by actively listening to and talking to an unassuming (but amazing!) bhoja named Mohan. Mohan, with his wife accompanying him in song, was able to go on for hours—night after night—reciting and performing the story of the local deity Pabuji. This is a 600 year old epic of four thousand lines, “a fabulous tale of heroism and honour, struggle and loss” not unlike the Visrutacarita of Dandin, itself part of a seemingly endless epic. Dalrympal explains that such bhojas, as traditional hereditary singers of these ancient tales, “were invariably simple villagers, shepherds, cowherds and so on, often illiterate”.25 Yet they were able to remember colossal quantities of verse often longer than the whole western bible, and to transmit it with a staggering precision. It is this pervasive tradition of remarkable “recall”, now being rapidly destroyed by the dark victories of technology, that was once the medium of narrative communication throughout the land, and throughout the many otherwise forgotten centuries of the past. Indeed, it is this long tradition of tale-telling, in both countryside and court, that explains how and wherefrom Dandin got his stories, and could use them for his auditors’ delight and instruction. Of course various details in the “history” of Visruta and the ancient Vakataka court must have been lost, and various details also added to the “true story” in the course of over more than two centuries since the event.26 However, the very specificity of Dandin’s account—as we shall see later on—has the ring of truth about it, even though, like some Hamlet in modern dress, Dandin has given new “stage” names to all of the major characters in the story. Thus Punyavarman is the emperor Harisena, Anantavarman is his son and successor, Sarvasena III, whom the Asmakas defeated; and in other cases new names are given on the basis of the character’s position, even if his or her name has been lost to history: thus Mitravarman is the Vakataka viceroy ruling over Anupa, Vasantabhanu is the troublesome Asmaka chief, and so on. Because of the compelling force of these old events, and also because Dandin includes the names of significant 25 William Dalrymple, Nine Lives, Viking (reprint) 2011, p. 90. 26 Although DeCaroli believes that the Dandin’s recollection of the late Vakataka “history” “is a rather accurate account”, he still suggests that “Dandin’s first concern was not with a precise chronology of the past . . . Dandin was, after all, a poet, who addressed himself to his own age and strove to prevent the terrible events of his youth from happening again.” (DeCaroli, 676). In my own opinion, however, seeing how everything “fits”, almost year by year, I would say that Dandin does in fact record these “ancient events” with great precision.

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territories involved—such as Bhoja (=Vidarbha), Asmaka, Malwa, etc.—it is evident, as DeCaroli points out, that the “events surrounding the fall of the Vakataka court were rather well known in Dandin’s time”.27 However, even if these ancient events and the identity of the participants were generally known to Dandin’s seventh/eighth century “auditors”, this does not explain why Dandin should take the trouble to describe this old story, come down to him as part of an oral tradition, with such a remarkable specificity in detail after detail—at least, up until the point where the story abruptly stops. Dandin, however, makes a convincing case to explain this surprising precision.28 DeCaroli argues that Dandin “refers to events which had occurred many years earlier in order to construct an elaborate analogy that would serve to caution the young Pallava king Narasimhavarman II against complacency”.29 “Dandin was creating an elaborate metaphor within the tale by paralleling the characters with people and events in the Pallava court (and) in order to be effective he peppered the text with names that we now know to be historically accurate from fifth-century Vakataka inscriptional evidence”.30 What gave Dandin’s account a particular force was the fact that the struggle between the “virtuous” Vakatakas and the “pernicious” Asmakas could be compared, with instructive relevance, to the long conflict between Dandin’s own Pallava compatriots and the constantly threatening Calukyas.31 By equating the young Vakataka emperor Sarvasena III, who was “graced with every excellence, but unluckily held the science of politics in little esteem” (K395) to Dandin’s Anantavarman, and, by extension, to Narasimhavarman II, “it becomes clear that this play is an elaborate and engaging warning to the young king Narasimhavarman II not to grow complacent or let down his guard”.32 Dandin, not only in his recounting of the many actions of the hero/protagonist Visruta, but in his moralizing disquisitions on the do’s and (especially) dont’s of “wine, women, and song”—presented at lavish length—was 27 DeCaroli, 676. 28 For instance, in the episode where the Vakataka family flees to Mahismati (K405ff ), we are told, revealingly but gratuitously, that the princess is fourteen years old, that the prince was “about eight”, and that their guide, the Vakataka prime minister, was an old man and died of a raging fever. 29 DeCaroli, 671. 30 DeCaroli, 671. 31  DeCaroli 675: “In order for the political metaphor to be effective, the Vakatakas, and by comparison Paramesvaravarman I, had to be presented as being nearly perfect while the Asmaka/Calukya had to be made as menacing and vile as possible.” 32 DeCaroli, 671.



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constructing an arresting but at the same time cautionary tale.33 He was aiming to teach his young prince “that vigilance was essential in a ruler and that anything that distracted from that attentiveness, like overindulgence in art or pleasure, could develop into a very real national threat.”34 Dandin, as court poet, was, in fact, creating “an elaborate political commentary on his own age by telling a tale based on the history of an empire vanquished years ago.”35 It may seem surprising that although nearly every “new-named” participant in Dandin’s account can be recognized by scholars today as a real historical character, the most important figure of all—the heroic Visruta— has no such real-life counterpart discernible from the context of Dandin’s story. As DeCaroli points out, “Although the telling of the events that took place at the Vakataka/Bhoja court seems to be fairly reliable, this does not resolve the question of whether Visruta himself can be equated with king Subandhu, as Walter Spink suggests”.36 Although DeCaroli himself refers to Maharaja Subandhu of Mahismati as “being the most likely prototype” for Visruta, he recognizes that an identification of Visruta as Subandhu would not be acceptable to many scholars.37 This is because the traditional view of Ajanta’s development would see the caves as developing well past the known date (485+) of Maharaja Subandhu’s reign, making his linking with Visruta, as well as with the end point of Vakataka history as described in the Visrutacarita, impossible. However when, either on the basis of actuarial data or, alternatively, on the basis of the clear anteriority of both Ajanta and Bagh to Subandhu’s reign, we accept the correctness of the “Short Chronology” for Ajanta and Bagh, the connection between Visruta and Subandhu becomes clear. Visruta is indeed Subandhu Not only can we now utilize the dating of Subandhu’s accession (approximately 485 CE) as a solid terminus ante quem for Ajanta’s development, 33 Dandin speaks at great length about the pleasures and benefits of dalliance, drinking, even cheating, all with a view to capture the attention of his young auditor(s), since he typically ends by warning about the effects of excess, and in emphasizing the importance of virtuous and committed action. The intentional “excess” of these long and delightful interludes in Dandin’s account are to some degree responsible for scholars’ failing to recognize the underlying historicity of the core of Dandin’s account. 34 DeCaroli, 675. 35 DeCaroli, 675. 36 DeCaroli, 676. 37 DeCaroli, 677.

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but we can lay out the short course of the Vakataka’s viceregency in Mahismati, as described by Dandin, with a new and convincing specificity. Given the telling connections in both time and location, we can declare that, just at the moment when the “biography” of Visruta (and the Vakatakas) ends, the “biography” of Subandhu (and the nascent “Early Kalacuri” dynasty) begins. We can clearly see that their histories are tellingly linked: that as the Vakataka imperium was finally dying, Subandhu’s new dynasty, built on the ashes of the old, was coming to life. The coincidence of Visruta’s self-seeking career, merging into—or as— Subandhu’s urgent rise, can now be traced back to its roots. Trusting Dandin’s essential (if not always unrelieved) concern for truth, we can briefly review the trajectory of Visruta’s career in Mahismati, reconstructing late Vakataka (and to some degree Asmaka) history in the process. Visruta was a young and adventurous Gupta prince, who left the great city of Magadha to make a name for himself, to realize his potential, and perhaps to build his own kingdom out of the available fragments of previous power.38 He ended up in the city of Mahismati, in the province of Anupa, one of the few remaining, even if weakened, locations of an otherwise shattered Vakataka power. It was here that a brother of the weak and afflicted Vakataka emperor, Sarvasena III, was ruling as the imperial viceroy, and it to this supposed city-sanctuary that the Vakataka queen, her fourteen yearold daughter, and the little crown prince (about eight years old) had fled for safety from the disruptions caused by the aggressive Asmakas. The stage, in Mahismati, was ideally set for the wandering Visruta’s productive adventures. Already living in the area, he met and helped the “royal refugees”, from the start. First of all, colluding with the anxious Vakataka queen mother to secretly poison “Mitravarman”, the ambitious Vakataka viceroy, who saw in the little crown prince a barrier to his own dreams of royal power. Then, on behalf of the little crown prince, Visruta himself took on the burdens of the country’s development by “carrying on the work of administration for the prince”. (K410) Acting as the virtual regent he was (we can now see) already on his own path to power. Then, very soon, to the delight of the queen mother, “who found herself in a stage of joy impossible

38 Near the beginning of the Visrutacarita we find that Visruta was the son of Susruta, whose father was Sindhudatta. At the start of the Dasakumaracarita we learn that Sindhudatta was one of the counselors of the Magadhan emperor Rajahansa.



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to be described” he won the heart of the Vakataka princess who, happily, was already “confused by the rise of love at (his) sight”. (K408) But now again a road-block on Visruta’s upward pathway had to be removed. Prachandavarman, the prince of the powerful neighboring state of Malwa had himself been promised the “lotus-like” hand of the princess— an offering all the more desirable, now that the Vakataka viceroy was dead, since it came “along with the kingdom, now without a ruler”. (K408) So here again, Visruta, as if to protect his own future, rose to the occasion. Secretly joining Prachandavarman’s betrothal festivities, disguised “in the gay attire of a dancer”, in the midst of his gyrations he came down like “the swoop of a hawk” (and fatally) “struck Prachandavarman, although he was at a distance of twenty yards, on the breast with a poniard, exclaiming, ‘May Vasantabhanu (the king of Asmaka) live a thousand years’ ”. (K408) Having thus, with a characteristic deviousness, shamefully cast suspicion on his Asmaka enemies as the agents of the Malwa prince’s death, Visruta “leapt over (a high) wall (and) plunged into the (adjacent) garden”, escaping unsuspected into “the temple of Durga”. (K408, K409) There, after seeing him perform what appeared to be miracles in the temple, so that he appeared in the eyes of the astonished public “as a partial divine being”, they “exclaimed with delight, ‘very fortunate, indeed, is the race of Bhoja (Vidarbha), that has a guardian like you granted by the goddess.’ ” (K410) In following the developing career of Visruta, our wandering Gupta prince, we have seen how by 484, in “real” time, Visruta was already exercising virtual rule over Anupa and Mahismati, controlling the last but still significant remnants of Vakataka power. His major exploits and activities, starting with his first caring meeting with the young crown prince in the forest outside the city, all contribute to his description as a model of commitment and action for the surely entranced Pallava prince. Dandin then describes Visruta’s efficiency in guarding and “carrying on the work of administration” (K410) for the young crown prince; his successfully plotting the death of the ominously ambitious Vakataka viceroy; his “blameless” murder of his Malwa rival before the latter suitor could be given the “sprout-like hand of Manjuvadini”, the crown princess; his achievement of the fervent support of the powerful Hindu Goddess and of the “astonished public”; and last by not least, his fervent promise, proclaimed with the warm approval of the goddess herself, that he will (finally!) “smash the pot in the form of Asmaka”. And very important: in all these personal and political adventures—even though some had a hidden sinister side— Visruta always managed to emerge like a knight in shining armor—as an

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ideal role-model for the impressionably attentive Narasimhavarman II, who was being instructed and prepared for the exigencies of rule. At this point we must leave Visruta, by this time very much in control of the situation. In fact, it is clear that Visruta is becoming, or in effect has already become, the Maharaja Subandhu of Mahismati—even if Subandhu is never mentioned in Dandin’s account. If Anantavarman is in fact Sarvasena III, and if Punyavarman is in fact the emperor Harisena, Visruta is in fact Subandhu, the very leader who was ruling as regent in Mahismati on one day, and was ruling as Maharaja in Mahismati on the next. But if Visruta was to become Subandhu—if he is going to leave his connections with his life as Visruta behind—there was still one stumblingblock on his way to unencumbered power. He had to be unburdened of his young crown prince—his royal ward. All that History now requires is that the young Vakataka heir, instead of blocking the way to Visruta’s future, be either deposed or dead; and, knowing Visruta’s “experience” in eliminating both the Vakataka viceroy and the Malwa suitor from his own “territory”, we can only believe that Visruta would surely succeed in this new dark goal as well. That was by now the most important step toward Visruta’s emergence as Subandhu hardly a year later. Furthermore, with his politically astute marriage to the Vakataka crown princess about to be solemnized, we can assume, and with the Asmaka pot destined to be broken under the impact of his new royal power, that Subandhu was already on the way. Validated by his Gupta connections, approved by the support of the Hindu goddess, enhanced by his support of the Buddhist sangha, and founded in a region already secured by virtue of his Vakataka past, Subandhu’s new royal house was established upon stable ground. He and his future descendants would follow a promising path that eventually would lead, as the Early Kalacuri dynasty, to a resolute extension southward over territories that, with his deep Vakataka marriage connection, could be said to be his by right already. But this is our view of history, and a privileged one. It is not the view that the young Pallava prince, Narasimhavarman II, was provided with when the court poet Dandin was instructing him in the virtues of kingship. As Dandin tells the story, there is no Subandhu to complicate the record of the past. It is as if, for Dandin, this ruler, so essential for our own understanding of the “real” trajectory of history, did not exist. What Dandin presents, from the beginning to the end, is a purely Vakataka story. It is a story which, whether we like it or not, and whether it was wholly true or not, offered an instructive lesson to Dandin’s impres-



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sionable young auditor, Narasimhavarman. It has everything to do with the ideal course of rule, and nothing the do with Subandhu. Although Dandin himself must have known the whole true story, transmitted to him and his family through the oral tradition, he has willfully “sanitized” its ending, leaving the transition from the declining Vakataka dynasty to its ambitious successor curiously unexplained. There is no reference at all to some new dynasty—Subandhu’s!—that took over the city and started on the path to a new future. Again, the “true story” is not what the young Narasimhavarman heard. To him Visruta must have remained to the end as a fascinating and saving force, a perfect role model, combining courage and virtue—an adventurous spirit, displaying qualities that in a time of turbulence could serve a young king well. Realizing how everything so convincingly “fits” in our reconstruction of late Vakataka history, as Dandin presents it, it seems almost certain that Visruta was indeed the real person that we can now envision—an adventurous Gupta prince who really did meet and protect and guide the royal Vakataka “refugees” throughout the final years of their dying rule. And it also seems likely that when the time was right, that was probably the moment that the young crown prince died, was made to die, or was deposed, and the world would suddenly change. In “real history” that would be the moment that Visruta laid his claim to unobstructed power, renounced his Vakataka connections, and became “Subandhu”. But this is where, to avoid a tale of loss to his own Vakataka house, Dandin must leave both the Vakataka future and the helpful and heroic Visruta intact when he, so abruptly, ends his story. Even though, as Dandin himself surely knew, after 484 a great change is about to occur.39 We know—and Dandin must have known—that, either with a bang or a whimper, the year 484, in “real time” was the end of the Vakataka house. But the young Pallava prince did not know this, and there was no need for him to know it. That event—the end of the great Vakataka house—is something that had occurred over two centuries before, along with Subandhu’s rise to independent power. This was ancient history, sung to Dandin by his Vakataka forebears, and now in his own keeping; and it was his to change, if he so desired.

39 “484”, like other dates in our reconstruction of Vakataka history, must be thought of as close, but approximate. That is, to be more precise, we should say “ca. 484”.

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And so he ends his tale simply, without getting into the complexities of change—the sudden shift of Vakataka authority to Subandhu. To do that would hardly enhance, or even properly end, his Vakataka tale. Instead, with “poetic license” Dandin assures us, that even after his tale was done, the Vakataka dynasty is left in the good hands that it deserves. Visruta assures his listeners—and the Pallava prince—that when the story, even if suddenly, ends the young prince would be “firmly and securely placed on the throne of his forefathers” and that Visruta himself, true to his his glowing reputation, would take “all the proper measures” to assure the proper future. (K411) The trajectory of Vakataka (Bhoja) history, as far as Dandin describes it to the prince, is clean and clear, and this is what our rapt young auditor needed to hear. If the young Pallava prince had never heard of Subandhu, and of the ultimate disappearance of the Vakataka house, why should he? In the context of the Pallava court this was hardly a loss. The great ancient dynasty about which the young prince was learning, was in good hands, looking forward to a confident future. “Adept in state-craft”, we are told, Visruta “secured the services of devoted and upright ministers and of spies under various disguises”, to assure a stable future. (K411) And again, as in this perfect, even if imaginary world to come, he “inspired a sense of duty (among the people), tormented the heretics, cleared out all who stood like thorns in the way of the prosperity of the state. (Having) thwarted the secret plans of the foes“ . . . and (having) firmly established the four castes in their respective religious spheres and duties”, he “zealously took all the proper measures”. (K411) At least this is what Visruta tells us, and what the young Narasimhavarman II hears. And what the great Subandhu did. Even if he does not appear in Dandin’s tale!

APPENDIX ONE

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE VIHARA SHRINE FROM BAGH TO AJANTA (For Professor M.A. Dhaky)1

Both Bagh and Ajanta (main phase) were started in about 462, very shortly after the emperor Harisena’s accession (ca 460).2 At both sites, viharas for the monks, designed as simple “dormitories”, were vigorously undertaken by wealthy and important patrons. Suggesting the enthusiastic support of these new ventures, at Ajanta alone no less than fourteen of these viharas, both large and small, were started during the first two years of excavating activity. Furthermore, as we might expect, following ancient precedents, ambitious caitya halls—in fact not one but two—were started at Ajanta at this same time, in order to provide appropriate places for the monks’ devotions. The viharas started at Bagh, where the scarp is more limited in extent, were fewer in number, but much larger in size. (See Part 1 Pl. 6, 70) This was, in large part, because excavating the soft Bagh sandstone was much easier and faster than cutting out such halls from the recalcitrant basalt at Ajanta. However, at Bagh, there is a surprising omission. It has no caitya hall, even though nearly all monastic sites, starting from centuries earlier, had such high and spacious halls, containing a stupa, as their essential central feature. The explanation for this unexpected absence is probably because of the highly friable character of Bagh’s sandstone, which made the excavation of any such spacious vaulted excavation technically impossible. (See Part 1 Pl. 62) It was surely the absence of such a caitya hall at Bagh that explains why a stupa shrine was added to the site’s earliest vihara, Bagh Cave 2. (See Part 1 Pl. 70, 78) This addition immediately made the cave into a place for devotion as much as for residence. For the whole of central India, all of which would soon be included in Harisena’s domains, this was a revolutionary development, and it soon impacted directly upon the design and intended 1  An earlier version of this chapter was written for the forthcoming publication in honor of Professor M.A. Dhaky (ed: P.P. Dhar and G.J.R. Mevissen; Temple Architecture and Imagery of South and Southeast Asia, Aryan Books, New Delhi). 2 For the dating of Ajanta, see W. Spink, Ajanta: History and Development, Volume I, 2005, 7–21.

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usage of Ajanta’s viharas too. However, at Ajanta, the addition of stupa shrines did not take place until at least 468, notably in Cave 11 and arguably in Cave 6L.3 (See Part 1 Pl. 77) This may have been because the planners/patrons at Ajanta did not require such innovative shrines, when they already had two Hinayana caitya halls (Caves 9 and 10) actively in worship from the very start of Vakataka patronage at the site, in about 462. Furthermore, their own new worship halls (Caves 19 and 26) would already have been underway at the same time. In fact, the development of these new caitya halls at Ajanta, now planned to contain focal Buddha images, must have been responsible for the sudden abandonment of the stupas that were being roughed out, in 468, in Ajanta Cave 11 and probably also in Cave 6L.4 These stupas, now rapidly aborted, were immediately replaced by the ubiquitous shrine Buddhas that were soon to be found in every later vihara at the site. It seems clear, seeing how this compulsion took over the site, that these new shrine Buddhas directly reflect the impact of the new Buddha images now being planned for the two new caitya halls Caves 19 and 26), and actually underway in caitya Cave 19 by 468. Furthermore, this dramatic emergence of images from the traditionally austere caitya halls’ stupas would seem to explain the sudden rush, at Ajanta, to add such shrine images not only to Caves 11 and 6L but also to Caves 7 and 15 early in 469, and the insistence of all later patrons, starting with Caves 17, 20, and 1, to make similar image shrines. The haste with which these changes impacted upon the site is evident in the problematic shrine design in Cave 1, 4, and 17. It seems clear that these shrines were originally planned with a central block, intended to be cut into a stupa. Although such stupas never got cut, the presence of such a central block severely affected the troubled composition of the Buddha groups which would be later found in Caves 1 and 4 and even 17.5 If Bagh was the source for the development of stupa shrines—either begun or intended—at Ajanta some half-decade later, in 468, Ajanta was surely responsible for the introduction of Buddha imagery into the originally severe (stupa only) shrines in both Bagh Caves 2 and 4 at about this same time. This explains the phenomenon of the added attached images 3 See W. Spink, Volume V, see Cave 6L. 4 For the replacement of the stupa in Cave 11 by the Buddha image, see Spink Volume V, Cave 11; For a more disputable transformation, see Spink, Volume V, Cave 6L. 5 The shrines of Cave 1 and Cave 4, by 468, both planned with a central block, were both transformed, with difficulty, into image shrines: Cave 1’s in 476–477, Cave 4’s in 477/478. For the related transition from originally intended stupas to their later images in Cave 17 and 20 in 470–471, see Spink Volume V, Cave 17; 20.



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in both Bagh Cave 2 and Bagh Cave 4, evidenced by the receiving-slots cut in the floor at the fronts and sides of the stupas in those caves. Although, understandably, the once-attached images of the Buddha and bodhisattvas attending the stupas in Bagh Caves 2 and 4 are long since missing, the slightly later Bagh Cave 7 was planned with an assertive frontal projection cut as part of its monolithic stupa in order to hold such attached figures. The original presence of such inserted images is clearly confirmed by the three socket-holes cut into the top of this projection. Other images (now also gone) were attached to the walls of the Cave 7 antechamber, apparently copying the carved ones in the antechamber of Cave 2. A bit later, many “loose” images were also once attached to the shrine walls in one of the Bagh Cave 3 shrinelets.6 The interplay in both images and stylistic features between these essentially contemporary “sister sites” goes on throughout the 460s and well into the 470s, with Bagh more often than not taking the lead. However, a dramatic difference will appear in 478, immediately after the emperor Harisena’s sudden death. As we know, at this point the original patronage of Ajanta fell dramatically apart, and the site was taken over by a host of previously “uninvited” devotees, who covered many of the caves (those that were dedicated and thus “alive”), with a helter-skelter collection of their own urgent donations. After this spurt of personal merit-making personal donations, suddenly cut off at the end of 480 by the fear of war, the site at Ajanta, in its remote ravine, was rapidly abandoned. The situation at Bagh at the time of Harisena’s sudden death is remarkably different from that at Ajanta, especially when we realize that the two sites were linked in so many ways. That Bagh’s development ended slightly before Ajanta’s is suggested by the fact that its latest excavated and painted features anticipate rather than reflect the latest features at Ajanta.7 The fact that Bagh’s caves, made of soft sandstone, could be excavated much faster than the basaltic caves at Ajanta would have contributed to the site’s 6 For an illustration of the mandorlas painted on the walls, to provide a proper background of now-lost attached Buddhas (and sometimes attendant bodhisattvas) see Spink, Volume IV, Figure 212, The groups of the Six Buddhas that were once attached to the walls of the shrinelets in Cave 3 significantly anticipate the very late appearance of such groups at Ajanta starting in about 477 and continuing until the end of the Period of Disruption (479–480). 7 Developments at Bagh more often than not anticipate changes at Ajanta. This will be discussed at length in a future volume.

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rapid completion. Furthermore, the scarp at Bagh, which is all filled up, was much more limited in extent than that at Ajanta, which could still be much extended to the west, as the positioning of the never finished Cave 28 suggests was the intent. There is no evidence of the kind of sudden disruption that occurred at Ajanta with Harisena’s death, even though this was also a Vakataka site. In fact (as far as excavation, sculpture, and painting is concerned) Bagh was developed entirely during the years when the emperor Harisena was ruling, and when, as we learn from Dandin’s Dasakumaracarita, his “son by a second wife” was acting in Anupa as his viceroy. Quite the opposite of Ajanta’s sudden disruption, and the turning over the making of offerings to a helter-skelter crowd of newly assertive devotees, there is every evidence that the use of and worship of the caves at Bagh continued unabated for a number of years after Harisena’s death. This is suggested both by the total absence of the kind of “uninvited” intrusions that were added, inside and out, to the caves at Ajanta after its established patronage was disrupted by Asmaka aggression shortly after Harisena’s death in 477. Added to this, we should note the thickness of obscuring grime on the walls and ceilings of the caves, suggesting long and continued usage. But the most compelling evidence of Bagh’s uninterrupted life is to be found in the two copperplates of Maharaja Subandhu of Mahismati.8 One of these, the Barwani inscription, is crucial because it is dated to 486 CE, while the other refers to Subandhu’s gift of a village to support the flourishing activity at the site. As part of the many other purposes of the gift, from the purchase of flowers and incense to offer to the Buddha, to caring for the sick and the poor, funds are proved “for repairing the broken and rent portions (of the vihara)”. All of this clearly shows that the support and care of the caves that started with their inauguration in the early 460s when the Vakatakas were ruling the area, must have continued without a break right up to (and beyond) the time when the new ruler, Subandhu, took over the region from the Vakatakas sometime shortly before 486.

8 V.V. Mirashi, Inscriptions of the Kalachuri-Chedi Era. Pt. I (Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum 4) 17–19; 19–21, for Barwani and Bagh inscriptions respectively. Mirashi included the dated Barwani inscription in the CCI 4 because he believed that it was an Early Kalachuri inscription, when in fact it is properly dated to the Gupta era, putting it at 486 CE instead of 417 CE.



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Subandhu’s Bagh inscription (found in the debris of Bagh Cave 2) is by all counts a remarkable document, describing in telling and specific detail the character and the needs of what must have been a center of continuing monastic and even community and commercial activity.9 Be is known to you that for the increase of the religious merit of my parents and myself, this village has been granted by me together with udranga and uparikara, as an agrahara according to the maxim of waste land, in order that it may be used for (defraying the expenses of) perfume, frankincense, flowers and offerings as well as for maintaining an alms-house, for repairing broken and rent portions (of the vihara) and for providing the community of Venerable Monks coming from (all) the four quarters, with clothing, food, nursing of the sick, beds, seats as well as medicine in the Monastery called Kalayana (the Abode of Art) caused to be constructed by Dattataka, as long as the moon, the sun, the oceans, planets, constellations and the earth would endure.10

Schopen, with his usual gentility, claims that Subandhu’s long description is “formulaic”.11 However, I do not find such a formula repeated anywhere among Gupta, Vakataka, or Early Kalachuri inscriptions ascribable to this same period. What is formulaic is the familiar merit-making donation of a village (and other offerings) given “for the increase of the religious merit of my parents and myself”, made for what appear to be the normal ongoing activities of a Buddhist site very much alive at the time of the donation. However, the heart of the record takes one deeply and specifically into a center of contemporary monastic activity of remarkable interest. It tells us very clearly what is going on at such a religious center, and what

9 The once dated portion of the plate has broken off, but it must be rather close in date to the clearly related Barwani plate of the same Maharaja Subandhu of Mahismati, dated by the Gupta era to 486. Mirashi’s mistakenly dated the record to the Early Kalacuri era, leading to the (disruptive) assumption that Bagh was excavated in the early fifth century. See Mirashi, “The Age of the Bagh Caves”, Studies in Indology, II, Nagpur, 1961, 263–271. 10 V.V. Mirashi, Inscriptions of the Kalachuri-Chedi Era, Part 1, Ootacamund, 1963. 11 Schopen questions my use of the reference to these repairs as supporting my “Short Chronology”. See G. Schopen, The Buddha as an Owner of Property and Permanent Resident in Medieval Indian Monasteries, Journal of Indian Philosophy 18: 181–217, 1990, note 15, page 207. As stated in my part 2 of this volume: pace Schopen, I see the Bagh plate inscription as essentially descriptive rather than (as Schopen suggests) “formulaic”, most particularly in the reference to “repairing broken and rent portions (of the vihara)”. This provides strong evidence that Bagh (like its “sister site” Ajanta) was excavated well before Subandhu’s reign in the 480s, and thus supports the validity of the “Short Chronology”. The reference describes the same “reality” as that in Dharasena IV’s Maitrika inscription (cited by Schopen in the same article, page 187) referring to the need—hardly formulaic—“for repairing the cracks and breaks in the ‘Perfume Chamber” (shrine) of the monastery.

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needs to be done for the site’s and the people’s benefit. Tied to a “working” monument—not to some dead relic of the past—the inscription explains what is being done and what needs to be done at the monastery not only today and tomorrow but indeed “for as long as the earth will endure”. Reading it, we can suddenly see this ancient and now ruinous site “as if in modern dress”. The daily offerings of flowers, hung up each day from the ceiling hooks, the honoring of the images with expensive perfumes and frankincense, even the shouts of the traders and the moans of the sick, all come alive again. And finally, anyone who has been sobered by seeing the fragility of Bagh’s beautiful but all-too-fragile sandstone structures can hear the sounds of repairs going on in the distance, even while worship proceeds. Meanwhile, “Venerable Monks” are coming to this stable and peaceful “Abode of Art” from the far more turbulent quarters of the conflicted world beyond, for here is a welcoming community, clearly still flourishing in the mid-480s. Happily, Bagh (unlike Ajanta) suffered no great restriction in terms of the surrounding lands, so we can well imagine that provision for “nursing of the sick”, and the distribution of food and alms could all have been easily handled in structures (now long gone) built of wood or brick. Furthermore, Bagh Caves 5, 6, and the abandoned Cave 3, all quite large in size and obviously not viharas, could well have served some of these purposes. All of this rich activity, as described in the mid-480s, was clearly nourished by the authority with which the Maharaja Subandhu, the new and present ruler of the region, was handling the affairs of the new dynasty that he had just founded upon rich remains of his (presumed) wife’s Vakataka heritage, now appropriated as his own. He is in the process, at this very time, of developing the “augmenting house of the Katacuris” (i.e. Kalacuris) maintaining it, according to his own prescription, by the use of “. . . three kinds of power—diplomacy, . . . authority, . . . and energy: (which) mutually assisting each other, dispatch all affairs.”12 And his house will, increasingly, rise to prominence in western India and be the source for many great sites and monuments still to come—the great “post-Vakataka” excavations of Jogesvari, Mandapeshwar, Elephanta, Ellora (early phase) and many contemporary structural monuments dating to the early and mid-sixth century as well.

12 Kale 410.

APPENDIX TWO

SHORTENING THE “SHORT CHRONOLOGY” Preface (A) Maharaja Subandhu, in his Barwani Plate of 486 CE, provides funds for the already well-established Bagh sangha and (notably)” for repairing broken and rent portions of (the vihara)”. This latter evidence strongly supports the view that the Bagh caves had been underway sometime in the last half of the fifth century, the very period when Ajanta was developing. This would not be surprising, because Ajanta and Bagh have long (and properly) been seen as “sister sites”, with tellingly close connections in artistic styles, to say nothing of the remarkable interplay between their changing shrine and image developments. This clear connection between the two sites, and the fact that Maharaja Subandhu gave funds to “repair” caves at Bagh, not to sponsor new ones, is also supported by the trajectory of late Vakataka history, as revealed by Dandin. This confirms the (approximate) validity of Ajanta’s Short Chronology (c462–c478 CE). (B) Shortly after the emperor Harisena’s accession in about 460, a large group of his eager subjects started a series of caves at the already famous site of Ajanta. This was in roughly 462–463 (see Time Chart). But what is remarkable is that all of this initial group of patrons were still alive in 478—some fifteen years later, struggling, now that it was impossible to complete even a single cave, to at least dedicate their shrine images in the midst of the turbulence caused by Harisena’s sudden death in 477. The donors involved are the five known by name. (Three involved with Cave 26, one patron for Cave 4, and one patron for Cave 16, together with six anonymous patrons responsible for Caves 5, 6L, 7, 8, 11, and 15). (We should also note that the patrons responsible for a number of other caves under excavation by 465, were probably already present and planning them during the burst of initial enthusiasm in 462–463. (Caves 2, 6U, 21, 23, 24). From actuarial considerations, given life expectancies in the fifth century, it is remarkable that all of these same (presumably mature) patrons, who started work at the beginning of the site’s renaissance in the

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early 460s were apparently still all alive and active in the late 470s. Such longevity, paralleling the suggested limits of the Short Chronology (462– 478 CE)—is of course possible, especially if we realize that these patrons were presumably from a privileged (long-lived) class. But from an actuarial point of view it would become “unbelievable” if extended much more—let’s say to twenty or twenty five years--with the whole group still alive at the end. Such considerations justify the suggested limits of Ajanta’s Short Chronology (462–478 CE) and in turn confirm the dating of the emperor Harisena to c.460 to c.477, with the breakup of the Vakataka empire—at first sudden, and then gradually—the consequence of his tragic death. Fifty years ago, it was generally assumed that Ajanta’s development (in its main or later phase) went on for two or three or even four centuries. We never thought that the matter of the site’s timespan could be quickly solved, at least in general terms, by checking out the development of any one of the relatively complete caves, most particularly caves such as Cave 16, 4, and 26, which had what were clearly very early and very late features, and at the same time were donated by individuals who were still alive when the caves were nearing completion, as proved by their donative inscriptions. The minute that we realized that both Ajanta’s early phase and its later phase were comprehended by the period of a single donor’s patronage, we could have thrown away all of our confused speculations based largely on assumptions about the stylistic development of the paintings, and admitted that the site’s development was essentially finished within the span of Varahadeva’s patronage of Cave 16, or Mathura’s patronage of cave 4, or that of Cave 26 by Buddhabhadra and his assistants Dharmadatta and Bhadrabandhu. Furthermore, there were a good number of other caves (Caves 2, 5, 6(L&U), 7, 8, 11, 15, 21, 23, 24) that follow the same pattern of development from early to late and that were the donations of other individuals, also involved from start to finish, even though we have no inscriptions identifying them.1 Even if two or three of the ten uninscribed caves were not done by a single donor from start to finish—which seems rather unlikely—it is fair to assume that at least a dozen patrons were involved in making their

1 I have not included Cave 1, since it was not only started slightly later than the others listed, but its patron, presumably Harisena, must have died in 477.



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caves from start to finish, all working during the same general span of time from the early 460s until the end of 478.2 Moving now to actuarial considerations, I am starting with the assumption that all of our patrons were established and mature individuals when they began their work, and that they were all still alive when the Vakataka control over site (and their undertakings) collapsed. But is it reasonable, given the short life expectancy in those early days, to believe that the span of active patronage at the site, as presently suggested by the Short Chronology, was as long as the seventeen years that I have suggested? Would the Short Chronology not be more convincing, purely from an actuarial point of view, if the span were shorter than seventeen years? Of course it is possible that this particular group of patrons really did all live—that no deaths in our group occurred—for as much as seventeen years. But to accept such a long span does, I believe, stretch one’s credulity a bit, and for this reason I have suggested, even before now, that a span of fourteen years might be more reasonable.3 Such a shortening of the Short Chronology span would have the advantage of allowing a somewhat longer gap between the crucial date, 458, when we know that Devasena was still reigning (Hisse Borala inscription), and the date of Harisena’s accession. By changing my presently-suggested accession date from 460 to 463, and changing Ajanta’s inauguration date from 462 to 465 we could arrive at a new Short Chronology for the period of Ajanta’s established patronage that would seem more convincing from an actuarial point of view. At the same time, the change of Harisena’s accession date from 460 to 463 would offer no problem, since it is nothing more than an educated guess based on our assumptions about Ajanta’a development in any case. At the same time, we must be careful not to overdo—not to overly shorten—our suggested Short Chronology. There is, after all, a limit to how

2 Just as Ajanta’s caves were in no sense shared, or community, donations—the merit going only to the “owner”—it seems unlikely that any of the caves were started by one donor and finished by another. 3 See Spink, Ajanta: History and Development, Leiden & Boston, 2005, Volume 1, pages 37–48, where I first propose that a “shortening” of the Short Chronology to 14 years rather than 17 years might be closer to the truth regarding the period of Ajanta’s established patronage.

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much time it took to make the site, no matter how remarkable it is. Fourteen years for its Short Chronology does seem possible, and such a shortening can only happily add to our amazement and admiration.4 But, as the old adage advises us, “enough is enough”.5

4 Although I am quite convinced that a fourteen year span is closer to the truth than a seventeen year span for the Short Chronology, I hesitate to start using this shorter dating, since it would surely confuse anyone reading my various publications which all use the seventeen year span (462–478) for the development of the site by the established patrons. 5 I have constantly remarked on the remarkable speed with which whole caves, or even groups of images, or areas of ornament could be accomplished; but even I was surprised by the brevity of the work on the painting of the caves during its period of established patronage between 462 and 478 (using old Short Chronology). If we do not count the helter-skelter donations—generally painted—in the Period of Disruption (mid-478 through 480), all of the painting in the caves was accomplished in a startlingly short span of time. See Chart of Painting Activity.

CHAPTER THREE

SOLSTITIAL CONCERNS: AJANTA’S VAKATAKA CAITYA HALLS A number of years ago I stopped at the old city of Basim, drawn to it by the fact that, in the fifth century, it was the ancient Vatsagulma. That is, it was the capital of the western branch of the Vakataka dynasty, controlled in the 460s and 470s by the great emperor Harisena. (See Part 1 Fig. a) An old man, familiar with the city’s history, offered to be my guide, and was indeed filled with intriguing information. What interested me especially was that “out of the blue”, with no prompting whatsoever on my part, he told me, as we were walking toward the main temple in the center of the town: “You know, this temple is oriented to the solstice”.1 As far as I can recall, the temple appeared to be recent in its construction; but we know that the foundation of such structures can be very old, and could well go back to Vakataka times. Whether or not this is the case, it is fascinating to discover that the temple may have a solstitial orientation, for the simple reason that the Vakataka caitya halls at Ajanta are also solstitially oriented, and were probably related to it in terms of their patronage. Furthermore, as far as I have been able to determine, such a solstitial connection would be unique to these few Vakataka monuments. Herein we will explore the matter of how, why, and when Ajanta’s planners attempted to orient the site’s three Vakataka caitya halls to the solstices, either winter or summer. They are: Cave 26 (oriented to the summer solstice), (See Part 1 Pl. 89) the donation of the great Asmaka monk Buddhabhadra; Cave 19 (connected with the winter solstice), the donation of the ambitious local king of Risika, Upendragupta, (See Part 1 Pl. 90) and the unfinished Cave 29 (also connected with the summer solstice), a second and later donation of king Upendragupta, (dating to c. 469). (See Part 1 Pl. 91) What distinguishes the caitya halls Cave 19 and 26 from the later caitya Cave 29, is the fact that the two earlier ones were laid out, and their excavation well underway, before the idea of orienting them to their respective solstices arose. That is, their excavation was begun, as originally planned, before word from the court reached the site, ordering that both caitya 1 He did not specify summer or winter, and I did not ask, not being involved in solstice study at that time, some decades ago.

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cave 26 and caitya cave 19 be significantly shifted in their orientation and re-cut to conform to the new demands.2 This would suggest that the idea of solstitial orientation had become a new and important concept in the Vakataka domains at this time. Nonetheless, with the possible exception of the Basim temple mentioned above, I have found no other monument from this general period—indeed perhaps from any period—which has such a solstitial orientation, either summer or winter.3 Cave 26 It was in about 462 CE, shortly after the accession of the emperor Harisena, that a number of powerful and affluent Buddhist devotees, many of them members of Harisena’s court, initiated a remarkable renaissance at the old Buddhist cave site of Ajanta. Although they started to excavate many monastic residences, using the viharas of four to five centuries earlier as a source for these simpler “dormitories”, priority must have been given to developing impressive halls of worship (caitya halls), also based on earlier precedents. (See Part 1 Pl. 92) The first of these new caitya halls, judging from its extremely early core (mostly masked by later features) was Cave 26, sponsored by the monk Buddhabhadra, who had been the close friend of the minister of the feudatory Asmakas through “many previous existences”.4 Buddhabhadra surely used that connection to help in the funding of the impressive monument that he envisioned. In the first few years of work on Cave 26, excavation progressed in the expected way. Work, typically, had started with the roughing out of the upper levels of the façade, with the cutting of the deep interior vault simultaneously underway. Shortly thereafter, by about 464, the basic positioning of the hall’s pillars, at least toward the front, was also established, although the stupa planned for the rear would not as yet have been cut out of the deep mass of matrix still remaining in that area at the lower level. (See Part 1 Fig. b)

2 I am assuming that the Vakataka court was the source of this demand for a solstitial orientation. Such a dramatic and expensive change could hardly have been ordered from anywhere else. 3 Michael Willis, ‘The Architecture and Politics of Time’, 33–58, The Vakataka Heritage, ed. Bakker, Hans, Forsten Groningen, 2004. 4 From Ajanta Cave 26 inscription.



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Thus work, still very rough, was going on in the expected and conventional way in about 464.5 However, it was at this point that a dramatic change took place. An order, surely sent down from the capital, suddenly arrived at the site, its import being that both of the new caitya halls (Cave 26 and Cave 19) now were required to be oriented to the solstices— the summer solstice in the case of Cave 26, and the winter solstice in the case of Cave 19. One can only imagine the pain that this order from on high must have caused the excavators, for both Cave 26 and Cave 19 were by this time well underway, many of their essential features already fixed in the rock. However, no matter how “impossible” it would be to do what was being ordered, such an authoritative command had to be honored.6 Fortunately, as it turns out, the problems presented by the “solstitial” adjustments to Cave 26 were not totally overwhelming. This is because the original established by the excavators for Cave 26 measures at only 64.46 degrees.7 This is only some three degrees from the proper solstitial axis that the workers were now expected to achieve, essentially by repositioning the stupa slightly to the right of the position originally intended, at 67.71 plus or minus some 2 degrees. (See Part 1 Pl. 95), (See Part 1 Fig. c) The crucial adjustment now required of the excavators, of course, was to line up the stupa—when finally cut from the matrix at the rear of the cave—with the center point of the cave’s doorway, positioning it to establish a precise solstitial orientation. Fortunately, this could be accomplished by two adjustments in the hall—simple in themselves, but of course affecting the cave’s original bilateral symmetry. The first adjustment involved moving the stupa forward along the cave’s original axis. (See Part 1 Pl. 94) This in itself would be a start (but only a start) toward accomplishing the necessary realignment, as we shall see.

5 I suggest 464 as a reasonable date for the new adjustments to begin; this allows a couple of years for excavation to have proceeded before the adjustments were demanded. 6 It seems possible that the “authorities in the capital” had no idea that work had progressed as far as it ha when the made this demand. 7 I am utilizing the measurements taken in 1990 by Dr. Kenneth Malville, Dept of Astrophysical, Planetary, and Atmospheric Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado. (See Part 1 Fig. d) He kindly worked with me on the possible solstitial orientation of the caitya halls. We measured the apparent axis of each of the caitya halls by lining up the porch doorway with the two central porch pillars, assuming that the stupas in each hall would be in alignment with the porch elements. That this, surprisingly, was not the case is what led me to the present observations and (hopefully) explanations, benefitting from Malville’s careful measurements.

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It seems evident that this forward displacement of the stupa was really intentional, not merely a personal choice for its positioning made at the behest of the planners. This is because in the dozens of instances that I have found, Cave 26 is the single example where the space behind the stupa is greater than that at the left and right.8 It seems to be the case that in Cave 26 this can only be explained as a break in established convention caused by the need to bring the stupa somewhat forward in the hall, as part of the process of establishing a proper solstitial alignment. A related phenomenon that requires some explanation is why the expected uppermost level of the stupa is missing. We can assume that the extensive vault, at the cave’s highest level, would have been exposed first, working from front to back and from the top down in the normal fashion. We should remember that, at the vault’s far end, matrix would have been reserved by the excavators for the chatras, when, along with the drum and dome below, it was finally time, in the course of excavation, to cut the stupa.9 However, when (in about 466/467), after delays caused by making the solstitial adjustments, the stupa was finally revealed, it was placed farther forward than originally planned—too far beyond the reserved matrix at the far end of the vault for the chatras to be cut. This explains why the uppermost elements of the stupa could not be monolithic. It seems likely that they were added in wood just as was the case in the much earlier but of course related Hinayana caitya halls (Caves 9 and 10) at the site. (See Part 1 Pl. 95) The second significant adjustment to the positioning of the stupa is that, instead of being centered in the hall, the stupa has been shifted significantly to the right, so that the space on the floor at the right is 7″ less than the space on the floor to the left.10 (See Part 1 Pl. 96) This has to be explained by recognizing that such an adjustment of the positioning of the stupa, first forward, and then to the right was made to bring it into alignment with the intended solstitial axis, at 67.71 rather than 64.46, a difference of 3.2 degrees. Such a painful shifting at a time when the cave’s excavation was 8 See (See Part 1 Fig. e) Caitya halls are (as far as I know) always bilaterally symmetrical, and the stupa is located with the same distance from the pillars at left, right, and rear. 9 See the very unfinished Cave 29 (See Part 1 Fig. j), where the matrix at the rear end of the vault has been left uncut, in order to allow the upper levels of the still-uncut stupa to be excavated from it. 10 For the evidence that the present bhadrasana image replaces an intended (but never made) standing Buddha, and for a discussion of the difficulties that this change caused, see Spink, Ajanta: History and Development, V, 335–337.



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already well underway, is as unique as it is remarkable. I know of no other instance of such a shift, which is very evident if one stands in the cave’s courtyard and sights into the cave precisely between the central porch pillars and the porch doorway.11 Although it is clear that, when the solstitial order was given (ca 464/465), the stupa had not been exposed prior to being brought forward and shifted to the right, we can say that it had been put in place by the time that the Asmakas were expelled in early 468. We know this because when, after the Recession, work was renewed in about 473, the now “required” devotees could not be cut out at the right, as they were at the left.12 The matrix on the right, as opposed to that at the left—had already been cut away by early 468, the year when all Asmaka work was suddenly halted due to the Recession. There is still another important adjustment that, although significant, might well go unnoticed. This involves the disposition of the frame of the inner arch in the cave’s projecting vault. This frame breaks with convention by being distinctly wider on the left than on the right. (See Part 1 Pl. 97) This means that the center-point of this inner arch is not where it would have been if the frame’s left and right sides were equal in width. It seems evident that while the vault was still only roughly revealed, its rear opening was shifted a few inches to the right, so that a slight (solstitial) angle resulted when the center points of the outer and inner arches were aligned. (See Part 1 Pl. 98) This angle would probably be the same as that formed by the door-to-stupa axis down in the hall below. That is, if they could be brought together, they should coincide, assuming that the excavators made the expected adjustments with precision. Still another adjustment, probably not done until the Buddha image had been carved on the stupa—sometime after 473—is to be seen on the cave’s main doorway. As viewed between the porch pillars, It appears to have been somewhat cut back (2 or more inches) on the right. (See Part 1 Pl. 99)

11  The excavators may have slightly adjusted the positioning of the central porch pillars when they were finally cut down into their “late” square format, probably in about 477, judging from their very developed decoration. 12 After about 473, but not before, kneeling devotees were an essential feature of shrine images. Here, the monolithic group at the left could be cut from matrix still intact after the Asmaka expulsion in 468. However, work had progressed farther, in 468, on the right side, and so the needed devotees were “plugged-in” to a socket-hole (still visible) cut in the floor. (We might surmise that the matrix at the right of the stupa was cut away before that at the left for a reason as simple as this: that it took less time, even though (possibly) the amount paid for the work on both sides might have been thought equal in the mind of the planner.

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Thus the doorway better frames the Buddha image (because of the stupa’s slight rightward positioning) as it is viewed by one approaching the doorway. The unexpected angling—the slight beveling—of the doorway’s left reveal may also have been done to enhance the view of the adjusted stupa as seen through the adjusted doorway. This very slight but significant cutting-back of the porch doorway on its right side (as viewed by one approaching the cave) appears to be confirmed when one studies the doorway from the rear, as viewed from inside the cave. The paired monolithic projections—which introduced the B mode type of fitting to the site—must date very early indeed, since the stone for them would have been reserved when the cave was first being roughed out in the early 460s. These two special fittings originally would have been aligned with the two sides of the doorway’s opening, but one can see by looking through the screened doorway from the back (See Part 1 Pl. 100) that the right side of the doorway (again, as viewed from the front) has been cut back a couple of inches.13 Cave 19 Like Caitya Cave 26, Caitya Cave 19 had to be adjusted, after roughly 464, in an attempt to achieve a solstitial alignment, but in this case it was for the winter solstice rather than the summer. It was also far more difficult—in fact ultimately impossible—to achieve the desired alignment, for the simple reason that Cave 19 was originally located more than seventeen degrees (estimated!!) from the desired new solstitial alignment (See Part 1 Fig. f). Furthermore, by the time that the excavators were ordered to realign the cave, it had already been deeply penetrated, right up to the point where the stupa was already being roughed out. By contrast, Cave 26, with relatively modest adjustments of only about three degrees, could be shifted into alignment with the summer solstice more successfully. The most immediate evidence in Cave 19 of such a wrenching adjustment is in the startling curvature of the left side of the cave’s façade, the elaborate decoration of which was of course done after the new angling/ positioning of the façade had been established. This adjustment is immediately evident on Burgess’s essentially correct ground-plan. (See Part 1 Fig. f) It is also evident when one sights from the right end of the cave to the left 13 Looking through the screen, see the line of the jambs on either side of the doorway in relation to the two stone projections to see this subtle re-cutting.



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along the dramatically curving plane of the façade, which angles strongly outward increasingly as it reaches the left end of the façade. (See Part 1 Pl. 101) This thickening of the left façade, at least at the lower levels, must have been accomplished very early in the course of excavation, even though its surface decoration at these same lower levels, conforming to this façade adjustment, was obviously added later. One cannot imagine that an experienced architect would treat the carefully planned original character of the façade in this startling way, unless there was some overriding reason for doing so. And that reason, when we add up all the surprising adjustments throughout the cave, must be that the architect was attempting to impose a solstitial alignment on the monument, even though the cave was already well underway with no such solstitial connection in mind when the excavation was started. The reason for this dramatic shifting of Cave 19’s façade became evident to me when I made careful (but hardly professional) measurements exactly at dawn on Dec 22, the day of the winter solstice. (See Part 1 Pl. 102) What I discovered was that the sun’s very first rays in the morning, coming over the horizon, fell upon the point of the façade’s greatest curvature at exactly 90 degrees. This would seem to be the only reason for the surprising curvature of the façade. It seems evident—in lieu of any other explanation— that Cave 19’s façade at the left has been distorted in this way to establish an alignment with the winter solstice. If our assumption is correct Cave 19 was totally innocent of such solstitial concerns before the planners at the site received the order that both Cave 19 and Cave 26 had to be redesigned (and recut!) to achieve a solstitial alignment—even if this was in fact impossible.14 It is reasonable to assume that the new solstitial ruling was a single comprehensive one, since solstitial adjustments were started in both caves at approximately the same time, probably in 464 or 465.15 This would have been well after the excavation of both caves was proceeding according their still-untroubled original plans.16 Excavation procedures at Ajanta seem to prove that the earliest caves were typically roughed out only in very general terms (with as yet no

14 I say “sent down” because I am assuming that the order was in fact “sent down” from Basim, the capital of the western Vakataka empire during the time of Harisena’s reign. 15 The ruling surely applied to the later Cave 29 as well, as noted in the later discussion of that cave. 16 Since the very elaborate Cave 19 was essentially finished and summarily abandoned by the end of 471, one must assume that the original course of excavation had started very early.

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decoration or other detailing) during the early stages of work; the plain interior of Cave 25, abandoned in about 466 provides an example.17 (See Part 1 Pl. 103) This same initial simplicity is notably evident in the development of Cave 26, where work was abruptly stopped at the beginning of 468, when the Asmakas were banned from the site by Upendragupta, the Risika king. At that point, although excavation was well underway, not a single decorative or minor structural feature had been started at that time. (See Part 1 Fig. b) This early mode of excavation at the site explains why, even though Cave 19 would have been wholly reamed out in general terms, sufficient matrix must have remain on its surfaces to allow some solstitial adjustments as well as later surface detailing. In fact, it was well after the solstitial adjustments were demanded, that complex features such as those on the deeply decorated façade were revealed—and indeed could finally be put in place. Having discovered the telling evidence showing that the cave 19 façade, at its point of greatest curvature, aligns precisely with the winter solstice, the obvious next step was to see if the same relationship was evidenced when one measured the (ultimately unsuccessful) adjusted axis of the cave—obviously a feature of prime importance. (See Part 1 Fig. f) The original axis, both here and in Cave 26 would have been established by aligning the entrance door with the stupa at the rear, as conventional for all caitya halls. (See Part 1 Pl. 104) However, in Cave 19 the original axis would have fallen about 17 degrees to the right of the true solstitial axis; so major adjustments would have been required to bring the cave into a true solstitial alignment.18 In fact, this was impossible; it appears that a kind of compromise had to be made, for both esthetic and technical reasons, and that the excavators in Cave 19 did not struggle to reach the required 17 degree shift. They achieved only a 6.5 adjustment instead, being unable to continue the further 10.5 degrees, which a fully realized solstitial adjustment would have necessitated. (See Part 1 Fig. f) This “failure” of course needs to be explained. We might start with the surprising (and almost invariably unnoticed fact) that the Cave 19 stupa (at least at its center-point) is now located to the right of the adjusted

17 By the 470s, as technology an0d confidence evolved, ornaments and lesser structural features were generally started even when the rougher excavation work was continuing. 18 “17 degrees” must remain as only a hopefully close estimate, until a proper reading can be done by reference to original features not later affected by later shifting. The position of the cave’s eave, established from the start of the excavation, would probably suffice as evidence for the original orientation.



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(6.5 degree) axis, even though anyone, ancient devotee or modern tourist, standing in the doorway, would not normally notice this rightward displacement.19 This is in large part because we “automatically” expect the stupa and the doorway to be in alignment (positioning one’s self accordingly), when in fact they are not.20 (See Part 1 Pl. 105) By way of contrast, a further 10.5 degree shift, to achieve the “ideal” 17 degree adjustment, would have been technically impossible—and in fact visually disturbing.21 To be convinced of the stupa’s displacement, one can stand in the courtyard and from there look straight through the doorway, after carefully aligning it between the pillars of the portico. From this position one can see how this axis of 6.5 degrees, even though “adjusted”, presents many problems, for the interior toward which one is looking is far from satisfactorily aligned. However, any further adjustment aiming to effect a total solstitial alignment would necessarily direct the line of vision only further away from the stupa and would make impossible demands on already established features such as the pillars at the rear of the cave. So perhaps the planners decided that they had to be satisfied with this, at the same time concentrating on other adjustments to better achieve their (ultimately unattainable!) solstitial goal. Although the planners clearly desired to move the whole rear area somewhat leftward, it is evident that the pillars in that area, already blocked out earlier, could not be adjusted much more. The difficulties are particularly evident in the treatment of pillar L7, which has been reduced in size and “pushed” leftward slightly to compensate for the (slight) extra space taken up by the left side of the stupa’s base, when it was finally trimmed down to its present painfully adjusted form. (See Part 1 Pl. 106) This is evident on Burgess’s groundplan, as is the generally leftward shift of all the elements in this area. Note the slight leftward displacement of the rear pillars (made when they, also, were trimmed down). As already mentioned, the roughed-out stupa itself was recut and twisted at the base due to the same leftward compulsion. Furthermore, even the dome of the stupa (swollen at the left) and the hanging garlands on the front are also urged in that direction. (See Part 1 Pl. 104) Indeed, it is significant 19 This may explain why Burgess’s draftsmen, usually so precise, mistakenly show the stupa as centered, rather than to the right, in the front elevation. (See Part 1 Fig. g) 20 Dr Malville’s readings show that the present axis of Cave 19, as established by the portico and doorway, was 10.5 degrees to the right of the winter solstitial axis. (See Part 1 Fig. d) 21 We cannot know how much excess matrix the excavators needed as they worked on the adjustments to the cave, but It was obviously generous, considering the manner in which the façade could both be both reshaped (at the left) and decorated afterwards.

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to realize that the central standing Buddha image also stands slightly to the left (note feet), while the vigorous dwarfs below equally favor a slight but distinct left positioning. These latter observations of course prove what is hardly surprising—that these images were not fully planned and finished until the change in the cave’s orientation had already been made sometime after 464/465. The planners and excavators surely realized, as soon as the solstitial demands had been made, not only that the interior arrangements (even to the roughing out of the stupa) were by and large fixed, but that a full shifting of even the façade would be impossible. Too much matrix would already have been cut away in the course of revealing its general outlines. However, they tried to develop a leftward (solstitial) orientation as much as possible, given the amount of matrix available. It appears that they established a new (imaginary) surface plane, angled increasingly outward from its (zero) start at the right of the façade, and continuing to the left. Thus the plane of the outer frame (the arch) of the frontal vault conforms to a solstitial angling which contrasts significantly from the positioning of the original opening of the vault into the cave interior, and even more evidently contrasts with the unchanged original positioning of the cave’s eave. (See Part 1 Pl. 107 108) As a result a line extending from the center of the great arch through the inner opening of the vault, angles distinctly to the left—in the desired solstitial direction—even if it was neither practical or possible to achieve a greater angling. That is, the whole outer face of the vault—the arch—was shifted slightly to the right, to accomplish the desired directional (“solstitial”) positioning. Significantly, the same kind of adjustment can be seen in the treatment of the portico, not only in its similar angling, but in the fact that like the great outer arch above, it has been shifted in its position somewhat to the right to achieve a better (even if far from complete) solstitial alignment. (See Part 1 Pl. 107) Furthermore, just as was presumably the case with the outer arch, the degree to which it could be shifted to the right would have been determined by the amount of matrix left in the course of roughing out the whole façade. In any case, the result was, just as in the case of the arches, that when the pillars of the portico were carefully aligned with the cave’s doorway, the result was an adjustment—roughly estimated here as 6.5 degrees, in the desired solstitial direction, even though it of course destroyed the originally intended architectural alignment of the monument. That is why, if one stands in the exact center of the courtyard, and carefully aligns the pillars and the doorway, the stupa appears well to the right of this adjusted visual axis. Again, it is clear that the intent was



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“solstitial” even if it was much “too late in the day” for the desired result to be achieved. The adjustments of the great arch and the portico are not at all troubling (or even easily noticeable) to a viewer standing in front of the cave.22 However, photographs taken in an upward direction clearly reveal the surprising adjustments made in the positioning of the portico, as well as to the front of the arch. Higher up, we can see the line of the cave’s eave, unchanged from its original position, and therefore useful as a point of reference. (See Part 1 Pl. 108) Particularly compelling evidence emerges when the study of the relationship of the opening of the frontal vault with the positioning of the main (outer) frame of the caitya arch, as well as of the portico. Excavation of the cave would have started—as in the incomplete Cave 29—at the cave’s upper level and with the opening of the vault to facilitate the beginning of excavation of the cave’s interior. The shape and size of this opening into the interior was therefore fixed (even in a roughed-out state) from the start; and although elements such as the outer arch could be—and were—repositioned in an attempt to achieve a solstitial alignment, there would be no point in reshaping the arch itself, so important to the basic design of the hall, both inside and outside, from the start. The same now-desired “solstitial” angling seen on the front of the cave is further suggested, obviously by intention, on the raised platform under the portico pillars. (See Part 1 Pl. 109) It is then extended across the courtyard from left to right on another thinner platform. We might also note that the pillared court complexes were planned and excavated late in the cave’s development.23 Instead of being located (as expected) directly across from each other, they reflect the cave’s solstitial adjustments, being located noticeably out of alignment in order to do so. (See Part 1 Fig. f) One further adjustment is very significant. Typically, the excavation of such a caitya hall as Cave 19 would have started with the exposure of the great vault, the excavated stone being removed through its arched opening. This opening, of course visible on the outside as well, would have been centered in relation to the vault, as was surely the case here when it was

22 Considering the beauty of Cave 19, even in the face of its many adjustments, we must sympathize with the problems that the planners and excavators faced, and credit them with trying to transcend the very problems that they were forced to face. 23 For the evidence that these complexes were very late additions to the complex, see Spink, Ajanta V, 245–246.

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first roughed out, quite innocent of the significant solstitial requirements that were very soon to come. Although when first being planned and cut, the walls to the left and right sides inside the vault surely would have been equal in size, now (as viewed from inside the hall, the area to the left of the vault is significantly (and surprisingly) wider than that on the right. (See Part 1 Pl. 110), (See Part 1 Pl. 111) This in turn would make the center line from the newly expanded inner face of the vault, when extended from front to rear, to be directed in the desired solstitial direction. Indeed, this would seem to be the only reason for the imbalance of the left and right stone surfaces around the opening of the vault, as seen from within the hall looking outward. It is evident that when the great vault was first exposed, it was roughed out only in a very general (and of course symmetrical) way. Its arching stone ribs (or beams) were not yet cut at that time; indeed, their later unexpected warping reveals that they were added after the time when solstitial adjustments were planned.24 Like the pillars in the rear of the cave, they have been adjusted in their position in an attempt to adhere to the new solstitial demands. (See Part 1 Pl. 112) Obviously, the extension of the surrounding wall of the vault to the left (as viewed from inside the hall) would also have been cut at this time, when the vault was still “in process” and could be adjusted in this way. This shift of the front wall of the hall to the left, as viewed from inside the cave, establishes a new center point slightly to the left of the original vault opening. (See Part 1 Pl. 110, 111) This, when combined with the opposite shift effected by the attempt to reposition the rear pillars and the stupa through hopeful re-cutting, creates the desired solstitial angling of the vault from front to rear. Just as Cave 19’s rear pillars were shifted (with much difficulty) in the desired solstitial direction, that is equally true of the not quite symmetrical beams of the vault, which were defined relatively late and thus could also reflect an attempt to adjust them (even if not very satisfactorily) to the new demands—where the vault and its opening are themselves misaligned. We can easily see the effects of the reorientation of the vault at the front of the cave where the central rib under the great arched frontal vault, instead of being centered in the vault—the opening of which remains as it was originally cut—conforms to the same (disruptive!) solstitial demands in its off-center placement. (See Part 1 Pl. 110, 111) 24 One of my students, looking up from a prone position on the floor of the cave, said that the beams (or ribs) carved on the vault surface at a relatively late date, looked like “a chicken skeleton after an accident”.



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Cave 29 Although he was going to pay dearly for it later, in 468 King Upendragupta suddenly expelled the rival Asmakas from the site, leaving all of the “Asmaka” caves at the western extremity of the site totally abandoned. Meanwhile, he himself vigorously developed his own caves (Cave 17, 19, and 20), benefiting from the sudden availability of a host of by-now highly skilled (but suddenly unemployed) workmen previously working up until the Recession of 468 on the various Asmaka projects.25 At the same time, having put the Asmakas’ Cave 26 out of service, he decided to make a new caitya hall (Cave 29) high up on the scarp, where space was still available. (See Part 1 Pl. 113, 114) It seems apparent too, based on its positioning in the cliff-face, that he specifically intended to orient his new caitya hall to the summer solstice, in what would be an insulting replacement for the Asmaka’s still unfinished own hall of worship. Now, not only would he have in effect replaced his rivals’ hall, but he would now, auspiciously, be the patron of caityas oriented to both the summer (Cave 26) and the winter (Cave 19) solstices. Now he was to have two caitya halls, and his rivals none! Happily, by about 469, when Cave 29 was undertaken, the problems that earlier beset the planners of Caves 19 and 26 had been long resolved. In Cave 29, there was no need for the painful adjustments that had been required in those earlier halls to achieve some semblance of a solstitial orientation. It was intended to have a solstitial orientation from the start. And this of course would be expected, since one can hardly believe that Cave 29, sponsored by the same king as Cave 19 just a few years later, would fail to have such an orientation too. In order to achieve the proper orientation to the summer solstice, the new Cave 29 had to be twisted significantly in the cliff, and at the same time set well back, in order to achieve sufficient height for the hall’s facade. (See Part 1 Pl. 114), (See Part 1 Pl. 115) In fact, it was the necessary creation of such an extensive courtyard, which over the centuries filled up with dirt and debris, that had rendered the cave invisible to early investigators; it did not get numbered (#29) until the obscuring dirt was removed late in the nineteenth century, and for this reason its numbering is out of sync with that of the other caves at the site. 25 All work on Cave 26 and other Asmaka projects was drastically and completely curtailed when the Asmakas were defeated in 468, with the start of the Recession (468–471); however work continued after that date on the “royal caves” (1, 17, 19, 20), and then on Asmaka caves again after 472. See Time Chart.

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That Cave 29 was started well after Cave 26 and Cave 19 is clear not only from its expedient location and its unfinished condition, but from the fact that the excavators were now defining various minor structural features from the start, rather than merely roughing out the cave without any decorative or even structural details, as was typical of the approach to excavation in the earliest of the Vakataka caves. (See Part 1 Pl. 103), (See Part 1 Fig. b) By 469, when the excavators started Cave 29, they were more assured, and detailed features such as the lotus medallion on the top of the façade arch could be added as work went on. Cave 19’s arch, completed early, never had such a medallion, whereas Cave 26’s roughed-out early arch, when finally finished, once the Asmakas control of the site was restored in 473, was now provided with this slightly later feature. (See Part 1 Pl. 116) Although the interior of the caitya Cave 29 is quite unfinished—with the pillars and aisles not yet even roughed out. (See Part 1 Pl. 117) However, it seems evident that the excavators must have been planning to supply the top of the stupa with the conventional chatras, as in Cave 19. (See Part 1 Fig. j) This why the earliest excavators, working at the upper level to expose the vault, carefully stopped at the point in the cave’s rear where the stupa would be carved. This meant that the chatras and other upper-level features would be able to be appropriately monolithic, when the stupa was finally revealed.26 The fact that the very brief course of work on Cave 29 was totally halted before it was even fully penetrated (even at the vault level) also helps to establish its date to 469.27 (See Part 1 Pl. 115, 117) This is because by 470, and even more in the troubled context of 471, Upendragupta would have been increasingly worried about a vengeful return of the angry Asmakas, whom he had so boldly expelled from the site only a few years before. Upendragupta’s developing concerns, reflected in increasingly hasty work, is most notably evident in Cave 20, but also in Cave 17, where many wall surfaces and doorways at the rear of the cave were carelessly excavated and where, at the last minute, the shrine itself remained unpainted. Even more telling, in Upendragupta’s proud Cave 19, the dedicatory inscription was not even incised on the spot prepared for it inside the cave over the doorway, while various details of the court were also left unfinished.28 26 This is the same area in Cave 26 which, at the extreme rear of the vault, would have been used for the top part of the stupa, before the stupa was moved forward into excavated space. 27 The dating is necessarily somewhat arbitrary, but reflects the pattern of historical development suggested by the Time Chart. 28 For illustration, see Spink, Ajanta: History and Development, Vol. IV, 140; Vol. V, 245–246.



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By 469, when Upendragupta started this new caitya hall, it is evident that the excavators would have known that it was to be oriented to the summer solstice, given the prior treatment of both Caves 19 and 26. However, it is hard for investigators today to locate the exact axis of the cave with any precision. This is because the cave is so unfinished; the walls of the vault at the left and right, which would have been extended downward to reveal the colonnade, are not truly parallel, so one cannot easily define a line midway between them, which would represent the solstitial axis. Dr. Yaguchi and I, in 2007, tried to establish such a mid-line, not only with reference to the uncut “walls” of stone on either side, but also by referring to the (unfortunately rather uneven) plane of the façade, which one could assume would lie at ninety degrees from the cave’s (solstitial) axis. (See Part 1 Pl. 115) We then sighted along this (presumed) axis to a protruding rock across the ravine, to get a compass reading of approximately 63.5 degrees. Our reading, necessarily imprecise due to the unfinished nature of the excavation, was happily not too far off from Dr. J.M. Malville’s determination for the angle of the solstice sun at sunrise: 66.59 degrees. Considering the necessary imprecision of the whole endeavor (most notably in the unfinished character of the roughed-out hall), it seems fair to say that the variation of about 3 degrees is minor, and surely allows one to see the cave as solstitially oriented, given the many other reasons that support such a conclusion. What seems to me the most convincing evidence comes down to common sense. When we look up at Cave 29, located up above Upendragupta’s other donations (Caves 17, 19, and 20) we can see that Cave 29 has been carefully angled into the cliff, and that, due to this angling, the façade of Cave 29 lies in the same general plane as that of Cave 26. (See Part 1 Pl. 113)29 When we try to explain this “unnecessary” angling in the cliff face, we would have to say that it would have been easier to cut the new caitya hall straight into the face of the cliff. So it is hard to find any available explanation other than the assumption that the cave was indeed solstitially oriented. And when we remember how insistent the planners of Caves 19 and 26 were to adhere to the new solstitial convention, if would be very hard to believe that Cave 29, started by Upendragupta only a few years later, would not be treated in the same way.

29 This judgment is apparent to the naked eye, but should be properly checked with a theodolite.

CHAPTER FOUR

AJANTA; FOUR PAINTED VIHARAS: 1, 2, 16, 17 Ajanta Cave 1 The great Vakataka emperor Harisena, during the course of his remarkable reign, gained control over the whole of Central India from the western to the eastern sea. This stunning expansion of empire, from his originally inherited holdings in Western Vidarbha, was not achieved until late in his reign, shortly before the time of his tragic and unexpected death in 477. Sadly, by 478, due to his unexpected death, he had lost it all. However, what remains—the caves built during Ajanta’s “renaissance” from the start of his reign in the early 460s until his death—honors him as the greatest Indian emperor of the fifth century. It was the guiding vision and all-to-brief political authority of Harisena and his court that brought Indian culture, in the period of what we call the “Classical Age”, to its very apogee—an achievement reflected in the cave site at Ajanta, and most particularly in Harisena’s own great donation, Cave 1. Because Harisena’s Cave 1 was not started until 466, later than most of the Vakataka caves, it had to be located at the extreme east end of the nowcrowded site. However, although it could not be more centrally located, there was some compensation in the fact that it was the first cave to be seen at the site by devotees coming up the valley of the Waghora River. And what they saw, significantly, was a truly imperial offering. It is the only vihara at the site that has an elaborately decorated façade. This immediately signals the donor’s importance by incorporating a splendid array of sculptured friezes displaying the essential prerogatives of kingship: scenes of war, the hunt, and erotic dalliance. At the same time, the carved story of Prince Siddhartha’s journey through life toward Buddhahood, carved at either end of the façade, is a poignant reminder of the great goal that both the emperor and his subjects should attempt to reach. Cave 1’s splendidly decorated porch pillars, far richer than the less developed forms on Caves 16 and 17, may well have been designed by planners in the Vakataka capital (present day Basim), as would be appropriate for a donor so rich and so powerful. Carved in the late 460s, they influence all later developments at Ajanta, when the site’s eager patrons were opting for more and more complexity in their offerings.



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The same sculptural splendor, complex but dignified, continues in the cave’s interior hall, with its twenty-pillared hypostyle and its impressive Buddha shrine at the rear. The paintings covering the walls are not only the most splendid at the site, but happily the best preserved. It is said that the debris flooding into Cave 1’s huge (‘imperial”) courtyard over the centuries filled the porch almost up to the ceiling; and although the deep debris destroyed the porch paintings, the fact that it blocked Cave 1’s doorways kept early visitors from entering and doing damage to the irreplaceable murals. The debris did, however, do its own damage, for wherever it touched the fragile mud-plaster-based paintings, it literally dissolved them. Even at the very back of the cave the debris built up so deeply over the centuries that it destroyed the legs of the beautiful bodhisattvas up to the thigh level. The paintings on the walls of the interior are unusual in having an iconographic program highly appropriate for such an imperial cave. Every scene depicts stories of the Buddha’s previous births (jatakas) and in every one of these morally instructive tales he, as the protagonist, is a king. This is even true in the two stories about snakes, in both of which the future Buddha is revealed not as an ordinary ruler but as a serpent king. Probably because Harisena, like most of the site’s patrons, was in a hurry to get his cave done, both to impress devotees high and low alike, and— most important—to obtain the spiritual merit once it was dedicated, Harisena’s supervisors had a very large crew of plasterers, sculptors, and painters all working at once on the cave. In the paintings alone, one can distinguish at least ten different artists at work, so it is not surprising that whichever of the mural paintings got finished—and none were even started until after the glorious ceiling was painted—was accomplished during the course of a single year: 477. Although this crucial final year of Harisena’s reign started exuberantly, these happy days were brief. 477 was the very year in which the great emperor so suddenly died, quite possibly by poison or the knife, due to the insidious plotting of his own Asmaka feudatories. And it was this dark event that immediately terminated all further work on the caves of our tragically vanished emperor. A number of the paintings planned for the dark and low priority front wall were either merely sketched out or not started at all; and this was also the case at the far ends of both of the side aisles. Happily, however, the shrine area, with its impressive Buddha image, had already been decorated shortly before the emperor’s death suddenly put a stop to all work in the magnificent excavation.

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Since the decoration of the emperor’s cave was still unfinished at the time of his death, it is not surprising that it was never dedicated, and thus lacks an inscription of the informative and highly flattering type that we find in Caves 16, 17, and 26. In fact, because it was never dedicated and presented to the Buddhist sangha and the world, Cave 1 is ritually dead. It could never be used for worship. This is why, unlike other caves where worship went on and smoky grime from the oil lamps built up, Cave 1 shows not the slightest trace of such damaging discoloration. This accounts for the fact that its murals are in such a remarkably pristine condition and that even the Buddha image, although time has caused some damage to its plastered and painted surface, shows not a touch of any darkening from the rituals of worship. Because Cave 1 was never brought to life through a ceremonial dedication, even the monks who continued living in its cells after Harisena’s death—we can see the wear in the door fittings—did not worship in the cave. Even in the Period of Disruption, when all of the patrons had fled the threatened region and the site, those who stayed on—monks and villagers—did not burden the cave with their scattering of “intrusive” carved and/or painted Buddha images. This is further convincing evidence that the great emperor’s cave was never dedicated. It was only a few months before, however, that both the cave and its imperial patron were so remarkably alive, playing their role in the flourishing—but all too fragile—history of these remarkable times. Ajanta Cave 2 Cave 2, like nearly all of the Vakataka excavations at Ajanta, has a troubled history. Due to a “Recession” (468–471) caused by the strife between two rival Vakataka feudatories, Risika and Asmaka, both this cave and no less than eighteen others were totally abandoned during this difficult period. Nonetheless, this break in the work on Cave 2 turned out to have its advantages. This is because Cave 2, up until work was interrupted (for the first time) in 468, had only been roughed out in a general way by the excavators. As was characteristic in these early years, no decorative forms—no carvings or paintings—had as yet been added to it when work broke off at that time. Then, when the site started to flourish again in 473 and it was finally time to add decoration to the cave, the workmen could take full advantage of all of the developments that had gone on before, notably in the privileged royal caves (1, 17, 19, 20).



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Therefore, because of the hiatus in its development, in fact Cave 2 ended up as the most sumptuously decorated cave at the site, boasting a startling variety of highly elaborate pillar forms, richly carved doorways, and windows incorporating the latest modes of ornamentation and even shuttering. The same richness characterizes the paintings in the cave; the ceilings especially show the artists at their most exuberant and inventive, notably in the variety of complex medallions that, one after the other (seven in all), lead insistently down the axis of the cave from the eave and then the porch, through the hall, and finally to the shrine antechamber and the shrine itself. It is important to note, as evidence of the ritual use of the cave, that, except for that in the shrine, each of the painted ceiling medallions, starting in late 476 or 477, was fitted out with a hook, from which monks, probably every day, hung flower garlands throughout the cave. But over and over, they damaged the fragile plastered and painted medallions with the poles that they must have used for putting the garlands in place. Today, the damaged centers of these splendid ceiling designs remain as evidence of the cave’s worship for at least a few years after Harisena’s death. When, starting in 478, devotees could at last visit the newly completed shrine, they would finally be rewarded by a sight of the completed Buddha image. He sits preaching, with attendant bodhisattvas standing on either side of the elaborate throne. As we would expect, they hold the expected flywhisks (for even Buddhas need such practical as well as honorific service!). Above, flying celestials bring flower-garlands. Below, flanking the deer and the wheel of the law, four human devotees kneel in praise and supplication. The rich elaboration of Cave 2 is further augmented in the two unique shrines at the rear of the cave, where powerfully realized tutelary divinities are installed. In the cave’s left rear corner, two tough but gentle full-bellied “nidhis”—guarding and at the same time dispensing the earth’s wealth— sit with a ponderous authority. Sankhanidhi, holding the conch, is on the left, and Padmanidhi, holding the lotus, is on the right. On the beautiful ceiling, twenty-three marvelously varied geese march around in a circle framed by terrifying dragons. The shrine at the right rear belongs to the goddess Hariti—an awesome giantess who, when finally converted by the Buddha, became the protector of the very children that she once devoured. In the paintings on the wall, female devotees approach with offerings, just as human women must once have done, since Hariti is so connected with the concerns and desires of mothers in particular. This splendid Hariti shrine, like the picture of Queen Mahamaya and the Birth of the Buddha on the left wall of the hall, along

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with the splendid feminine bracket and doorway figures in the cave, have suggested to some that this particular cave has a distinctly feminine focus; it might even be an offering from the queen of Harisena himself, since the emperor’s cave is of course adjacent to it. The idea is intriguing, but has to remain no more than that at the present time. Although Cave 2 benefited richly from the delay, from the Recession starting in 468 through the Hiatus of 472, in the eventual richness of its decoration, the same delay in fact also cost it dearly. Although the porch got fully painted while times were good (that is, while Harisena was still alive), and although there was also time to admirably decorate the ceilings in the cave before work broke off in 478, by the time the painters had been able to begin the decoration of the walls, time had already run out. Thus, only a portion of the left and right walls were completed as planned, while the low-priority dark front wall, although plastered, never got painted at all. During the course of the next year—the troubled 478—any thought of further decorating the cave with “popular” narrative scenes was given up. Here in Cave 2, as elsewhere at the site in this sad year after Harisena’s death, attitudes had profoundly changed. All patrons were concentrating now on making sacred images, as opposed to Buddhist stories, if there was time; but the main compulsion was to get the shrine Buddha done, and to get the merit that would thus be obtained. In Cave 2, the shrine Buddha, beautifully carved but still not painted in 477, was rushed to completion, along with the ceiling medallion and the sacred images on the shrine walls in 478, just before the Vakataka’s time ran out. After that, in 479 and 480, during the turbulent “Period of Disruption” local residents and the monks who were still living at the site hastily donated all of the Buddha images, large or small, single or multiple, which fill up the still remaining spaces on the walls. Like the so-called “Thousand Buddhas” covering the walls of the shrine antechamber, they have nothing to do with the original patron’s plan for the cave; in fact, they clearly violated his intentions. Generally painted in a most cursory manner, they often have inscriptions assigning the benefit of the gifts to persons whom the original courtly patron probably did not ever know. Thus we can see that the lavish painting of this cave has three distinct stages: the generally fine work ascribable to 477, when Harisena was still alive; the urgent effort to get the most essential sacred image done, in order to get the merit from the gift, in the darkening context of 478; and the “every devotee for himself” attitude of the uninvited “outsiders” eager to make their own hasty offerings in the cave during the Period of Disruption. In fact, this programmatic division relates to the development of both



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painting and sculpture throughout the whole later history of the site, even though the first phase of exuberant work in most other caves started well before 477 rather than being confined, as in Cave 2, to a single year or two. Although in 478 Cave 2’s Vakataka patrons, along with the other once rich and powerful courtiers, would have fled the site, the wear in some of the latest cell-doorway fittings proves that monks continued to live and worship in the cave during at least 479–480 and probably even longer, in the wake of the destruction of the dynasty by the Asmaka coalition early in the 480s. Remarkably, after that, this and the other caves were never used again, for there is no evidence of them being significantly disturbed until well into the nineteenth century, when the site—long known, of course, to the villagers in the region—was so “miraculously” discovered by a group of English soldiers tiger-hunting in the region in the oppressive summer heat of April, 1819. Ajanta Cave 16 Cave 16, one of the earliest Vakataka caves begun at Ajanta, was the donation of Harisena’s Prime Minister, Varahadeva, who, according to his cave’s dedicatory inscription, tells us on an incised panel as we enter his cave, that, “being extremely devoted to the Buddha, . . . . and realizing that life, youth, wealth, and happiness are transitory. . . . constructed (i.e. excavated) this magnificent dwelling . . . to be occupied by the best of ascetics”. He was, in fact, the most important inaugurator of Ajanta’s revival in the early 460s, which is hardly surprising, considering his high position. Indeed, like the Prime Minister of India today, he was clearly the one in charge, and was able to claim, in his inscription, that “beloved of the king (i.e. Harisena) and his subjects, . . . he governed the country righteously, shining brightly with the rays of his fame, religious merit and virtue.” In close association with the local king, Upendragupta (the patron of the adjacent Cave 17), Varahadeva took over the very center of the site for his own early donation. In fact, this was the first of the great viharas to which devotees entering the site would come. His famous elephant gate, leading up past an auspicious seven-hooded nagaraja (a snake-divinity), and then through a steep tunnel to the cave above, was known by later Chinese travelers as “the entrance to the site”, and is still used by all visitors today. Indeed, like their fifth century counterparts, they too must walk directly past Varahadeva’s dedicatory inscription, in which he proudly proclaims that his cave, “clothed in the brilliance of Indra’s crown” is “adorned with

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windows, doors, beautiful picture-galleries, ledges, statues of nymphs and the like, . . . beautiful pillars and stairs, and a temple of the Buddha inside.” This description is correct, but it hardly summarizes the difficult task that Varahadeva had in seeing his cave through its turbulent history, ending in its troubled completion. This is because when Upendragupta, the local king, suddenly cut off almost all further work on most of the caves at the site in 468, in order to prepare for an expected Asmaka attack, Varahadeva, despite his high status, was seriously affected. He spent a few months urging his workmen to get as much done as they could in 469, but then abandoned all work on the cave until 473. By that time, the Asmakas had taken over the site and, under their control, had renewed its development with the old accustomed vigor once again. We can briefly review what the Prime Minister had planned as compared to what in fact got done before the still unfinished Cave 16 was provided with its dedicatory inscription in 477, just before Harisena’s death caused the flight of the Vakataka courtiers from the site. When originally planned, Cave 16 was clearly intended to be the most sumptuous excavation at the site, expressive of Varahadeva’s power and position as Prime Minister. We can sense his importance (and access to funding!) in the elaborate beamed and cross-beamed “structure” of the front aisle ceiling and its supporting pillars. But what we cannot see is that the whole cave was to be filled with the same type of elaborate ceilings and pillars before. However, because of the local king’s concerns about an Asmaka takeover, Varahadeva ordered a drastic cutback in 468. At that point he not only abandoned plans to extend the complex ceiling, but also—drastically, to save time and money—cut off all of the then still unfinished pillar capitals in the left and right aisles. The resulting plain shafts with their rushed painted decoration are expedient—a drastically reduced version of what the Prime Minister originally intended. This is by no means all that Varahadeva felt he had to do (or not do!) in this time of crisis—what we call the “Recession” (of four years, starting in 468). If we look over to the left wall of the hall, we see one of the “beautiful picture-galleries” mentioned in his inscription. However, the splendid scene depicting Nanda, the Buddha’s cousin, leaving his grieving wife, suddenly ends a few meters down the hall; and the loss is sadly amplified when one sees that a great strip of the fine mural was brutally troweled off the wall by greedy attendants, at the request of thoughtless visitors, over a century ago. Both on this wall and on the right, the original painting work in the cave was suddenly abandoned early in 469. All of the paintings beyond are



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very different in type, and date from nearly a decade later, first when (in 478) Varahadeva completed as much of the painting program as he could, and then when “uninvited” donors painted a number of intrusive Buddha images on the walls during the Period of Disruption (479–480). Even while Varahadeva was ordering his drastic cutbacks, he was rushing—but unsuccessfully—to finish the Buddha shrine, the very heart of the cave. By the time that he stopped the early work on the cave completely in 469, the excavators had got no farther then defining the two shrine antechamber pillars and penetrating the intended shrine antechamber. The whole shrine, if completed as originally planned, would have been of the same conventional type as that in the adjacent Cave 17. However, this was not to be. Work on the shrine, as originally planned, was abandoned in 469 and lay untouched until, when the site was once again flourishing under Asmaka control, Vaharadeva decided to transform the shrine area completely, cutting a revolutionary new and authoritative bhadrasana (foot-down) Buddha image from the mass of matrix still filling the previously abandoned shrine antechamber. Getting this accomplished, while making the image as large and as forward-placed as possible, was a great challenge to the sculptors. We can see that, because the available matrix had already been cut away in certain areas, the new Buddha had to be shifted slightly to the right of center. At the same time, the attendant bodhisattvas, instead of flanking the image, as was conventional, now had to be relegated to positions behind the throne. Furthermore, the huge double doors, necessary for closing off the image, had to be affixed, expediently, to the two pillars that had been started, a decade earlier, to front the intended antechamber. Varahadeva’s colossal Buddha image was well underway, in 477, when the emperor Harisena so suddenly died. At that point both Varahadeva and all of the other Vakataka patrons, fearing that the Asmaka coalition was about to overthrow Harisena’s new and weak successor, were thinking only of rushing their shrine images to completion and dedication and of then fleeing from the site. This was obviously what Varahadeva’s was trying to do, for he now anxiously rushed his Buddha image to completion without attempting to complete the innovative multi-pillared shrine in which the great image sits. He did manage to add fitting ceremonial (painted) scenes on the wall behind; but this was all he did, or could do, at this point. The other paintings in the cave—located toward the rear of the left and right aisles—were added after Varahadeva has already fled the site; they are all “intrusive” Buddha images made by local devotees, and often inscribed by the donors, in this Period of Disruption (479–480), when, out

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of concern for the developing threat to the empire, no one was controlling the patronage of the site. Varahadeva’s dedicatory inscription in the porch, where he gives the cave over “to the community of monks”, describes (and proves) that by the end of his happy reign, the great emperor Harisena, through inheritance, conquest, sagacious marriages, and political intrigue, had gained control of central India from the western to the eastern sea. But with his untimely death in 477, all of this was soon gone, as the evidence of Ajanta’s painful decline would soon reveal. The empire was in serious trouble and, as a signal of this, we can turn, in the Tale of the Ten Princes (Asvaghosa’s Dasakumaracarita), to Dandin’s detailed recollection of these troubled latter days. Therein we are told that, at the time of the imminent Vakataka fall, Varahadeva himself took Harisena’s daughter and her two children for safety to the region of Anupa (and the city of Mahismati) with the expectation that their uncle—Harisena’s half-brother—would protect them. But that is another story; in any case, by then, in the early 480s, Ajanta had been abandoned to its long silence. Ajanta Cave 17 Cave 17, located at the very center of Ajanta’s curving scarp, was the donation of Upendragupta, the king of Risika, the region in which Ajanta lies. In about 462, he and a few other rich and powerful Vakataka feudatories took on the great task of bringing the old cave site at Ajanta to a new life with their donations. Most of their excavations, like Cave 17, were at first mere dormitories (viharas) for the monks, but within a few years these simple caves were raised in status when, under the pressure of changing times, Buddha shrines were added at the rear of the halls. It was this “upgrading” that explains the lavish decoration of Upendragupta’s offering, allowing him to boast, in his dedicatory inscription, that “having expended abundant wealth”, he was making an offering so splendid that it “could not even be imagined by little-souled men”. Due to the larger size of these more ambitious viharas, over thirty monks could now live in the cave, two to a cell. The very expanse of the excavated hall now required a hypostyle of twenty firm pillars. Although the cave is monolithic and the solid basalt from which it was cut is relatively stable, there were enough flaws in the ceiling to require such welcome support. However, instead of being obstructions, such pillars added to the overall effect of Upendragupta’s donation, particularly since his artists—and as



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king of the region he could choose the best—decorated the plain octagonal pillar shafts and forceful capitals with fine designs. The lavish effect of the painted pillars is magnified by the unusual design of the high ceiling, inhabited with roiling water-creatures, sacred motifs, and proliferating floral forms. All of these energetic ceiling designs cluster around a gigantic and auspicious central lotus motif. A deep hole at its very center (now cemented in) may once have held a large garland hook, or just possibly a huge lamp, lighting, along with many other smaller lamps, the way to the dark shrine. Deep in the shrine at the rear of the cave, the Buddha sits flanked by attending bodhisattvas at left and right, with flying dwarfs above. The gesture of the Buddha’s intertwined hands shows that he is teaching his doctrine of salvation—“turning the wheel of the Buddha’s law”, while the two deer kneeling below would recall to the viewer of that day how the Buddha once preached this same uplifting sermon in the Deer Park at Benares. The Buddha’s preaching is of course intimately connected with the myriad paintings on the walls of the cave. Although the famous Wheel of Existence at the left end of the porch has a more complex message, most of the cave’s scenes are simple Jatakas or “Birth Stories”. These are uplifting tales of the Buddha’s innumerably successive lives when, in different forms—animal, bird, human—he did noble, charitable, and always instructive deeds as an appropriate guide for the lives of his devotees. We can tell from variations in style that the paintings were done by a number of different artists, both skilled and otherwise. They were also done in considerable haste, because in about 470, just a year after the particularly engrossing Buddhist stories in the porch were done, King Upendragupta, deeply concerned about the threat of a conflict with the rival Asmakas, was clearly urging his workers to decorate his huge excavation as speedily as possible. In 471, with the Asmaka threat increasing day by day, Upendragupta’s painters, too rushed now to paint the whole shrine, did manage to finish the painting of the sacred Budddha image itself. Upendragupta could then, and only then, get his cave dedicated. This was crucial, because a dedication ritual was essential if the donor was to receive the merit that would accrue from any such donation. The virtuous actions of which Upendragupta speaks with pride in his long Cave 17 donative record, inscribed at the front of the porch for all to see, confirms the impression of an almost profligate generosity. Although his “covering the earth with stupas and viharas . . . caused his many supplicants

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to rejoice”, their happiness was only short-lived. His lavish spending was in fact overspending, for by 470 the political situation was ominous, and now the need was more for military than for spiritual protection. In 472 the Asmaka forces attacked, and Upendragupta, woefully unprepared, fell defeated under the weight of their assault. Although his Cave 17 remained occupied by the monks, who were in great need of living space at this time, his beautiful caitya hall Cave 19—the “gandhakuti” or “perfumed hall” of the Cave 17 inscription—was never completely finished. Indeed, as soon as the Asmakas took over control of the site, they vengefully forbade worship in the beautiful caitya hall, and even cut harshly through two of the monks’ cells at the front of Cave 19’s courtyard in order to make a convenient passage to their own cave complex farther to the west. At the same time Upendragupta himself was now banished from his own domains. We never hear from him again, and as a result his fine viharas (Caves 17 and 20), like his sacred caitya hall Cave 19 itself, were never fully finished. Despite such drawbacks, Upendragupta’s amazing monuments, created over the course of a mere decade, still remain largely intact for all to see. This is the more remarkable when we realize how nearly everything from the multitude of other once-flourishing sites in India from this same uniquely splendid period—India’s “Classic Age”—have turned to dust. Upendragupta and his colleagues, both friend and foe, are long since gone, and the Vakataka dynasty itself, having brought India’s rich culture to an early apogee, was also gone within a few years of the emperor Harisena’s tragic death. However, Upendragupta’s “monolithic excellent hall” so wisely taking advantage of the rocky permanence of the cliff into which it is cut, still holds out its enduring promise. “May this Hall, out of affection”, Upendragupta’s inscription declares, “cause the attainment of well-being by good people as long as the sun dispels the darkness by its rays.” NOTES: To the Reader: A small margin of error (but probably not more than two years in each case) should be allowed for all dates given. This is because there are no specifically dated features at the site itself, the effective termini being just before and just after the course of the site’s development. For explanation, see Spink, Ajanta: History and Development; Volume I: The End of the Golden Age, pp. 37–48 (A Note on the Dating of Ajanta’s Vakataka Phase).



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The various brief quotations from Ajanta’s dedicatory inscriptions and the sources for their translation can be found in W. Spink, Ajanta: History and Development; Volume I: The End of the Golden Age, Brill Publishers (Leiden), Appendix II. The quotations from Dandin’s Dasakumaracarita: The Tale of the Ten Princes (trans: M.R. Kale), are in the same volume, Appendix I. All photographs are the kindness of Dr. Naomichi Yaguchi.

CHAPTER FIVE

COMMENTS AND COMPARISONS

1 Ajanta fl. 462–478 The Hinayana Nucleus: c. 100 BCE–100 CE (Caves 9, 10, 12) The deep ravine at Ajanta had already been discovered and taken over as a Buddhist site well over two thousand years ago by a monastic community who must have responded both to its splendor and its isolation as an ideal location for their sangha. The two caitya halls of that early (Hinayana) phase in fact formed the nucleus of the Vakataka developments which began after the accession of the emperor Harisena in about 460, when the site started to develop along the cliff face from either side, along the beautiful and nourishing river beneath.



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2 Bagh fl. 462–477 Site If cave sites require mountains, they also require water, and so it is hardly surprising that a scarp close to an abundant water supply was chosen for the site at Bagh. Unlike Ajanta, however, the scarp (see to the left) was composed of a far less ideal type of rock than Ajanta’s hard and solid basalt, and this caused many problems almost from the start.

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3 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Site This is the very heart of the site from the Vakataka point of view, for its courtly patronage started with Cave 16, the offering of the great Vakataka prime minister, Varahadeva, at the right. The original entrance to the site, the “Elephant Gate”, can be seen just below. The other chief inaugurator of the site, the local king, Upendragupta, donated the adjacent Cave 17, and beyond that, the beautiful caitya hall, Cave 19. As we might expect, these important courtly donors, located their offerings at the very center of the site, where the clear plane of the scarp facilitated the speed of excavation.



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4 Bagh fl. 462–477 Giant Yaksha and Caves 4–6 Both the great beauty and also the great friability of the sandstone matrix from which the Bagh caves were excavated are very evident here. The very ease of carving probably urged the site’s planners to make the huge and protective yaksha seen here; even a relatively small image at Ajanta would have taken a much longer time to cut out of the recalcitrant basalt.

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5 Ajanta fl. 462–478 This is the “Asmaka complex” taking up the whole western extremity of the site and sponsored by the troublemaking rulers of the province of Asmaka, adjacent to that of the Rishika king Upendragupta. By about 472, the aggressive Asmakas had defeated the local king and expelled him from the region. At this point Upendragupta’s splendid Caves 17, 19, and 20 were peremptorily abandoned, while work continued vigorously on the Asmaka complex until the collapse of consistent patronage of the site in 478, following the emperor Harisena’s death.



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6 Bagh fl. 462–477 Caves 4 to 6 The soft and friable sandstone matrix at Bagh was subject to constant breakage and erosion. This is only too evident here in the total loss of the pillared colonnades in front of the spacious Caves 4, 5, and 6. The viharas at the site typically have porch doorways and windows—seen here— like their counterparts at Ajanta. The beautiful paintings that once adorned the rear porch walls have all been lost or in a few cases preserved and stored. In this 1972 photograph those that were then remaining can be seen here protected by wooden barriers.

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7 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Site This “eastern” end of the scarp contains what could be called the “Vakataka complex”, for except for the old Hinayana caves at its center, its excavations were mostly the donations of the familiars of Harisena’s court. Harisena’s own donation, Cave 1, the most splendid vihara in India, was at the farthest eastern end of the site (just out of view here). It was in fact “relegated” to this least desirable position in the scarp, because Harisena did not sponsor his cave until the long scarp was totally filled up by the earlier caves of his courtiers.



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8 Bagh fl. 462–477 Caves 7 to 9 Unlike Ajanta, where there was plenty of room for expansion in the cliff face at the far western end of the site, Bagh’s possibilities were limited, because there was no room for expansion beyond Caves 8 and 9, because of the decreasing height of the scarp. Indeed, even Caves 8 and 9 had to be made much smaller than the other caves to fit into the limited space in that area.

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9 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 19 yaksha The “tough but oh so gentle” yaksha dominating the area at the left of the great arch of Cave 19 reflects the disciplined sophistication of this classic age, while the dwarf dumping coins at his feet suggests the abundance of the resources available at this courtly site.



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10 Bagh fl. 462–477 Giant Yaksha The massive yaksha cut into the face of the scarp at Bagh is now ruinous, but still powerfully communicates its protective function. Above, one can still see traces of converging celestials holding their honorific (as well as practical!) flywhisks.

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11 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 16 Nagaraja Proudly adorned with seven expanded hoods, this beautifully carved naga still demands the worship of all who climb up to the imperial minister’s Cave 16, centrally located at the original entrance of the site.



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12 Bagh fl. 462–477 Remains of naga The fragile cliff face at Bagh holds many much damaged images of tutelary divinities such as this now fragmentary naga; one can still make out the seven hoods appropriate for such a powerful figure.

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13 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Pancika and Hariti The forceful and often fierce goddess Hariti, shown here with her consort Pancika, was honored at such Buddhist sites as the protectress of children—shown frolicking here beneath the feet of these massive divinities.



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14 Bagh fl. 462–477 Pancika and Hariti Just as at Ajanta, Harita and her consort were provided with a special shrinelet; but at Bagh even such carefully planned accommodation could not protect them from the ravages of time.

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15 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 19 façade King Upendragupta’s splendidly decorated caitya hall, Cave 19, draws much in its design from the structural palaces of these (briefly!) happy times in the 460s and 470s, during the reign of his overlord, the Vakataka emperor Harisena.



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16 Many of the fallen remains of the excavations at Bagh reflect the splendor of the long-gone palaces and temples of the contemporary cities of the day. However, the residents seen here still looking out from the multiple arches of fallen structures, still suggests something of the site’s former glory.

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17 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 24 porch Although the viharas at Ajanta had colonnaded porches, and carefully disposed doors and windows from the start in the 460s, by the late 470s, when Cave 24 was being hurried (unsuccessfully) toward completion, its porch features had become splendidly elaborated.



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18 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 6 Bagh and Ajanta are “sister” sites, developing in parallel, between the early 460s and the late 470s. However, just as here, the porch colonnades are Bagh are invariably fallen away, due to the weakness of Bagh’s sandstone. Other elements survive, but are usually sadly eroded.

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19 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 1 shrine doorway The shrine doorway of the Emperor Harisena’s Cave 1 is wonderfully elaborated. Completed in 477, hardly a year before the site’s sudden collapse, it borrows its trabeated post—or pilaster— and lintel structure from earlier developments at Bagh, although it still retains the now suddenly obsolete manner of the pillar-supported goddesses at the extreme left and right.



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20 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 4 porch doorway Happily, and surprisingly, the main porch doorway of Bagh Cave 4 has survived in large part, and so one can see many of the features that developed at Bagh slightly before they appear at Ajanta, surely reflecting the productive interconnections between the two sites, with Bagh often somewhat in advance.

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21 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 23 porch doorway The so-called T-shaped doorways did not develop at Ajanta until 477, the final year of the emperor Harisena’s reign, but was suddenly the doorway-type of choice in that year and in the following rushed context of 478. Its “T” format is expressed by the goddesses being shifted off of their previous pillar-pedestals to the upper corners, allowing for the now decisively trabeated format.



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22 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 4 porch doorway upper right The trabeated or T-shaped doorways were first developed, amidst a happy confusion of forms at Bagh, rather than at Ajanta, and were then somewhat simplified and clearly defined, even somewhat standardized, at Ajanta. The lintel is much broken here, but still one can see how it is supported by the “pedestal”, while the goddess is now provided with her own richly rendered niche.

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23 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 23 porch doorway Male or female figures or groups of figures become common motifs on the later doorways at Ajanta. Here a naga, traditionally a protective figure, appears with a weapon at the door base of the late Cave 23. He has only been given five serpent hoods, perhaps because of his status as an attendant, no matter how auspicious.



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24 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 4 porch doorway, lower left Accompanied standing attendants, along with panels showing “warrior” dwarfs were carved on this Cave 4 doorway at Bagh somewhat earlier than their sturdy counterparts at Ajanta, which in late Ajanta caves become conventional doorway motifs.

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25 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 17 porch doorway Starting about 470, most of the major doorways at Ajanta were decorated with panels showing loving couples, either carved or painted. The painted couples on Cave 17’s porch doorway have a sensuality that coexists very comfortably with the serenity of the images of the Buddha just above.



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26 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 4 porch doorway, inhabited scroll Interestingly, the Bagh sangha seems to have discouraged or disallowed the representations of loving couples on doorways and windows. Instead, carvings of so-called “inhabited scrolls” provide an exuberant substitute; similar motifs appear on the late ceilings of Caves 1 and 2 at Ajanta.

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27 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 16 The Prime Minister Varahadeva’s Cave 16 was one of the inaugural Vakataka undertakings, and although it was sporadically painted, it suffered so many interruptions that was in worship for only a few years, and was only slightly begrimed by the smoke from oil lamps used for worship.



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28 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 blackened wall Unlike Ajanta, the Bagh caves appear to have been in continual use from the time of their inauguration in the early 460s, until well into the 480s. For this reason many of their beautiful paintings were deeply blackened with soot, as here in Cave 2. At the lower wall levels, where many feet of debris, from later centuries, built up in the cave interiors, the plastered and then painted surfaces have been completely lost.

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29 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 4 Many of the latest cells at Ajanta had convenient niches cut into the rear cell walls, probably as a place for the monks’ personal items. This particularly late example was even supplied with two holes for pegs at the top, perhaps so that a small curtain could be hung over some treasured image.



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30 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cell with niche The monks’ cells in the beautifully decorated Bagh Cave 2 had very modern conveniences such as niches, on the rear wall, where personal items could be kept. Such niches were cut in the caves at Bagh long before they were found at Ajanta. As is so often the case, Bagh anticipates similar features at the greater site.

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31 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 2 Really convenient door fittings were not developed at Ajanta until the early 470s, the new fitting method being another feature borrowed from Bagh. The cell doors were located inside the cave, in a deep doorway recess, with pivot holes added both above and below, the latter sometimes cut into a wooden insert to facilitate a smoother turning. The insert itself (now missing here) was locked into place by means of another piece of wood, also missing here. Occasionally such devices still remain, although quite worn.



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32 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 modern cell door Recent workers, using this cell for storage, have added a “modern” door; the original type, with its pivot pole fitted into holes both above and below, may well have been very similar to this.

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33 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 1 This door in Cave 1 is remarkable, but by no means unique, in having been refitted, as door-fitting designs changed, to keep up with the latest improvements. The earlier doorway design required a stone projection at the upper level, while the much simpler and more practical later recessed type required only upper and lower holes cut into a deep recess at the back—a system that the earlier planners had not thought of.



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34 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 door fittings The wooden doors, once hung, could be secured from within the cell using the latch, with its now-missing wooden insert, at the right. The door, when open, could also be secured from the front by pegs that could be inserted into the doorway’s reveal.

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35 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 19 ambulatory ceiling Although the earliest ceilings painted at Ajanta generally show only simple designs of lotuses and geese, by about 471, when the lavish Cave 19 was painted, the artists often reveled in a new freedom, based both on experience and on the general demand for more and more exuberant motifs.



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36 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 wall decoration Once the original viharas, as in Bagh Cave 2, were transformed into residences of the Buddha, the compulsion to decorate the walls and ceilings with an appropriate lavishness quickly developed, and the simple caves took on a palatial aura.

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37 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 19 ambulatory ceiling When the various artists were sent on deputation from their home cities, to work on the remarkably developing site at Ajanta, many of them were already highly skilled, and had their own particular styles. Their easy but highly developed technique is obvious in the acrobatic playfulness of these happy dwarfs.



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38 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 wall decoration These rhythmically ordered floriated festoons, painted with both speed and skill, reflect the rapid transformation that took place as soon as the painters and their patrons began to honor the Lord Buddha with a desired lavishness of decoration, as here in Bagh Cave 2.

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39 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 1 ceiling By 476 or 477, when the richly architectonic ceiling of the emperor Harisena’s Cave 1 was being painted, floral, animal, and even human forms were now rendered with great variety, not only in their forms but in their now much enriched coloring. The whole ceiling now produces a kind of paean of praise in honor of the Buddha established in the shrine at the back of the cave. That this vast ceiling, happily, shows not a trace of ritual (and obscuring) soot from the oil lamps used in worship, is because, due to the emperor’s sudden death, the image was never dedicated and put into worship.



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40 Bagh fl. 462–477 Painting in storage Sadly, most of the painted decoration of the Bagh caves, although it was once as abundant as that at Ajanta, has been lost due to the ravages of time. In fact, only a few beautiful examples revealing the site’s previous glory still remain. By now, because this is the only way to save them, most examples have been taken off of the walls and ceilings and kept in storage.

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41 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 2 nidhi shrine This beautiful detail from abundant ceiling paintings of Cave 2, was not painted until the very year that the emperor Harisena died, in 477. By this time the artists were both allowed and expected to enrich the ceilings of such late caves with an increasing variety of forms. Here in Cave 2’s nidhi shrinelet, a circlet of twenty three geese, each one very consciously shown in a different pose, honor and delight the images below.



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42 Bagh fl. 462–477 Painting in storage: goose Although drawn with less precision than its counterparts in Ajanta Cave 2, this goose rescued from one of the site’s ruinous ceilings, still is imbued with abundant life, still reflecting something of its divine connection with the god Brahma, who often rides upon it.

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43 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 1 left rear Large figures of paired bodhisattvas were planned as attendants flanking the porch doorways and/or the shrine antechambers in many of Ajanta’s viharas, but most were never painted because time ran out, while others have been destroyed either by time or vandalism. Happily this splendid pair in Cave 1 survived, largely because the porch doorways were blocked by debris. However, it was the depth of this very debris flooding into the main hall that destroyed the lower portions of these figures on the cave’s rear wall.



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44 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 bodhisattvas The carved images in the antechamber of Cave 2 probably reflect the influence of the carved images planned for the two Vakataka caitya halls at Ajanta. Since they are cut into the rock surface, it is likely that they were added to the antechamber somewhat after the shrine was planned and created, perhaps at the same time that separate images were placed in sockets around the stupa. Happily, the rock surface in this area was more solid than throughout most of the site.

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45 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 1 left rear The identification of this famous Ajanta Cave 1 bodhisattva is elusive, but it can surely be seen as a version of Avalokitesvara, benignly protective of the Buddha in the shrine farther to the rear. He is paired with the equally beautiful figure of Vajrapani at the right of the shrine antechamber entrance.



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46 Bagh fl. 462–477 painting in storage: bodhisattva This subtly drawn figure is probably a representation of the most popular bodhisattva at both Ajanta and Bagh. Like so many other paintings once in Bagh’s caves, it has now been taken off the wall and is kept in storage.

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47 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 1 Both Ajanta and Bagh reflect the high quality and sophistication of the culture of what we call India’s “Classic Age”, which reached its apogee in the 460s and 470s, during the reign of the Vakataka emperor Harisena. The garments, the coiffeurs, the ornaments for the body in many of the paintings and sculptures speak in particular of the life of the luxury-loving upper classes.



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48 Bagh fl. 462–477 Painting in storage Bagh and Ajanta are almost precisely identical sites in terms of their dates, and their many telling connections suggest a constant intercourse between them. One might here and in the related example note the use of expensive lapis lazuli that was very sparingly used at first—apparently until traders from Afghanistan became increasingly aware of the developing Vakataka market.

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49 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 1 right rear Although the Buddha himself can never be shown with jewelry or luxurious garments, such a strict rule does not apply to bodhisattvas, such as the beautiful figures flanking the entrance to the Cave 1 antechamber. His elaborate crown, into which three thrones are subtly incorporated, surely was not a product of the painter’s imagination, but is very likely a close copy of the very crown that the emperor Harisena himself wore.



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50 Bagh fl. 462–477 Painting in storage Barely visible beneath its obscuring layer of black ritual soot, the superb artistry of the Bagh painter can still be barely seen. Note especially the highly elaborated crown of the more visible figure. At both Ajanta and Bagh the white ornaments are more visible, since the white pigments used are rather fugitive and over the course of time tend to “clean themselves” of the soot that otherwise would be obscuring them.

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51 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 1 ceiling Painters in the later caves took advantage of the very position of the ceilings to often include aerial figures. Here, in one of the four similarly designed quadrants of the huge central ceiling medallion in Cave 1, a stunningly young and beautiful flying couple is bringing their offering to the Buddha in the shrine.



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52 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 3 ceiling Much obscured by soot, this beautiful couple—like the example from Ajanta Cave 1, one of four such flying celestials— again reveals the intimate connection between the work of the artists at the two closely related sites.

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53 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 4 shrine antechamber Representations of six standing Buddhas attending the “primary” Buddha in the shrine are only found very late at Ajanta—not before 477—and represent a significant iconographic development. Here, the towering figures were never finished, providing an instructive example of sculptural work in progress.



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54 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 3 mandorlas The new concept of Buddhas attending Buddha was almost certainly developed at Bagh, and then transmitted to Ajanta, where it became a rapidly popular new and meaningful concept. But because the Bagh sandstone was so friable, the Buddha images had to be made of wood and/or plaster and then plugged in against the painted mandorlas made for this purpose.

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55 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 6U shrine This well-known painting of an incense-offerant in Cave 6U at Ajanta probably mimics in paint the very actions of the real devotees who attended the many Buddhas throughout the site.



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56 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 3 The incense-offerant kneeling beneath one of the large (now-missing) plugged-in standing Buddhas in Bagh Cave 3 is related closely in both date and style to its painted counterpart in Ajanta Cave 6U. The figure has an incense holder, and also what appears to be an offering pot in his other hand.

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57 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 17 shrine antechamber As time went on, the artists at Ajanta developed more and more varied motifs, such as this skillfully and rapidly drawn representation of two musicians close to the shrine in Cave 17. One is playing the sarangi, the other keeping time.



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58 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 3 painting detail Both at Ajanta and at Bagh one is often delighted by the skill of the draughtsmen, such as the one who rendered the simple backdrop (lower portion) for one of the added Buddha images in Bagh Cave 3. The fingers of the otherwise missing figure at the left are particularly striking in their assurance.

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59 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 1 ceiling Although the earliest ceilings at Ajanta were quite simple, like the earliest ones at Bagh, the latest ceilings, like this in Cave 1, were filled with a plethora of wonderfully painted and often highly covered forms. Happily, because Cave 1 was never in worship, the ceiling, being unsullied by smoke from worship, is still in almost pristine condition, except for the unfortunate breakage of some large areas.



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60 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 ceiling This fragment of the much-fallen ceiling in Cave 2 probably dates to the late 460s, like it relatively simple counterparts at Ajanta. One can see the colorful red sandstone surface beneath, as well as the blackening of the painted surface from many years of deposits from ritual soot. As is generally the case, the areas painted with a white pigment are “self-cleaning”.

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61 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 17 interior The great central hall of Cave 17 was started so early that its pillars, although richly elaborated, are still essentially based on the earlier (Hinayana) octagonal forms. However, the decoration of the cave, and notably that of the ceiling, finished in 471, has a splendor appropriate to a donation made by King Upendragupta, the ruler of the Ajanta region, who, “spending abundant wealth”, was determined to create a hall so splendid that it “cannot even be imagined by little-souled men”.



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62 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 interior Perhaps because Bagh’s soft sandstone was so much easier to excavate than Ajanta’s recalcitrant basalt, the viharas at Bagh were planned from the first to be far more spacious than their counterparts at Ajanta. However, the very friable nature of Bagh’s rock necessitated further support of the ceiling, by means of four massive pillars cut in the center of the expansive space.

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63 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 1 interior The emperor Harisena, actually a Hindu rather than a Buddhist, was the latest of the great patrons at Ajanta to sponsor a hall at the site; and perhaps because of this delay, his planners could take advantage of earlier developments both at Ajanta itself and at Bagh. The solid square-based new format of his Cave 1’s pillars, as well as their richly varied designs, were surely based on precedents found somewhat earlier at Bagh.



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64 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 4 Not influenced, as was the case at Ajanta, by the Hinayana halls already present at the site, the Bagh planners were free to develop very different and particularly appropriate new designs for their pillars. The massive square bases and thick shafts of the pillars were most appropriate, given the soft and friable nature of Bagh’s huge excavations, and were very soon taken over as the pillar form of choice.

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65 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 26 view Because of the durability of Ajanta’s hard basalt, and because they are generally set back deeply in the ravine’s scarp, Ajanta’s excavations are mostly intact, except for many of the exposed porch colonnades. However, this is not true of Caves 27 and the right wing of Cave 26. Here, in large part because they were begun so early, when the planners were still inexperienced, some of the cells were cut too close to the face of the cliff. Then, due to the actions of the elements on features already weakened by the very process of excavation, the more forward elements have over the centuries broken away and have fallen into the ravine below.



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66 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 7 interior The kind of damage suffered by the Bagh caves is quite different from any such problems found at Ajanta. At Bagh, when the caves became partially filled up with deep debris, varying seasonally from changing from wet to dry and dry to wet, the action of this intrusive material literally disintegrated the soft sandstone at the lower level, causing the collapse of many of the pillars and then, consequently, of the ceilings above. The interior of the huge Cave 7 provides a poignant example of the process and its results.

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67 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 24 interior At Ajanta a number of the ambitious excavations were never able to be used because they were never finished; time suddenly ran out for all of the excavations at the site within a mere matter of months after the great emperor Harisena died in 477. As a result, in unfinished donations such as Cave 24, one can clearly make out the course of the excavation process.



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68 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 4 damaged cells At Bagh, except in the case of the abandoned Cave 3, where the very weakness of the rock probably frustrated the too-expansive plan, the problem is not before, but after the caves were completed. In some cases, even the cell interiors were sometimes disintegrated by the action of the building up of debris; here the view is of a series of sequential cell interiors, opened up to our view by the breaking away of the side walls that once separated them from each other!

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69 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 1 Ground plan This plan of Ajanta Cave 1 has been rendered with characteristically dependable precision by the draftsmen working for James Burgess in the late nineteenth century. This shows not only the care taken in making the plan, but (more important!) the care that was taken by the excavators in making the cave itself, probably urged on by the fact it was the emperor’s cave, and also that it was not undertaken until late enough (466) for excavation techniques at the site to have already been much improved.



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70 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 Plan In contrast to the precision of the many plans made under Burgess’s supervision, the plans of the Bagh caves ordered by John Marshall were more ideal than actual. The cells appear to be very neatly ordered here, but in actuality, they are neither truly square nor truly parallel. Almost certainly because the Bagh viharas such as Caves 2 and 4 were already underway before proper disciplines had been developed by the planners at either Bagh or Ajanta, the first cells made (near the front) were badly skewed, and this had the accumulating effect of skewing the later more rearward cells more and more badly as work progressed toward the cave rear.

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71 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 6L storage area at right Just as the planners at Ajanta and Bagh had supplied most of the completed cells with amenities such as clothes-poles and sometimes excavated cupboard-like niches at the cell’s rear, to say nothing of workable doors and shuttered windows, they also sometimes provided the storage facilities quite necessary for these increasingly active sites. An early example is still able to be understood in Cave 6L, even though the wooden platform, held up by large beams (see socket holes at right) is long since gone. A later very deep and added storage room, like similar ones at Bagh can be found at the left rear of Cave 17.



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72 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 4 storage Like so many of the features in the various Bagh caves, the storage areas at the rear of both Cave 2 and Cave 4 are much deteriorated. Just as in its counterpart in Cave 17 at Ajanta, the inner chambers of these storehouses are excavated at a deeper level than the cells to which they were appended.

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73 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 1 view to rear From almost the start of developments at Ajanta, the shrine was fronted by a pillared antechamber, the latter to be decorated with significant paintings honoring the Buddha seated in the shrine chamber itself. The images on either side of the shrine doorway were of particular importance. In Cave 17 there are paintings of the Buddha himself at left and right, while later on, in Caves 1 and 2, the same positions have been assigned to paired bodhisattvas, probably reflecting the influence of the treatment of such areas at Bagh.



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74 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 Because the rock in its shrine antechamber area had more integrity than was usually the case at the site, in Bagh Cave 2 a pair of carved bodhisattvas could be carved on either side of the shrine doorway, while standing Buddhas and attendant figures were carved on the two side walls. However, slightly later, in the antechamber of Bagh Cave 7, figures of the same type, could not be carved but had to be made separately and then plugged into receiving-holes. The holes are still visible today, although they cannot be made out in this photograph.

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75 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 26 stupa By the mid-60s, the original conception of the caitya hall was being radically changed. For the first time in the history of the subcontinent, it was now intended to front the stupa with a carved image of the standing Buddha. This was a dramatic innovation, perhaps originally conceived at Bagh, but now dramatically revealed at Ajanta in Cave 19, and then later transformed from the intended standing image into a seated Buddha in Cave 26.



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76 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 7 By the time that Bagh Cave 7 was underway, the expected shrine stupa was newly conceived, with a separate (added) carved standing Buddha and two attendants on a special projection made to hold such images. The images themselves are now, understandably, lost, but three sockets, the center one larger, allow such a conceptual reconstruction. This new emphasis on sculptured carved figures, now also apparently added to the Cave 2 and 4 stupas (which have relevant sockets added on the floor in the shrine) surely reflects, or parallels, or perhaps anticipates the dramatic developments now transforming the intended mode and object of worship in Ajanta’s caitya halls.

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77 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 11 shrine Following the precedents at Bagh, where stupas were first added to the original vihara concept, a stupa was started in Cave 11 by about 468. However the new idea at the site was very short lived, probably because the introduction of Buddha imagery as the devotional focus in Ajanta’s caitya halls was such a compelling new development. Thus all later shrines at Ajanta have “resident” Buddha images, and the shrine antechambers now start to be lavishly decorated, as appropriate in such merit-making contexts.



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78 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 The shrine and shrine antechamber of Bagh Cave 2 must have once been elaborately decorated, but all traces of the painting are now gone. Nonetheless, no matter how stark the area is now, it provided the prototype for all of the subsequent focal areas in the caves at Ajanta, even though at Ajanta Buddha images were established in the shrines almost from the start (about 468), and perhaps soon provided ideas for the added (but now missing) Buddha and bodhisattva images that were “plugged in” around earlier stupas at Bagh.

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79 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 4 Shrine Buddha Although, like Ajanta Cave 1, Ajanta Cave 4 was originally intended to have a shrine with a stupa cut from the block of stone revealed at its center, this early conception was never realized because after a break in its excavation in 468, ideas had profoundly changed. Therefore when work was started again a Buddha instead of a stupa was cut from the central block, while in fact (as again in Cave 1) it had never been fully cut out at the sides and rear. At the same time, (as in Cave 1 once more) the now-expected late devotees were added below.



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80 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 4 stupa base When Cave 7 was developed, the shrine’s stupa was planned to hold a Buddha image, plugged in to the frontal projection made for this purpose. In the slightly earlier shrines of Bagh Caves 2 and 4, separately made Buddha and bodhisattva figures could be added later only by being set up into notches cut into the shrine floor around the stupas for this purpose. Since the convention of having Buddha images in the shrines was started in 468 at Ajanta, it is likely that these added figures in Bagh Cave 4 (and 2) belong to that year or slightly later.

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81 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 19 stupa The first shrine Buddhas at Ajanta never had the bodhisattva attendants that are essential features in later representations. The concept was developed first in King Upendragupta’s Caves 17, 19, and 20, and thereafter is standard for all shrine images and other important Buddha panels from this same time on. The first of these just-added bodhisattvas would have been two which, for lack of space on the stupa itself, were carved on the pair of pillars closest to the stupa. Unfortunately, being projecting figures, they have long since been lost, probably from vandalism. Only traces of the feet now remain.



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82 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 Buddha group The splendidly conceived images of the attended Buddhas carved on the side walls of the antechamber of Bagh Cave 2 are so authoritatively composed that they must have attracted the attention and admiration of the workers from Ajanta who would have often come to this connected site. It seems very possible that the very concept of such bodhisattvaattended Buddhas was first brought to Ajanta through such connections.

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83 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 17 Shrine Buddha The Buddha image with its attendant bodhisattvas is the first of such a complex group, having been composed and carved shortly after the disconnected combination of Buddha and his attendant bodhisattvas was carved in Cave 17. In fact the whole composition is so surprisingly elaborated that the king ordered two extra standing figures to be added. They may well represent “portraits” of Upendragupta himself, along with his beloved but deceased brother.



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84 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 Buddha group The arrangement of the antechamber of Bagh Cave 2 is surprisingly complex, considering that it was probably conceived and carved in the early 460s as an integral part of the shrine plan. At this point the stupa was still the primary focus of devotional attention. It was honored by a carved bodhisattva on either side of the shrine doorway, while at either side—here at the left—the splendid attended-Buddha compositions were cut into the antechamber’s walls.

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85 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 26 intrusive Buddha Although most of the socalled “post-Gupta” sites (Kanheri, Jogesvari, Elephanta, and even Deogarh) are more properly considered “post-Vakataka”, Ajanta and Bagh (only!) can be called “post-Gupta”. Both in terms of time and location and even in possibly remaining political connections Ajanta was a ready recipient of the high cultural values that had developed under the Gupta aegis and could now rather directly influence the ambitious developments, artistic and other, under the rapidly growing and flourishing reign of the Vakataka emperor Harisena (460–477) who came to power at the very time that the Gupta dynasty was starting its long decline.



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86 Bagh fl. 462–477 Cave 2 Buddha group: attending bodhisattva Both the splendid paintings and sculptures found at Bagh and Ajanta were clearly infused and vivified by the rich Gupta influences that had gone before. The calm and svelte character—the lotiform grace—of such figures as this bodhisattva from the Buddha panel in Bagh Cave 2 reflect a style which may well have been transmitted by artists and artisans drawn into the increasingly exuberant Vakataka context, where plenty of employment as well as inspiration were happily now available.

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87 Ajanta fl. 462–478 Cave 26 right aisle intrusive Buddhas/intrusions 479– 480 The “takeover” of activity at the site by new and “uninvited”, indeed previously excluded, donors produced a plethora of votive images of the Buddha in the brief Period of Disruption belonging to the troubled years after the emperor Harisena’s death. Such images were only made in caves, such as Caves 26, that had already been safely dedicated before their donors’ departure from the site. Here, in the still available rearward reaches of Cave 26’s right aisle, various different intrusive donors have cut a repetitive series of Buddha panels, expecting to receive the merit from their offerings to the Buddha.



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88 Bagh fl. 462–477 Bagh Cave 2, 462–477, painted wall Whereas all of the dedicated caves at Ajanta wear used by intrusive donors in 479–480 for their votive donations, there were no such intrusions at Bagh, where it would seem that the caves were used and protected by the sangha continually up until the mid480s, when we know that Maharaja Subandhu (acc c.485) was still caring for them. However, any further decoration seems to have stopped by 478, when a period of troubles began for the declining Vakataka empire with the death of the great emperor Harisena. All of the remaining wall painting—now much damaged and often obscured by ceremonial grime—must be dated to the active phase of excavation and decoration that ended with Harisena’s death late in 477.

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89 Ajanta Cave 26 462–478 view of front

90 Ajanta Cave 19 462–471 view of front



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91 Ajanta Cave 29 469–471 Excavated only at vault level. Placed by Upendragupta at a higher level above Cave 19

92 Ajanta Caves 9–12 (right to left) 1st BCE–1st CE

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93 Ajanta Cave 26, 462–478 interior, view to stupa



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94 Ajanta Cave 26 462–478 Stupa: showing uncharacteristic wide space behind stupa, after being shifted forward for solstitial reasons

95 Ajanta Cave 10, 1st CE interior, view to stupa

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96 Ajanta Cave 26, 462–478 interior



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97 Ajanta Cave 26, 462–478 façade, upper level

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98 Ajanta Cave 26 462–478 The porch pillars retain their original positions but both the main doorway and the caitya arch have been shifted very slightly rightward for solstitial reasons. To compensate, the inner frame of the great arch is made wider at the left than on the right



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99 Ajanta Cave 26, 462–478 porch doorway, rear Ajanta Cave 26 462–478 The porch pillars retain their original positions but both the main doorway and the caitya arch have been shifted very slightly rightward for solstitial reasons. To compensate, the inner frame of the great arch is made wider at the left than on the right

100 Ajanta Cave 26, 462–478 façade

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101 Ajanta Cave 19 462–471, façade; note curvature



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102 Ajanta Cave 19 462–471 Plan (Burgess) measurements taken (without proper equipment!) on Dec 21, when sun’s rays at dawn fell directly on left end of façade

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103 Ajanta Cave 25 462–466 interior

104 Ajanta Cave 19 462–471; view to stupa



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105 Ajanta Cave 19 462–471 When Cave 19 was started, the doorway and the stupa inside were aligned as expected; but a few years later, when the excavators were trying to achieve a solstitial connection, the portico was shifted to the right, affecting the expected view of the stupa within. Compare Fig h, page 185.

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106 Ajanta Cave 19 462–471, interior



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107 Ajanta Cave 19, 462–471 façade, view from below

108 Ajanta Cave 19 462–471 showing angled positioning of façade elements, due to solstitial adjustments (see also 107). Original positioning of cave is shown by the line of the eave at the top

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109 Ajanta Cave 19, 462–471 courtyard floor



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110 Ajanta Cave 19, 462–471 interior, front

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111 Ajanta Cave 19, 462–471 interior, looking out



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112 Ajanta Cave 19, 462–47 interior, vault

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113 Ajanta: Asmaka complex—Caves 21 to 28 (far left), with Upendragupta’s Cave 29 at higher level

114 Ajanta complex Caves 16–23 (left)



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115 Ajanta Cave 29 469–471 façade. Vault level (only) under excavation

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116 Ajanta Cave 29, 469 façade arch



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117 Ajanta Cave 29, 469 interior

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Fig a Map of the Deccan (from Weiner)

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Fig b Ajanta Cave 26 462–478 conceptual plans earlier (top) and later (lower) by Ajit Rao

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Fig c Ajanta Cave 26 462–478 Plan (Burgess) Added broken lines show original position of stupa before being shifted forward and to the left (7 inches) for solstitial reasons



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Fig d Chart re solstices

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Fig e Ground plans of various caitya halls



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Fig f Ajanta Cave 19 462–471 Solstitial adjustments desired (C) and partially achieved (B). (S!) = Axis of winter solstice. (A) presumed axis of cave.

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Fig g Ajanta Cave 19 462–471 Showing the draftsman’s (and visitor’s) typical error in assuming that the stupa and great arch are aligned



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Fig h Ajanta Cave 19 462–471 distant view showing close to original alignment of doorway and stupa (with added outline). Compare Fig 105, page 167.

Fig i Ajanta Cave 19 (Yaguchi sketch) Conceptual view showing excavation of portico, as shifted rightward in attempt to effect a solstitial alignment.

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Fig j Ajanta Cave 29 Plans (Suresh Vasant)



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Fig k Time Chart A: Vakataka Patronage at Ajanta and Related Sites

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Fig l Site plan with patrons

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Fig m Map of India: adjusted to show VAKATAKAS equal to the GUPTAS

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Fig n Reconstruction of events related to the development of the Vakataka caves



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Fig o Defining Features 1

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Fig p Defining Features 2

PART TWO

AJANTA’S CELLS AND CELL DOORWAYS (BY WALTER M. SPINK (TEXT) AND NAOMICHI YAGUCHI (ILLUSTRATIONS))

CHAPTER ONE

AJANTA AND THE TRAJECTORY OF VAKATAKA HISTORY In circa 462, very shortly after the Vakataka Harisena had become emperor, a host of eager workers, coming from many different parts of what is now called Maharashtra, and armed with little more than their chisels and their hammers, arrived at Ajanta’s deep ravine. (See Trajectory illustration 1) Their goal—or rather the goal of their rich and courtly patrons—was to renew the famous old Buddhist site—to bring it up to date. (See Trajectory illustration 2) Working for less than two decades—really for more like a total of fourteen years—they struggled to develop a gathering of caves that, in terms of quality and quantity, to say nothing of speed, turned out to be—even if it was never finished—one of the greatest creative achievements of the world. This great project, which was certainly allowed and supported by the new emperor himself, probably owes its inception to two powerful courtiers. One was Harisena’s Prime Minister, Varahadeva, donor of Cave 16. (See Trajectory illustration 3) The other was the local king of the Ajanta region, Upendragupta, who sponsored the adjacent Cave 17, as well as the splendid caitya hall, Cave 19 and the adjacent Cave 20. Not surprisingly, they chose to put their caves at the very center of the ravine—reflecting their own central importance—where they could dominate the now rapidly growing community of caves from the start. The Prime Minister, quite appropriately, also created the great Elephant Gate, by which all visitors, in those old days, entered the site, first paying homage to the beautiful Nagaraja that you must honor and reverence as you climb up through the steep passageway, tunneled through the black basaltic rock, to the impressive cave above. Varahadeva’s ministerial excavation now has an impressive Buddha inside; but at first both this cave and the adjacent Cave 17 were planned as nothing more than simple viharas—mere dormitories for the monks—as in the earlier Hinayana Cave 12. These first Vakataka viharas were considerably simpler conceptions than what they became a half-decade later (about 468). At that point it was decided to add a shrine at the rear, where Buddha himself would take up residence as a living presence. It was only then—when the cave became conceived as a shrine, not as a mere dormitory, that Varahadeva, in his

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inscription, describes it as adorned with “beautiful picture galleries, statues of the nymphs of Indra and the like”, and “clothed in the radiance of Indra’s crown”.1 Such splendid decoration was obviously added for the Buddha— and of course for the eager patrons—rather than for the simple monks. Varahadeva, who, as prime minister surely had much to do besides making this great cave, describes himself “as extremely devoted to the Buddha, regarding the sacred law as his (only) companion”. And given his high position as Prime Minister, we can be sure that he had access to the imperial exchequer. He even declares that it was Varahadeva himself, and not his emperor Harisena, who “governed the country righteously, shining with the rays of his fame, religious merit and virtue”. But if Varahadeva was the staid and solid bureaucrat, the local king, Upendragupta, was quite different, spending his seemingly abundant resources to “adorn the world with stupas and viharas”, “causing the joy of supplicants” by giving them lavish gifts, and “expending abundant wealth” to create offerings for the Buddha “which cannot even be imagined by little souled men.”2 (See Trajectory illustrations 4, 5, 6) However, his exuberant lavishness may have been misspent, for he was soon going to have to face political realities for which he was ill-prepared. It would have been better to put his lavish funds into securing his region’s safety—by amassing guns and tanks, rather than ordering halls filled with beautiful paintings, and covering the earth with stupas and viharas!. The problem that soon arose to disturb the productive peace of the site’s opening years, was to come from the large and powerful adjacent territory, where the neighbors, at least in the eyes of the other more devoted Vakataka patrons had a reputation for aggression. These were the Asmakas, ruling over the adjacent Aurangabad region. Like Upendragupta and the residents of Risika, they were also feudatories of Harisena; but ominous ones!! The Asmakas had also been involved with the new developments at Ajanta from the start, guided by the powerful monk, Buddhabhadra. (See Trajectory illustration 7) If we ask where the money for his expansive undertakings came from, Buddhabhadra suggests the source in his dedicatory inscription for Cave 26: he proudly claims that he has been the friend

1 From the Cave 16 inscription. Mirashi’s translation of 1963 is reproduced in W. Spink, Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 1 (2005), 412–415. 2 From the Cave 17 inscription. Mirashi’s translation of 1963 is reproduced in W. Spink, Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 1 (2005), 414–418.



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of the minister of Asmaka “through many successive births”.3 They had been recycled together through their earlier lives!! With this significant and necessary support, Buddhabhadra took over the whole western extremity of the site as the Asmaka’s own, creating the great Cave 26, a caitya hall with four attached wings, that in its size and ambitiousness immediately outdid the offerings of the local king. Indeed, this whole magnificent Cave 26 complex is suggestive of the Asmaka’s ominous power—power that ultimately would be used to destroy the empire. But at the start, for the first half-dozen years (462–468), peace reigned over the region and the site. In fact, in this happy context, the whole ravine began to rapidly fill up from the start. It is clear, of course, that the site could not have flourished, as it so clearly did in these early years, without peace in the various realms that comprised Harisena’s inheritance—western Vidarbha, Anupa (lying to the northwest, Rishika (the Ajanta region) and Asmaka (the region around present-day Aurangabad).4 So, for the first half decade of Ajanta’s urgent development—up until about 468, with more than a dozen rich and eager patrons involved, the site’s rapid development went happily and peacefully. Obviously, everyone— patrons, planners, artists and excavators—in these early days, were vigorously aiming to outdo both their rivals and, indeed, themselves. But this could not last. In 468, with little or no warning, Upendragupta, the local king, suddenly expelled the powerful Asmakas from the site, while their great caitya hall complex was still very much in process. The fact that Upendragupta did not even allow the Asmakas time to finish the shrine Buddha images that were already underway, and the fact that he stopped work on all caves except for the four “royal caves”—his own Caves 17, 19, and 20, and the emperor’s Cave 1—suggests the level of his concern.5 The “abundant wealth” that he had been using so lavishly “to cover the world with stupas and viharas”, now obviously—even if too late!—had to be used for arming his endangered territory. Although Upendragupta had co-opted many of the most experienced and skilled workmen at the site to continue developing his “almost measureless” halls, “which could not even be imagined by little-souled men”, he 3 From the Cave 26 inscription. Chhabra’s translation of 1955 is reproduced in W. Spink, Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 1 (2005), 419–420. 4 Discussed at more length later in the paper. 5 Upendragupta did allow the donors of the images in Caves 6L, 7, 11, and 15 to rush their shrine images (but little else) to completion between 469 and 471. Also Buddhabhadra continued hurried work on his Cave 16 throughout 469, but made no attempt to continue it later, until at least 476 or 477, when the site was under Asmaka control.

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was obviously worried about the Asmaka’s plans. As time went on, signs of haste appear in the work of decorating the caves, and finally, as the Asmaka threat mounted, he ordered all of his donations to be finished in a rather sudden rush. (See Trajectory illustration 8) Or he just suddenly abandoned certain developments, like his new (and second) chaitya hall—Cave 29— that he had just started up on the hill above. Nonetheless, even as his concerns increased, Upendragupta gave very special attention to his beautiful caitya hall, Cave 19, the intended ceremonial center of the site, carefully attending to its splendid design and the beauty of its rich overlay of brilliantly conceived and sacred features. However, even though he was so urgently attempting to get his hall fully completed, he did not have time to properly complete what was obviously going to be the most lengthy and richly laudatory dedication at the site. A very spacious panel had been prepared for it, over the door of the hall. However, it seems likely that the Brahmins in the capital had not had time to compose it or for the local engravers to get it appropriately incised, before 472, when the powerful Asmakas, seeking revenge for their earlier expulsion, now returned in force. Besides rapidly taking up work again on their own complex, perhaps to further establish their new authority, they now allowed the various other donors at the site—but with the notable (and expected) exception of Upendragupta—to continue work on their own caves once again. It is clear that the Asmakas, although still feudatories of their overlord, Harisena, were now effectively in control of the site. And it is equally clear that Upendragupta, who had just summarily rushed his caves to completion, had now himself been expelled from it. Indeed, the first thing that the Asmakas had done, in taking over control of Ajanta, was to lock the doors (as it were) of Upendragupta’s splendid caitya hall, disallowing any worship there at all! In fact this is why it shows no evidence at all of the grime from the oil lamps which would have been used in worship—so it is remarkably clean today! And another thing that the Asmakas did was to heedlessly and insultingly cut a path right through two of Cave 19’s court cells, to make a convenient access to the own great cave complex beyond to the west. Even though the Asmaka’s self-seeking interests would soon be manifest, under their strong new authority Ajanta now flourished as never before. The technical skills and the high standards that the planners of Upendragupta’s caves, and even more perhaps of Harisena’s ‘imperial Cave 1, had developed, were now widely available to all, while the growing fame of the site must have attracted increasing numbers of workmen, eager for work



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and for recognition. For we are now, at Ajanta, moving toward the very apogee of India’s “Golden Age” during the rule of the great emperor Harisena. This apogee, defined, as it were, by the very moment of Ajanta’s final and greatest flourishing in 477, was fragile, however. For after 477—that is, after Harisena, who had held everything together, disappeared from the scene—Central India was about to enter a long and deep dark age. The qualities of art and culture in the Golden Age, as it moved toward this fragile apogee, is expressed best of all in the beautiful Cave 1, which probably benefited from the fact that it was not started until about six years after the site’s inauguration. (See Trajectory illustration 9) This may have been because Harisena was a Hindu rather than a Buddhist. And although religious attitudes in those days were very ecumenical, that may still have already caused some delay to his own personal involvement. In fact this delay meant that he now had to locate his cave at the extreme eastern end of the site, because by then all of the other areas of the scarp had been taken, so rapidly did Ajanta fill up. And just to get back deep enough in the cliff to excavate the large porch and hall, the planners had to lay out a huge courtyard. This may have seemed desirable for ceremonial purposes, but it also collected debris over many centuries, and this debris built up so deeply inside the cave that it gradually reached a depth of four or five feet, even deep in the rear aisle of the cave. The legs of the great bodhisattvas in the rear aisle have been lost up to thigh level because of this deadly contact with the deepening debris. (See Trajectory illustration 10) As the most splendid and at the same time dignified vihara in India, Cave 1, in every way proclaims its imperial origins. It is the only vihara at the site with a lavishly decorated façade—it various motifs—depictions of the hunt, of battle, and of erotic dalliance—all prerogatives, indeed the duties, of kingship. (See Trajectory illustration 11) And this same appropriate royal focus is revealed in the hall’s splendid wall paintings in the interior—again all tellingly focused on the theme of kingship. Even in the jataka tales where serpents are the central figures, the serpents are shown as serpent kings. And in their beauty and variety—at least a dozen different artists worked on the impressive murals—these murals, and the startlingly splendid ceiling, were all apparently being rushed to get the decoration of the cave completed in time for the expected dedication ceremonies. (See Trajectory illustration 12) For this reason, all can be dated to 476 and 477, although there are a few unfinished scenes that are still incomplete. In any case, these splendid murals, filling the hall with edifying stories of kings, were flourishing just as time was running out. (See Trajectory illustration 13)

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Unfortunately, however, although they represent the highpoint of the painted decoration at the site, they were underway too late to have any very significant impact on other caves, for after Harisena’s sudden death in 477, no other murals of this type were ever done. (See Trajectory illustration 14) The site had already started its dramatic decline, fomented by the powerful Asmaka feudatories. The powerful Asmakas, now controlling the site, were not satisfied with merely taking over the Ajanta region from the pious but profligate Upendragupta, who spent so lavishly on his religious donations, when he should have been building up his army!; The Asmakas obviously had more than just Ajanta in mind: they were out to take over, to conquer, the whole empire too! The first hint that we have of their dark plans, as revealed in Dandin’s Dasakumaracarita.6 Therein we are told that they sent the son of the Asmaka minister—the very son honored in Buddhabhadra’s Cave 26 inscription— off to Harisena’s court, to do what damage he could to the Vakataka’s authority and power. He arrived at the court in Vidarbha “with a numerous train of musicians and greatly skilled dancing girls and numerous retainers and spies in various disguises” and immediately set about, with his tales of wine, women, and song, trying to corrupt the all too impressionable young Vakataka prince. This was the future Sarvasena III—who, as Dandin tells us, “unluckily held the science of politics in little esteem”, a judgment that his future actions, once he had succeeded to power, confirms. But if we can credit Dandin’s assertion that “numerous retainers and spies in various disguises” sent by the Asmakas were now working nefariously at the Vakataka court, while the great Harisena was still ruling and holding his vast empire together, we can perhaps lay the blame for the great emperor’s sudden death (he was in his early fifties at the time) at the Asmaka’s door. Dandin tells us little about this, except to describe the vigor of Harisena’s rule and to blame his mysterious death as “owing to the want of religious merit on the part of his subjects”. But Harisena’s death certainly was not due to natural causes and a slow decline—diabetes or tuberculosis or cancer—for if this had been the case, he could have rushed his great Cave 1, unfinished or not, to a hasty dedication. It was only then that he could obtain the merit from his pious donation, merit that he could not

6 The Visrutacarita (The story of Visruta), comprises Uchchhavasa VIII of Dandin’s Dasakumaracarita. All quotations given here are from M. R. Kale’s translation, reproduced in Spink, Ajanta: History and Development, Vol. I, 2005, 393–411.



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receive as long as the ceremonies had not been performed. My own belief, necessarily cautious, is that he was assassinated—perhaps by poison or the knife—by the Asmakas who had infiltrated his court. But even as dark intrigues had been going on at the Vakataka court, Ajanta, as if unaware of the dangers developing at the heart of the empire, was flourishing. The world, while Harisena was still alive, was one of a radiant optimism that is reflected in every form. And this, all believed, was surely going to go on into a continually happy future, supported by the strength of the great empire that Harisena had put together. When the prime minister Varahadeva, inscribed his great Cave 16 in 477, with Harisena at the height of his power, he publicly described Harisena’s political might, whether achieved by inheritance, or marriage arrangements, or war, or intrigue.7 He announced, for all to see, at the very entrance to the site, that the emperor “controlled” or “stood over” “Kuntala, Avanti, Kalinga, Kosala, Trikuta, Lata, Andhra and even Aparanta”.8 The latter name, damaged in the record, has been reconstructed by Dr. S. Gokhale.9 And to these later holdings we must of course add the regions that Harisena inherited when he succeeded his father Devasena in about 460. These latter important central areas were western Vidarbha, Anupa (lying to the northwest), Rishika (the Ajanta region) and Asmaka—the region around present-day Aurangabad. It was by extending his area of control outward, from this original base that by the end of his reign, Harisena had extended his original base in Central India from the western to the eastern sea. (See Trajectory illustration 15) But in the following year—478—when the news of the great emperor’s sudden death reached the site, the exuberance of Ajanta’s last happy days, suddenly turn to chaos, as fears that the aggressive Asmakas, who had in effect taken over the site, were surely intending to take over the empire too from Harisena’s weak successor, Sarvasena III. Indeed, it was only too soon that most of the many feudatory powers that Harisena had added to his empire now became part of the Asmaka’s military and political coalition. And finally, when Sarvasena III, in the troubled context of the early 480s, saw the border of his kingdom invaded, he hastily mobilized his own forces 7 It should be noted that since these holdings included eastern provinces previously held by the so-called “Main Branch” of the Vakataka house. Since they had been taken over by Harisena by the time that Varahadeva’s inscription was written (477), there is no justification to the common assertion that the so-called “Main Branch” continued into the early decades of the sixth century. 8 H. Bakker prefers “stood over”, but this has the same general meaning as the more common suggestion: “controlled” for the term missing in the record. 9 S. Gokhale, 1992, 269–278.

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to engage the coalition in battle. But being outnumbered and outmaneuvered, he “became mincemeat” (Ryder) on the field of battle.10 Or, as Kale translates it more soberly: “he fell a prey to those princes—as he was totally averse to the science of politics.”11 But by 478, reacting to the harsh realities of Harisena’s passing, Ajanta was already in collapse. All of the previously powerful and established Vakataka courtiers had by now, suddenly, gone into a frenzy, aiming to rush their shrines and most especially their Buddha images to completion. For it is clear that only if the shrine image was dedicated could the donor receive the spiritual benefit from his donation. No matter how much elaborate work of excavation and decoration had been done in a cave, if the shrine image did not get completed and dedicated, the cave was dead. So, in 478, starting immediately after the emperor’s death was known, all of the Vakataka patrons, who had been working along on their caves at a slower pace, making sure that the work was being well done, suddenly dropped everything else, and told the workers to get the shrine images completed. Cave 4 can serve as a typical example of how attitudes and indeed the images that reveal them changed from the happy and confident context of 477, while Harisena was still so powerfully ruling, to the desperate context of religious concern as the world was so suddenly falling apart in 478, after the emperor’s unexpected tragic death. In 477, the carving of Cave 4’s powerful Buddha image was just nearing completion, and now, for the first time, six powerful images—the Six Buddhas of the past—were being made to complement the image of Sakyamuni in the shrine. (See Trajectory illustration 16) A richly decorated shrine doorway was also planned, with traditional representations of loving couples and exuberant floral decorations. But suddenly all these long honored exuberant forms were replaced with Buddhas, Buddhas, Buddhas, to complement the image in the shrine. At the same time, the Buddha image itself was now being hurriedly painted, in 478, in preparation for the consecration ceremonies that were essential if the image was going to be brought to life and if the patron, who would have paid for it all exclusively himself, was going to get the credit—the spiritual benefit. As for the six wonderful standing Buddhas in the shrine antechamber, only the two 10 A. Ryder, The Tale of the Ten Princes, 1927, 215. Ryder’s translation is, in general, less precise than Kale’s. 11 M. R. Kale, Dandin’s Dasakumaracarita: in Spink, Ajanta: History and Development, Volume I, 2005, 405.



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that flank the shrine doorway were rushed to completion. The other four remain as instructive examples of work in progress. Even the shrine was not properly finished; its walls did not even get plastered, so say nothing of being painted. But the important thing for the patron was that, despite this necessary rush, the image was brought to life, before the patron himself fled from the site, after ordering a hasty dedicatory inscription cut roughly into the image’s base. Although only seven shrines or shrine images had been finished in all of the years prior to 478.12 But now, suddenly, no less than twelve (both new and old) were rushed to completion, like that in Cave 4, in a few months in 478, so great was the concern of the patrons about Ajanta’s (and perhaps their own) uncertain but ominous future.13 And even the Asmaka caves were now shutting down, as both workers and the previously lavish funds were sent off in preparation now not for worship but for war. And by cruel chance this was very moment that the great Cave 26 was being finished, and that the sculptors had just reached new heights in their work. (See Trajectory illustration 17) This is the moment, in 477 and 478 that Buddhabhadra’s artists had created the amazing Dying Buddha and the equally impressive Temptation of the Buddha, and about to start other ambulatory images of equal splendor, had not the sounds of war, or the preparations for war, put a stop to the completion of their dreams. The earlier—Hinayana—caves at the site, excavated some 2000 years before, were clearly community offerings—inscribed on the front of the cave, “the gift of the façade by Katahadi”; and inside, “the gift of a wall”, and so forth. But in the site’s Vakataka phase, every cave was a private offering. If you could finish it—or at least get the shrine Buddha done and dedicated—you alone would get the spiritual benefit; and if you could not finish it yourself, it seems likely that no one else would or could do it for you.14 So this was another reason for the rush in 478. By the end of that

12 The shrine images in 6L, 7, 11, 15 were all being rushed toward completion in early 469. Upendragupta’s shrine images in Caves 17, 19, and 20 were all rushed to completion and dedication in 471. 13 The shrine images in the following caves were rushed to completion and dedication in 478: Caves 2, 4, 8?, 16, 21, 22, 26, 27?, 26 Right Wing, 26 Left Wing; furthermore the earlier shrine images in Caves 7, 11, 15 were re-worked in 478. The shrine images in Aurangabad Cave 3 and 4A were completed by the Asmakas in about 480. 14 Apparently, once you had dedicated the shrine image and gained the merit, you could then share the benefits widely: typically for one’s “mother and father”, and even for “the whole world”. “May this Hall, out of affection. . . . . cause the attainment of well-being by good people as long as the sun dispels darkness by its rays! (verse 29, Cave 17 inscription).

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frenetic year all of the original patrons, even in the Asmaka caves, were gone, leaving their unfinished caves behind. Now suddenly, the old rules—that kept the caves as such exclusive, personal, dedications—were gone, and the earlier administrative controls on the site no longer applied. Now, finally, in 479 and 480—while the site was still surviving, even if the world was changing for the worse, a host of new and “intrusive” donors—the monks still living in the caves (where else could they go?) and the local villagers, took over the site, to make their own offerings, using the many hungry painters and sculptors still in the area; and making the merit for themselves. Neither the local villagers nor the monks ever had the right to make any offerings in the caves before, and now they were making up for it with their helter-skelter votive offerings. (See Trajectory illustration 18) Now they could put their new Buddha images anywhere, inside or outside the caves. But there was one proviso. Such new votive offerings could only be put in or on caves that were already dedicated—that were, therefore, alive. Indeed, every cave at Ajanta with a dedicated shrine image, has numerous intrusions in it. But if a particular cave was lacking an image (and was obviously not sanctified), no one would add their intrusive image to it, no matter how much space was available. Because such caves were dead! This is why the emperor Harisena’s Cave 1—even though it is the most splendid vihara in India—is dead. Despite its importance and its beauty, it attracted no intrusions. Nor would we expect that it would have them. And it is lacking something else that proves that it is ritually dead. Look at the ceiling of the shrine antechamber. It has not a trace of the grime that in any actively used cave darkened the ceilings and walls and images. (See Trajectory illustration 19) Nor was a garland ever hung from the hook (now missing) at the center; so it shows none of the damage caused by constantly putting up and taking down garlands, as so clearly happened in Cave 2, with was very much alive. Nor does Cave 1 have a prasasti—an inscription praising both the donor and his offering. Because, as seems clear, Harisena’s death was both sudden and unexpected, and there was no time for the Brahmins in the court to compose the dedicatory inscription or to hold the requisite ceremonies. In fact, Cave 1, the most beautiful vihara in India, was never brought to life! The handsome image is just a piece of stone. The greatest patron who fled from Ajanta in the turbulence of 478 was none other than Harisena’s pious prime minister, Varahadeva. In 478 he too had to rush to get his new and revolutionary Cave 16 Buddha image done in time. But now he also had another task. With the great Vakataka empire now in dire jeopardy, it fell to him, as Dandin tells us, to take



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Sarvasena’s queen and her two young children, to the supposed safety of Mahismati (in Anupa), where Sarvasena’s brother was the Vakataka viceroy, who they assumed (as it turned out, only too wrongly) would protect them. And since the old Prime Minister Varahadeva died on the way of a “raging fever”, their real protector, according to Dandin, turned out to an adventurous Gupta prince from Magadha, named Visruta. This wily young hero, Visruta, rapidly came to act as regent to the young Vakataka heir, and at the same time, was engaged to marry the young granddaughter, just when the story, fulsomely describing Visruta’s many virtues, abruptly ends. Since Dandin only hints at Visruta’s future, this leaves scholars to figure out from other sources that the wily and noble Visruta was in fact Subandhu, the famous founder (many scholars think) of what later is known as the Early Kalacuri dynasty. Indeed was it not the case that that dynasty— the Early Kalacuri—was originally built upon the proud but eroding foundation that Visruta/Subandhu’s close connections with the declining Vakataka house supplied. It was he, of course, who in his Barwani inscription of 486, gave funds to support the long-established sangha at Bagh and “to repair the rent and broken portions of the vihara”. At both of these closely contemporary Ajanta caves work broke off, as we can well understand, when the stability of the soon to be doomed empire was shattered by Harisena’s untimely death at the end of 477.15 Already in 478, when at Ajanta the frantic Vakataka patrons were rushing to complete their shrine images, do the required rituals, and receive the eternal credit for their offering, for Central India was now entering a dark age, both politically and culturally. From the last two decades of the fifth century into the start of the sixth, few great deeds were done or monuments built, while Central India was slowly recovering from the tragic loss of the great emperor Harisena. But beyond that is a period of remarkable renewal, when many of the monuments that we traditionally call PostGupta—but properly call Post-Vakataka were made. Generally honoring Shiva more than the Buddha now, the impressive “post-Vakataka” monuments can generally be assigned to the Early Kalacuri dynasty, established in the early 480s by Maharaja Subandhu of

15 It is significant that whereas Ajanta goes into turmoil, with its Period of Disruption, at the time of Harisena’s death, Bagh suffers no such trauma at this time. Although no further work was done in the Bagh caves after about 477, reflecting the general disturbance of the times, it appears that the caves remained in use by the still active sangha right up to (and presumably somewhat beyond) the accession of Maharaja Subandhu just before he offered further support to the sangha in 486.

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Mahismati, the proper inheritor of the last fragments of the once proud Vakataka house.16 Beginning in about the second decade of the sixth century, Central India, and especially the rocky cliffs of Maharashtra, are rich with splendid rock-cut monuments—Kanheri, Jogesvari, Mandapeshwar, Elephanta, the early caves at Ellora, the later caves at Aurangabad, and many others. (See Trajectory illustration 20) These are monuments that we now should properly recognize not as Post-Gupta, as has often been the case, but as Post-Vakataka—honoring their connection with a rich and startling past.

16 See discussion in Part 1, Chapter 2.

CHAPTER TWO

AJANTA’S CELLS AND CELL DOORWAYS In this brief study I attempt to lay out the year by year development of door fittings at Ajanta during the 460s and 470s, the years of its brief renaissance under Vakataka patronage.1 The first cell doorways at Ajanta were probably not even penetrated prior to 465—a few years after the initial excavation work had started on the earliest Vakataka caves at the site—while the latest ones would not have been cut after 478, the year that saw the complete breakdown of all consistent excavating activity at the site.2 Thus all of the many variants both in the ways of cutting the doorways and in the ways of fitting them out developed within a span of less than fifteen years. This being the case, it is only reasonable to describe the changes, which progress in surprisingly discrete ways, on a year-to-year basis. The sequence of this development is firmly fixed, being determined both by the fittings of the cell doorways and their context. However, the specific dates given for each cell are necessarily somewhat arbitrary, for there are no dated inscriptions at the site. That means that its whole Vakataka development must be positioned between two external poles: the Hisse Borala inscription of Devasena (458 CE) on the one hand and the inscription of Maharaja Subandhu of Mahismati (486 CE) on the other. Within this span of twenty-eight years, we must allow for Harisena to succeed Devasena, and for all of the events attendant upon the site’s breakdown, the destruction of the Vakataka empire, and the establishment of Subandhu’s assumption of power in Mahismati. Juggling (as it were) these many balls in the air, it seems most reasonable to place the first work at Ajanta in 462 CE, and the final collapse of the site’s consistent patronage in 478.3 The rationale for both the dating of the site and its placement within the larger span has been given in previous volumes.

1 Cell door fittings will be discussed first; the fittings of porch and shrine doorways will follow. 2 For the possibility that a few early doorways in Cave 20 were being hastily fitted out in the Period of Disruption (479–480) see below “Cave 20”. See below “Cave 16” and Spink, Ajanta, V, 202, for E mode fittings probably dating to 478. 3 No residence cells were cut during the brief Period of Disruption (479–480). Excavation was limited to work completing the shrines or adding new intrusive shrinelets.

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Admittedly, cell door fittings play only a modest part in the site’s development. But it might also be said that it is this very unobtrusive, almost incidental, character that makes their evolution so significant, useful, and revealing. Being purely functional features, located “out of the way” at the back of the doorways of the various cells, no one cared how they looked.4 The patrons who paid for them and the monks who were going to live in the cells were concerned only with how well they worked, only how well they held the cells’ wooden doors, and how neatly they provided for the doors’ closure. Thus just as soon as any improvement was wrought, it would gain acceptance with a remarkable rapidity. If one builds a better mousetrap, it is said, the world will beat a path to your door to buy it; no one will want the old kind anymore. Buddha images, on the other hand, are not like mousetraps at all. They depend, in varying degrees, upon persistent historical, ideological, regional and/or personal conventions, and this is more or less true of all of the “meaningful” decorative or structural forms in the caves. We need only compare the fourteen main Buddha images of the Vakataka period that were all finally (and hurriedly) finished and dedicated in 478 (Caves 2, 4, Upper 6, 7, 11, 15, 16, 21, 26, 26RW, 26LW, and in the nearby Aurangabad Caves 3 and 4A as well as in the Ghatotkacha vihara) to be stunned at how remarkably different they all are, even though not one of them, with the exception of the refurbished images in Caves 7, 11 and 15, had been started earlier than 476, a mere three years before.5 Who could guess that they are all belong to the same general (courtly) patronage, and were all brought to completion at the same time!6 Cave 1, although left undecorated after 477, could also be added to this group. Of course the images of Cave 1, 4, and 26, all had been roughed out in very general terms much earlier, even though they were later redesigned. But with cell door fittings, the exact opposite is the case; neither convention nor tradition can seriously block the innocent demands of technology and the goals of its progress.

4 It is remarkable (and helpful) that when the monolithic projects of the B and C modes were abandoned in favor of the D mode, no one troubled to cut the older, now-vestigial, forms away. In fact they often used them as strengtheners, as mentioned later in the discussion. 5 Admittedly, the Buddha images in Caves 7, 11, and 15 were all originally shaped in early 469; but those of Caves 7 and 15 were drastically revised in early 478. The changes made to the Cave 11 image (probably in 478, although possibly a few years earlier) were more superficial. 6 See Spink, Ajanta, I, Chapters 11 and 12 (“Understanding the site’s collapse”).



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I shall describe six basic cell door fittings, and the significant subtypes (conversions), that appear at the site starting from about 464/5, when the earliest cell doorways would have been cut.7 The sequence, with its many telling changes, continues until 479/480, the “Period of Disruption”, when the site’s failing patronage finally ends altogether. At the same time, at the end of this introduction, I shall show how the development of the doorways explicates the site’s “biography”. In presenting this analysis, I shall use the time line of the so-called Short Chronology, discussed at length in earlier volumes in this series. My purpose here is to further justify the correctness of that view of the site’s development in the 460s and 470s, by showing that it “makes sense” when we place the development of door fittings—and by implication the development of the caves that contain them—in such a chronological context. Little by little, the parts fit into the whole. It should of course be noted, and anyone familiar with my so-called “Short Chronology” and its historical justifications will already know, that the dates given therein are by no means unalterably fixed.8 The beginning and end dates (462 and 480) for Ajanta’s development may vary slightly— though surely not (at least in my opinion) by more than two years at the extreme. Toward the middle of the sequence the margin of error might be as much as three or four years, since the whole tapestry of developments remains somewhat elastic, even though it is composed of numerous tightly woven strands. Furthermore, I hope it is obvious that I use overly specific dates—such as “December 31, 477”, for Harisena’s death—to arbitrarily separate the time sequence into useful annual divisions. Thus, as in this single example, we can describe the pattern of the site’s development according to a convenient year to year sequence, distinguishing between the vigorous activity of the last year of Harisena’s reign—“477”—and the disruptive

7 Since the earliest viharas never had cells at their porch ends, until 466, the earliest cells cut must have been those at the front of the interiors, some of which must have been underway by 464 (or surely by 465). 8 In this regard the reader should be aware of my suggested revision of my own “Short Chronology”. I have earlier suggested that the span of the Hiatus—the time that it took for the Asmakas to wrest control of the site from Upendragupta—was three years (472 through 474); but since the actual span is “anyone’s guess” I would prefer now to assign only a single year (472) to this Hiatus, thus giving extra two years for the site’s busy late phase. I wish to apprise the reader of my present, adjusted, view; but since the older span has been used throughout all of my previous publications, I have not made this adjustment even in the present volume, lest it might lead to considerable confusion. However, I have included the revisions on the Time Chart.

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year—“478”—just subsequent to his death. The separation of our developmental sequence into such “whole year” units generally allows a sufficient division in the progress of activity, although in certain “crowded” years, such as 468 and (early) 469, 478, and even 480, one can only speak reasonably of the developments by referring to them as “early” or “late”. That the temporal divisions discussed throughout our study are necessarily somewhat arbitrary must be recognized both in our analysis of the site’s major undertakings, and in the development of the site’s door fittings too. I consistently assign the B mode to 468 and 469, and the C mode to 470 and 471; but I would readily admit the possibility that either or both of these fitting modes could have a somewhat longer or a somewhat shorter duration; and if so, that would obviously affect the overall pattern of development at this intricately interconnected site. However, the flexibility in the pattern is very limited, since it is evident that these relatively early modes (B and C), to say nothing of the A mode, were never cut after the Hiatus. Nor was the recessed D mode ever used before the Hiatus.9 That is, if one must allow a degree of elasticity in our sequence, one must also recognize its sequential inflexibility, as earlier modes are assertively replaced by those developed later on.10 In fact, the distinctive changes in door fittings are the benchmarks that describe and define the site’s development more specifically than any other features. To keep this analysis as focused as possible, as I summarize the character of the cell doorways in the different caves, I shall by and large forego discussion of many related features—features of course necessary for an understanding of the cells’ and indeed the caves’ development with an ideal precision. Instead, at the end, I shall bring such features into a more comprehensive discussion of Cave 17 alone, using that cave as an example of the kind of analysis that might be done for all of the other caves at the site, were such a study either required or desired. In the Cave 17 discussion I shall touch upon matters such as the following: the positioning of the cells vis-a-vis their neighbors, or in relation to the hypostyle, or to flawed areas in the excavations; their state of completion; 9 It is just conceivable that the D mode could have been newly used for the porch doorway of Cave 1, just prior to the Hiatus; but this is unlikely, since the interior was still only partially excavated in 471. Nor is the D mode found at this time in Caves 17 and 20 which, along with Cave 19, were the only other excavations being worked on at this time (471). The main doorway of Cave 19 is exceptional: see discussion below. 10 One can conceive of the whole sequence of motifs as inscribed on a rubber band, which could be either contracted or stretched out to some degree. But the relative position of the items—the “defining features”—would not change.



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the significance of the conversion of simple to complex forms for functional and/or esthetic reasons; the relative height at which they are placed, considered both in terms of chronology and context; their shaping, and the shaping of their doorways, both in terms of dimensions and of precision; the shape, placement, and chronology of niches, when present; the character and composition and dating of their plastering, either involving single cells or groups of cells; and finally, the significance of door latches, latchpins, doorstops, thresholds, door steps, drop-slots, peg holes, pole holes, and shelf supports of various kinds. The conversion of certain cells from a residence to a storage function will also be considered. I shall omit any lengthy discussion of the cells and cell doorways in the earlier, Hinayana, caves, matters that have been covered in some detail in Volume V.11 It is a curious fact that whereas it took until 468 for the Vakataka planners to develop the immediately popular projecting fittings (the B mode in 468, and then in 470, the C mode), they had already been present centuries before in the three Hinayana viharas at the site. Why were these old door fittings not copied immediately, as were so many other Hinayana features? I suspect that the reason was again the singleness of the Vakataka’s planners’ (and thus the excavators’) focus during the initial years of excavation at the site. They were concentrating on making the halls—not on fitting out the cells—at least at first.12 Then, when it suddenly became time to face reality, and to fit the cells out for their use as residences—to actually hang the doors—they may finally have looked to the Hinayana precedents for guidance. The confusion and impracticality suggested by the few expedient fittings in the very early Cave 8 surely must have urged them to find a better solution than the clumsy ones seen there. The delay in seeking and finding a solution to the problem of fitting the doors is suggested by what we know of early excavation procedures utilized during the first few years of Vakataka patronage. Never having faced a cliff before, the first excavators prove to have been very diffident. They typically blocked out areas or elements entirely before turning to more detailed work. Cave 25, where the whole hall was being roughed out before the cells were as yet started, distinctly reveals a common initial procedure, so different

11 See Spink, Ajanta, V, Cave 10, 165–167. 12 In fact, in the earliest excavations, the cutting of the cells was often delayed until that of the hall was by and large completed. This is suggested by the development of the interior of the very early Cave 25; by the fact that the rear cells of Cave 20 were still not even penetrated in 470/471, and that the first cell (R2) penetrated in Cave 2 was not underway until 468, since it was being supplied with an (unfinished) B mode fitting.

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from the assured “everything going on at once” approach of typically late caves such as Cave 24, where the cells were opened up sequentially as soon as the progress of excavation allowed. This of course reflects the increasing confidence which characterizes the progress of work at the site Especially if the early excavators who blocked out the interior halls were different from those who were going to be responsible for cutting the cells and for fitting the doors, we can imagine that the latter would have assumed that some sensible fitting system must have been planned in advance by the caves’ master architects. However, in these early days when developments were so much in process, the problem may have been one of communication, with the result that it could have taken a year or two—or even more—before the matter of hanging the cell doors was first faced. At this point—really too late—they finally turned to the Hinayana precedents described above, which of course had been available for reference from the start. But by this time—in fact as late as 467—the damage had been done. Throughout the developing site, the earliest doorways were cut as nothing more than plain openings, with no fitting arrangements whatsoever planned, even though tradition alone surely demanded that the monks were to be provided with shuttered cells. That is why, faced with these many “fitting-less” doorways, all cut prior to 468, workers now had to apply expedient fittings to the early and all-too-simple (A mode) doorways. There was really no ideal solution to the fitting out of a doorway that was, in fact, at least up until 468, merely a “hole in the wall”. The simple low-tech solutions found in Cave 8 held no promise for the future; but by good fortune, the fairly practical B mode was developed just at this time, and it finally provided a workable, even if not ideal, solution to the problem. Here, a single monolithic projection, to hold the pivoted door, was cut at the back of the top of the doorway, at the time that the cell was under excavation. This type was widely used at the site in 468 and 469, while its successor—the C mode—used in 470 and 471 added a monolithic pivot holder at the bottom of the doorway as well. Of course it was already too late, in 468, to add monolithic projections to the dozens of doorways that had already been cut in the A mode. Therefore, a kind of “substitute” B mode was developed which, although far from ideal, was at least workable. I have called this type, described below, the A+ mode, since it involves the addition of an applied (wooden) projection to the back of the simple doorway. A study of the new monolithic B mode fittings (which of course required pre-planning on the part of the excavators) proves that the B mode came into use just before the Recession; the B mode first came into use in 468



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according to my proposed chronology, with the Recession starting at the end of that same year. This mode is commonly found (sometimes not even fully defined) in the latest portions of the caves upon which work broke off at that point (end of 468); indeed, this is even true in Cave 8, where what must have been the latest cell excavated (at the left rear) shows a monolithic (B mode) projection, even though it was abandoned (due to the Recession) before put into use, just prior to the Recession. The B mode continued to be used in the “privileged” royal caves—the only ones still underway—early in the Recession (i.e. in 469), but by 470 it had invariably yielded to the somewhat more efficient C mode, with its supportive lower projection complementing the projection above. This latter (C mode) type, often unfinished and invariably found in later contexts than the B mode, was used through 471, invariably in the “royal caves”: (Caves 1, 17, 19, 20), the only caves still underway from 469–471. Then, finally, all this work too was cut off by the dramatic takeover of the site by the Asmakas (the Hiatus). The C mode, to say nothing of the earlier B mode, was never used again, because when work at the site resumed after the Hiatus, the far more practical D mode had been introduced. As it happened, the impractical simple A mode doorways found in the earliest excavations were often converted to a quasi-B mode (called the A+ mode) by means of an expediently applied projection, presumably of wood, held in place (normally at the upper left, as viewed from inside the cell) by two teak pegs, the stumps of which often remain.13 Except in the relatively untroubled royal caves (1, 17, 19, 20) such conversions from A mode to B mode always occurred in 468, just before the Recession—the year in which the monolithic B mode had just been developed; it is possible, but unlikely, that the conversion would have been done in 469, at least in caves 7, 11, and 15, because the total effort in 469 in those caves (as in Cave Lower 6, where all conversions were done much later, involving a shift to the D mode) was in rushing the images to completion. It seems reasonable to conclude that these converted cells were first occupied— in caves 7, 11, 15, and 17 at this time—starting in 468. After 473, of course, when the D mode had been developed, a better and simpler mode of conversion was used; the old A mode, and even B and C mode doorways, were turned into quasi-D mode types merely by having (D mode) recesses cut at

13 In a few cases iron pegs are used instead of teak (Cave 17 Cell L1, L5). Iron pegs also are used as wedges to hold the unusually large wooden pegs in Cave 1, Cell R4.

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their backs. Such late conversions are found variously in Cave 1, Lower 6, Upper 6, 7, 15, 16, 17 (PL, L5, L6), 20, and the Cave 26 complex. After the Hiatus, when work on Cave 1 continued, these totally new and very sensible D mode fittings came suddenly into invariable use. Knowledge of the new type had surely been brought back to Ajanta by workmen returning from their interim employment in the related caves at Bagh, where the nature of the friable sandstone disallowed monolithic (B or C mode) projections for use as fittings, and also required the thicker cell walls (and hall pillars) that also became conventional at Ajanta too after 473.14 In the highly practical new D mode the back of the doorway is merely recessed—an innovation of great, even if obvious, simplicity, with the pivot holes neatly cut into the deep set-back. The very proof of the reality of the Hiatus can be seen in the fact that in 473, before finally fitting (or in some cases refitting) the swinging single doors in Cave 1’s cells, the workmen totally disregarded the old B mode and C mode projections, which had been previously (from 468 through 471) cut on nearly all of the doorways, and utilized the new recessed mode instead, surely thinking how much time and effort had been wasted earlier on the now obsolete earlier modes.15 The most fascinating example of the conversion to the D mode is in Cell R3, where the old B mode, because of the relatively high placement of the old projection, did not need to be cut back at all (this was not always the case) when the recessed D mode was added. But in this particular case the earlier B mode shows distinct signs of wear in the pivot hole—something no longer evident (if indeed accomplished) in other doorways in the cave, many of which never received a pivot hole in the earlier period in any case, since there was always a gap of time between the excavation of the doorways and their being put into service. Since there is significant wear in the D mode’s pivot hole too, it is clear that a cell door was originally hung sometime after 468 or 469 (the period when B mode fittings were cut) and then refitted in or very shortly after 473, when (characteristically for such examples of conversion) the still rather diffidently rendered new D mode was cut to replace it. Thus R3’s B mode doorway was used for a maximum of

14 Such a thickening of supporting elements may also have been encouraged by the collapse of the hall ceiling of Cave 4, which did not take place until after work on the cave had been temporarily abandoned at the time of the Recession. 15 There are also a few revealing examples of conversion due to breakage of an earlier fitting (Cave 17 Cell R1, Cell L5), or even one showing conversion from B mode to C mode by the setting in of a strong block to form a lower projection. (Cave 17, Cell R4)



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about eight years, before being replaced, during which time the pivot hole shows significant wear. Of course we do not know whether someone used it as a residence or for some other utilitarian purpose right away, when the door was fitted in 468 or 469. Nor can we know how often the door was opened and closed, etc.; but this still gives us some evidence about usage, since the wear in the monolithic pivot projection is significant. It also has implications regarding how long monks may have continued residing at the site after Ajanta’s collapse. It counters the possible argument that such wear—because made by wooden pivots—suggests that such doors were used for decades rather than years. Few of the pivot holes in the latest D mode doorways fitted out at the site—those dating to 477—show much more wear than this; and this would suggest that the monks who remained at the site as their world fell apart (where else were they to go as war was looming?) probably did not live in them for very long. As I have suggested above, it is clear that much of the work in Cave 1 (and other caves) was done by contract. In Cave 1, it seems clear that the same crew or crews that recessed the doorways, to convert them to the D mode, also cut the surprisingly uniform niches at the rear of the cells, and almost certainly chiseled the holes on opposing walls for the insertion of clothes poles or shelf-supports. Indeed, such procedures were typical throughout the site, although in some caves the work in the various cells was not as consistent as in Cave 1, suggesting that more than one group of workers was involved. This also explains why (fortunately for our observations) the old projections were only cut away to the degree necessary to allow the shaping of the new D mode recesses, rather than treated according to the predilections of an unconnected group of workers. In the latter case the approaches surely would have been more varied, with some workers finding it easier or more desirable to remove such vestigial features. Actually, in many cases (but by no means all) the projection, even though it had to be cut partially back, clearly strengthened the area near the new D mode pivot hole, so it was wise to retain what was left of it. Cave 1’s D mode recesses are not only the earliest ones to have been made after the Hiatus, but also, because these were probably the first conversions to the D mode at the site, they are particularly shallow, as if the workers approached this totally new form with diffidence; and for this reason, some care had to be taken in locating the pivot holes. Actually, the thinness of Cave 1’s relatively early cell walls surely contributed to this diffidence, which is not to be found in caves where the cells were excavated after 473, for (as at Bagh) these

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were invariably provided with the thicker walls more appropriate for the recessed D mode fittings. The relevance of this discursus on door fittings for our understanding of the site’s troubled history is that the changes in these functional features—as in various others—clearly show that a distinct time gap must have occurred between the creation of the earlier and the creation of the later types. But I am using it too, intentionally, as a telling example of how revealingly even such a minor feature can be probed, as part of a total analysis of the site’s development. Indeed, every door fitting at the site can be located along the site’s continuum on what is effectively a year by year basis. But if this merely refers to the time that the fittings were actually cut, we can, with very few exceptions, be equally precise about when each doorway was penetrated, when the pivot holes were added to the fittings and when each door was hung, and when the inner recesses (of certain doorways) were plastered. In many (but not all) caves we can also note that the niches, pole-holes and hook-holes, were cut when the doors were finally fitted out, again suggesting contractual labor. Ideally, we should also consider the significant changes in the character of the doorways’ latches, peg-holes, drop-slots, and doorstops, which equally change over time.16 Furthermore, the situation is complicated (and therefore ultimately elucidated) by the great number of revisions (and also some repairs) which the earlier fittings underwent, to make them more functional and up-to-date. Finally, the plastering of the inner recesses of the doorways can give us further information, even though, like the plastering of the cells, this was never done prior to 477 and generally not until 479 or 480; for surprisingly it continued, along with the donation of the spate of intrusive images, during the Period of Disruption. The late character of this work is evident, for instance, from the fact that in Cave 1 the hasty plastering of the door recesses sometimes is carelessly spread over the painting of the doorway reveals, which had been painted during the heyday of the site, in 477.17 It seems reasonable to suppose that such major additions/revisions to the caves almost certainly could not, or would not, have been made without the approval of the patrons concerned, for they would not only want to 16 Drop-slots require deep recessing, so could appear only after 473 at Ajanta; they may represent yet another form brought to Ajanta from Bagh, where they are common. The placement of doorstops also is related to the recessing or non-recessing of the thresholds. 17 This is evident in Cave 1’s Cell L2, where the plaster, despite appearances, actually goes over the earlier decoration (with spirals) of the doorway’s reveal.



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approve any significant changes but would also have to pay the bill. And we can hardly believe that these patrons, including the emperor, his Prime Minister, and the local king, often—or perhaps ever—came down to the site until it was significantly underway. After all, during the first few years of work (in the early 460s) most of the caves were still only roughed out in a most preliminary way, and not a bit of painting could yet have been started; it was hardly yet in proper shape for distinguished visitors, even though the large brick structure across the river, recently uncovered, might have supplied minimally adequate housing. What seems apparent is that there must have been some relatively rapid means of intercourse between those doing the work and those approving and paying for it. In this regard the fortunate proximity of Ajanta to a highly active and secure trade route (or routes), must to some degree have taken the place of the cell phone or the fax machine today, with connections being made—due to the miracle of modern communication—in a mere matter of weeks. Summary Analysis of Caves 17 and 1 (Refer to Plans with Cells Identified) Both Cave 1 and Cave 17—each of which developed over the course of approximately a decade—show how, even as the cave’s excavation was going on from front to back, the cells, with their evolving “technology” were keeping pace. In Cave 17, started a few years earlier than Cave 1, the sequence begins in about 466/467 with the cutting of the early A mode cells (all later to be converted) toward the front of the cave. Then, in 468 and 469, B mode cells were excavated in the mid-section of the cave.18 Finally, in 470 and 471, C mode cells take over in the very rear of the cave, with time running out due to the patron’s (Upendragupta’s) problems late in 471, with the low-priority Cells L6 and R6 being left unfinished. Allowing a few years for the excavators to reach the point where they could or would cut the first (A mode) cells in the cave, we can see how the course of the excavation of Cave 17 validates the progression of the cell types and vice versa. The few changes that took place after the Hiatus further validate the connection, because they involve conversion to the notably late D mode. Cave 1 shows a similar developmental pattern; but since it was started so late (466) the B mode was already the fitting of choice by the time its porch 18 As soon as the B mode was being used, the conversion of the featureless A mode doorways to the A+ mode probably began.

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cells were underway in 468/469. Then, by the time that the more rearward area of the cave was reached, C mode cells were being cut. However, by the end of 471, time ran out with the beginning of the Hiatus, and therefore most of them could not be finished until work was resumed during the site’s late phase. So here again, just as in Cave 17, the slowly developing course of excavation from front to back quite precisely parallels the developing course of door fitting technology. The rather surprisingly rapid course of change in these two major caves from A mode to B mode to C mode and finally, after the Hiatus, to D mode is clearly confirmed by their insoluble link with the ongoing course of excavation itself. It is hardly surprising that cells cut and/or fitted out after 473 at Ajanta invariably utilize the D mode. What is more surprising (and revealing) is the wholesale conversion of earlier fittings to this same mode, in caves whose development had been earlier interrupted. This was of course the case in Cave 1 itself, where all of the earlier (pre-471) fittings were converted to the D mode right after the Hiatus. Significantly, it was not the case in Upendragupta’s Caves 17, 19, and 20, upon which all further development stopped with the Hiatus, when the Asmakas took over the site.19 But in all other early caves at the site the normal course of excavation stopped abruptly at the end of 468, or (in the special case of Caves 6L, 7, ll, and 15, just a few weeks or months later, since they had been allowed to get their Buddha images completed in early 469. One of the most revealing evidences of Ajanta’s troubled history is to be found in the fact that over and over work broke off on many of the early caves at the very moment that their B mode fittings were being cut. That is, when the work on these fittings was abandoned, or when they were never actually put into use, we have evidence of a sudden—as it turns out, lengthy—rift in the site’s development; and this in turn bears directly upon the political situation. That is, the rift was caused by Upendragupta’s expulsion of the aggressive Asmakas, and his consequently mounting concern about the need to focus attention on military needs rather than upon his desire “to cover the earth with stupas and viharas” (Cave 17 inscription). The rift revealed by the site’s many unfinished or unused B mode fittings can be compared to what is often found in archaeological digs, where evidence of a battle, or a conflagration or a flood or an earthquake can be seen in the

19 For the refitting Cells L5 and L6 in Cave 17 for a functional (storage) purpose, after the Hiatus, see discussion of Cave 1 below. Except for these two special cells, no cells in the cave were re-fitted after the Hiatus.



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peculiar character of a particular stratum. Of Ajanta’s many strata, this is one of the most telling. It is revealing to review the situation of the different caves throughout the site in 468, to see how ongoing work, or already completed work on B mode fittings was abandoned at this time. In all such cases, if any later work was done, it was only just after the Hiatus, or later, and always involved conversion to the D mode. There are also many case where cells were cut but with doorways in the featureless A mode. Never cut in this useless way again, after the B mode was developed in 468, they too were typically converted after the Hiatus to the newly popular and practical D mode. The Basic Door Fitting Modes Found at Ajanta A Mode 465 through 467 The earliest cell doorways at Ajanta—the first of which, in the course of excavation, would have been reached about 464/465—are nothing more than mere openings in the caves’ walls.20 As suggested above, they had been designed with no provision for hanging the doors within them—as if the excavators, still new to the game, did not trouble to plan for the door fittings, thinking that this was someone else’s responsibility. Therefore, when it came time to fit out the very first cells to be occupied in the developing Vakataka caves, a number of expedient solutions were utilized. The first attempted solutions to the problem at hand are apparently found in the early Cave 8, where a few doors appear to have been hung using a pivot hole in the doorway’s reveal (at the top) corresponding with one directly below, in the threshold. The door, if hung from these points, would have swung within the doorway opening, efficient closure not being achieved. At the same time, a few of Cave 8’s cell doorways have rough notches cut above, perhaps intended to hold a post or frame upon which the door would pivot; a somewhat related system was commonly used in Hinayana caves at certain other sites, although not at Ajanta.

20 As noted earlier, since the earliest viharas never had cells at their porch ends, until 466, the earliest cells cut must have been those at the front of the interiors, some of which must have been underway by 464 (or surely by 465).

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B Mode 468–469 The defining feature of this mode is the monolithic projection created for the purpose of holding the door’s upper pivot. Unless geological or unusual design factors demand an adjustment, this projection is invariably found above and just to the left of the doorway opening, when viewed from inside the cell. As we would expect, the projection is aligned with a corresponding hole close to the wall, in the floor below. In the rare cases where the fittings are on the right side, the alternative positioning can be explained by the presence of a serious geological flaw or the breakage of the left projection in the course of carving.21 In cells fitted out in the B mode, the pivoting door was not intended to fit within the doorway when it was shut. If opened fully, it would have swung back against the surrounding wall; however, this was probably not done, since the beds or mats of the resident monks (and in some case the “clothes poles”) were in the way. Obviously, since the door, when shut, closed against the surrounding wall surfaces rather than within the doorway opening, closure could never be very tight. Indeed, since the workmen, less constrained by both experience and discipline in these early days, did not cut the walls of the caves and of the cells therein with anything like the precision of later days, the efficiency of the doors’ closure was further compromised. The fact is that sometimes, to achieve the proper alignment of the upper and lower pivot holes, some recessing was required, particularly at the upper levels; sometimes this necessary recessing was so deep that, at first appearance, the doorway appears to have been created in the later recessed D mode, although this was not in fact the case.22 C Mode (470–471) The C mode represents an improvement on the B mode, achieved by the addition of a lower monolithic projection matching the projection above. This raised the pivoted door well above the floor of the cell, creating better clearance when the door was opened. The C mode came into use in 470– 471, and was used only in those years. This explains why it is found only in the royal caves (Caves 1, 17, 19), since the royal caves alone were being worked on throughout the Recession (469 through 471). If it is not found

21 The rare examples of B mode projections on the “wrong” side: Cave 4 L1; Cave 20 PR. 22 This was especially true in Cave 1, where the conversion to the D mode involved less assertive recessing than in later contexts, such as Cave 2 or 21.



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in Upendragupta’s “royal” Cave 20 this is because the cell doorways there were either already defined in the A mode (Cells L1, and R1); in the B mode, well before 470 (Cells PL and PR); or were still in process when work broke off in 471 (L2, and R2—the latter later converted to the E mode). In fact, both Cells L2 and R2 of Cave 20 would probably have had C mode doorways if they been finished before the Recession ended. D Mode (473–478) After 473, when work at the site started up again, there was a strong impact of influences from the related site at Bagh, from which workmen were returning after having migrated there for employment and for safety during the Asmaka/Risika war. One significant feature that directly affected developments at Ajanta was the new and practical “D mode” doorway. With this mode of fitting, the doors, with their standard pivots, were simply set within a recess containing upper and lower pivot holes at the back of the doorway. This provided a much better closure than earlier modes, at the same time having the virtue of great simplicity. Its happy development at Bagh was in fact expedient. The Bagh excavators could not possibly cut the monolithic projections characteristic of Ajanta’s B mode and C mode doorways for the simple reason that the Bagh sandstone (as opposed to Ajanta’s basalt) was extremely friable; most of the projections would have broken off as soon as, or shortly after, being put in use, because of the pressure exerted by the turning doors.23 In many cases, the early cells, with their A mode doorways, were not yet ready for occupancy when the Recession interrupted most of the work at the site in early 469, so the conversion to the A+ mode (see below) was not affected. Instead, it took place after the Hiatus; that is, in 473 or later. Of course, these later conversions involved a change to the new D mode, even though the typically thin walls of these early caves did not conform to the thicker D mode ideal. These changes, all dating to 473 or later, are described as A–D, B–D, and C–D respectively.24 All of the early cells in the following caves were converted to the D mode, or (when the site was in a state of collapse) to the E-mode, as described in

23 A few such projections remain toward the front of Cave 3 at Dharasiva, and probably also date to the late 460s, although the cave was not finished until the late 470s: See Spink, Ajanta, I, 346. 24 There is a single instance where a B mode appears to have been converted to the C mode. See below, Cave 17, Cell R4.

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the separate cave descriptions. The cells that were converted from the different early modes (A, B, and C) (465–471) to the late D mode (473–477) are in Caves Lower 6, 7, 15, 16, 17 (L5, L6 only), 26, 26 LW, 26RW and 27. The few E mode conversions (see below) are found in Caves 7, 16, and 20. E Mode (478–479) By 478, the time of troubles caused by Harisena’s death, work on cells—like work on most aspects of the caves other than the shrines—was essentially given up. However a few of the cells in Cave 16 (L5, L6, rL1, rR1) were fitted out even at this late date, in Cave 16, apparently being conversions from intended D mode fittings that were still unfinished when Varahadeva’s time was so clearly running out. In all cases the fitting of the doors was highly expedient; in fact, holes were cut at the tops into which, so it would seem, the upper door pivot was fitted, and then shifted, and finally wedged in, until it was in the right position. This appears to be a very clumsy arrangement, but it did allow adjustments, without very much further cutting of the doorway’s inner recess. A similar conversion to the E mode, in 478, may explain the clumsy fitting in the never-finished Cell R5 of Cave 7. The equally clumsy E mode fitting cut in the unfinished Cell R2 of Cave 20, and the conversion from a broken B mode to a late D mode in the same cave’s Cell PR, may be the only examples of such fittings made in the Period of Disruption (479–480). A+ Mode (468–471) As soon as the B mode with its monolithic projection was “discovered”, planners started adapting cell doorways that had already been cut to a type that simulates the B mode with its workable fitting. An applied (surely wooden) pivot-projection was held in the expected position at the top of the door by means of two small but strong teak pegs (the stumps of many still in place).25 Just as in the original B mode, one finds a corresponding pivot hole cut in the floor, close to the wall; the door then swung against the surrounding wall on either side of the door opening. The whole arrangement must have been somewhat unstable, because of the expedient way that the applied projections were put in place, to say nothing of the thinness of the

25 In Cell L5 of Cave 17 two iron pins are used instead of teak pegs. This was probably for greater strength and security, since the cell was used as a storeroom. Iron pins were also used to hold the (now missing) fitting in Cave 17’s L1.



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teak pegs. Not surprisingly, no traces of the applied projections themselves remain today. However, they obviously served efficiently enough to be widely used throughout the site, during its brief history.26 Since, as noted earlier, the cells were generally not cut in the earliest Vakataka excavations until after the halls were well underway, their door fitting being put off until the developing excavations were reaching the point where occupancy was practical. Thus most of the earliest doorways at the site (unlike some of those in Cave 8) had not been fitted even as late as 468, at which point many of them were converted to the A+ mode in emulation of the suddenly popular monolithic B mode. The caves where at least in some of the cells were fitted out in this expedient A+ manner are: Caves 11, 15, and 17. Minor Mode-transformations Whereas the A+ mode is very commonly used to approximate the B mode, other transformations are rare, generally used because of losses or breakage to certain B or C mode projections. They will be mentioned in the detailed description of Cave 17’s cells later in this study. Cells: Cave by Cave Cave 1 The emperor Harisena did not get specifically involved in the site as a patron until as late as 466, so it is hardly surprising to find that his cave involved relatively advanced features from the start. One can look in vain for A mode or even A+ mode doorway fittings in Cave 1’s cells, for by the time that Cave 1’s cells were sufficiently penetrated, in 468, B mode fittings were the type which everyone was using. However, the B mode was in vogue only briefly. Throughout the site, it was being replaced in 470 by the more developed and efficient C mode. This change of course applies only to the “royal caves”, since between 469 and 471 Caves 17, 19, 20 (and briefly Cave 29), besides Cave 1, were the only 26 It is clear that even in later centuries when a few sadhus (e.g. Cave 11, Cave 26LW) occupied some of the cells, these ancient doors at the site must have long since disappeared. In Cave 11, the A+ mode peg holes were plastered over with “modern” cow dung; cow dung was also used as a wall and ceiling coating in Cave 26LW, where it is smeared up into the early pivot hole, so it is evident here too that the early fitting was no longer in use when the sadhu was occupying the cell.

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excavations underway. Not surprisingly, in Cave 1, as excavation gradually progressed toward the rear, the C mode makes its appearance. The four rear cells, along with R4, R2, and L5 (?) are all of this type. However, in the cells in the left and right aisles, damage at the floor level sometimes makes it hard to be certain if a lower projection—the sign of the C mode—had been cut there. What one must recognize, in identifying these early B and C modes, is that all of them, in Cave 1, were converted to the more practical D mode after the Hiatus. Occasionally, the expected sequence here (and sometimes in other caves too) is violated, even though the overall pattern is clear, developing logically from the front of the cave to the rear. Cell R2, for instance, was done in the C mode even though it lies more toward the front of the cave than Cell R3, which was a B mode. Perhaps this cell doorway’s excavators were more “up to date”; or perhaps one was indisposed for a few months, during which time the new mode came into fashion; or perhaps they were called to some other task, returning to this cell only later. Although as such excavations progressed, it was logical and convenient to work from front to back, it is hardly surprising that this general rule was sometimes broken. Sometimes the reasons for cells being “out of sequence” are technical or geological. Ajanta’s excavators (and/or their planners) were very humanly prone to putting off problem tasks until last. This could explain why Cell R1 doorway, with its deeply cut D mode doorway, was not fully defined until 473, just after the Hiatus. The reason for this unexpected delay within this particular cell seems to lie in a serious rock flaw, which deeply affects the ceiling and certain wall areas, as can still be seen today. The slightly greater thickness of R1’s front wall suggests that much of its cutting was done after the Hiatus. It might be noted, too, that throughout the site, cells at the ends of the front aisle tended to be under excavation slightly later than the adjacent cells L2 and R2; delay was probably due the fact that the front aisle would have been crowded with excavated features (and workers), to say nothing of stretches of scaffolding, during the early stages of work on such excavations. Since most (or possibly all) of the sculptural decoration inside Cave 1, like its image and its whole painting program was not finished until work was resumed on the cave after the Hiatus, it is hardly surprising that the fitting-out of the cells, by and large, took place during and/or after 473. Indeed, by that time, the clear advantages of the D mode doorway fitting had been recognized, so that nearly all of the already defined B and C mode



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doorways were expediently recessed in order to effect the conversion. The outmoded projections—happily for our analysis—were typically left in place, although they often had to be partially cut away to achieve the new mode of fitting in the D mode, which required a recess at the rear of the doorway. In numerous cases the old projections added necessary strength to the new D mode pivot, although another reason for keeping them in place was probably to save time and money; after all, these vestigial elements were hidden from the general view. The recutting of all of these old B mode and C mode doorways into the far more practical D mode appears to have been done by contract, as both the speed and consistency of the work suggest. (The niches at the rear and the many holes for clothes poles would have been done at the same time. The fact that niches of this essentially square type were never added at the backs of cells after 474, also supports such an early dating for these re-cuttings made in Cave 1. The tentative quality of the shallow inner recessing, as if required in these early conversions to the D mode, is notably different from the deep and decisive recessing of the doorways in later caves, and would further seem to confirm its dating to 473, as if work was resumed on Cave 1 immediately after the Hiatus, before the excavators had become more assertive in their approach. Their approach could also have been affected by the relatively thin (i.e. early) character of the cells’ front walls; it seems that they did not want to cut too much away when they made the recesses. But it seems more likely that they were merely doing what they were told to do by their supervisors, and that the latter had not even thought of ordering the notably deep (and effective) inner recesses subsequently found in the later caves, even though that would have been sensible. Many of the new D mode pivot holes would be better served with deeper recesses; indeed some are so shallow that they clearly depend on the proximity of the old projections as strengthening features for the newly cut upper pivot holes. The conversion of the doorways in Cave 1, influenced of course by the example of Bagh’s D mode doorways, was probably done when work could be taken up again on the cave after the Hiatus; by this time the need to provide living quarters for the monks must have been very great. This urgency to get the doors fitted as soon as work began with the Asmaka takeover after the Hiatus may account for the shallowness of the recessing—as if the workers were still diffident, especially in making these very first conversions. But since the cell fronts, excavated relatively early, are generally thin walled, the shallowness of the recesses may also reflect a concern to leave

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the doorways as substantial in appearance as possible. This would reflect the developing taste for more ponderous architectural forms, whether in walls or pillars. This again was surely due in part to the influence of Bagh, where thicker forms were required by the weakness of the stone. As for the relatively shallow outer recessing, now an established convention—having been started to “outline” the cells in Cave Lower 6’s rear wall—this should probably be seen as one more evidence of these doorways having been worked on very early in the post-Hiatus phase, before more assertive outer margins as well became the mode. Although most of the converted doorways had never been fitted out before, it is unarguably clear that one (R3) had been put into service prior to the Hiatus. Although, like all of the other cells in the cave (except the slightly later Cell R1) it was converted to the later and more practical D mode in 473, its earlier and typically B mode fitting shows distinct signs of wear in the B mode pivot hole. This obviously proves its use before its later conversion to the D mode. Indeed, considering the very significant amount of wear in the older pivot hole, it is likely that the doorway (with its original B mode fitting) was probably put into use as soon as it was ready, either in 468 or 469. The question is: why was this door fitted for use at a point when the cave, constantly filled with noise and dust, was probably little more than half excavated. And why, when nearly all of the other cells in the cave were also originally supplied with similarly pre-Hiatus B and C mode projections, was R3 the only cell fitted out as originally intended? The likeliest answer to this question is that the cell was probably used as a convenient and secure place for the storage of excavators’ tools and the like, and perhaps as a place to keep food and clothes for the workers. The amount of wear in the older (B mode) pivot hole, made by the opening and closing of the door, makes it reasonable (and even necessary) to conclude that this cell was in active use during the years between 468 and 473—a total of six years. After that, like all the cells in the cave it was up-dated with the more desirable D mode fittings, and provided with other amenities—a niche, and clothes poles—at the same time. These had not been supplied when the door was originally hung, in the B mode, again suggesting that it was not thought of as having a residence function at the time. It would only have been after these conversions in about 473/474 that the monks could take up proper residence throughout the cave, which (considering the need for residence space) they may well have done, even though much of the cave, notably the shrine and shrine antechamber,



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were still in process at that time, and the decoration of the cave would not even be started for another year or two. However, even assuming that residence began in shortly after the Hiatus, the wear in the D mode pivot holes throughout the cave is so significant that we must assume that their residence continued even after Harisena’s death, presumably throughout the Period of Disruption (479–480) and probably for a few lean years thereafter. Indeed, the significant degree of wear in all of the newly added D mode fittings only confirms the conclusion that the cave was in active use well after Harisena’s death in late 477. This is further confirmed by the fact that at some point in the Period of Disruption, all of Cave 1’s cells—like so many other cells throughout the site—were plastered. That this plastering was done only during the Period of Disruption is evidenced by the fact that bits of the plaster are sometimes smeared over the original painted designs on the doorways’ reveals in a number of examples in both Cave 17 and Cave 1.27 Furthermore, this plaster is often of the red ground-brick mix never found at the site prior to 477, and mostly applied only during the Period of Disruption.28 Although there is a general consistency in the change from the B mode to the C mode as the excavation of the cells of Cave 1 continued from the front to the rear, the doorway of Cell R2 is out of sync, for it is in the C mode despite its “early” position in the cave. We must assume that for some reason work on the cell (like that on the neighboring Cell R1) was slightly delayed.29 At the same time it may have been one of the very first converted to the D mode, for the D mode recessing is very shallow in it, perhaps suggesting lack of experience or guidelines in these earliest transformations. (Only the very early transformations to the D mode in Cave Lower 6 sometimes show the same tentative character.) Indeed, all of the Cave 1 D mode recesses are particularly shallow, at least as compared with those in later caves or contexts. It is significant to note that the upper projection in Cell R4 broke off— presumably while being cut, as sometimes happened. It was repaired by means of thick teak pegs that must have held a “replacement” (wooden) projection supported by a pair of surprisingly thick teak pegs, the stumps of which still remain in the rock. These appear to have been braced by iron wedges (typically broken chisels); these wedges must have been pulled 27 See also a number of examples in Cave 17. 28 The red plaster may have been first used in Cave 2, in the vestibule of the right cell complex (Cell PR), prior to the painting of the scenes in this area. 29 There may have been some similar concern about a serious flaw.

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out at some point, but have left an empty channel from one peg, revealing the point at which it was pounded in. However, like R5 (which has a B mode projection but no pivot hole, this doorway was not fitted out prior to the time when nearly all cell doorways in the cave were converted to the D mode just after the Hiatus. In R4, surprisingly, instead of merely cutting a deep D mode recess when the doorway was refitted, the workers cut a hole at the top that is aligned with that at the bottom. That is, they did not destroy the old projection, but supplied it with a pivot hole close to where it abuts the wall, so that the upper pivot and the lower were aligned. It is clear that the C mode projection at the bottom was never utilized as originally planned, for the single hole now seen at the base of the doorway is within the later D mode recess. This would suggest that the attached projection above, not used at first, was supplied with its hole when the doorway was converted to the D mode, which for this reason is shallower than expected at the top of the doorway. It is evident that the planners of the caves at the site wanted to use every possible space for cells. For this reason the absence of cells L6 and R6 must be explained; and the explanation is evident in the presence of an ominous flaw that runs the length of the rear aisle and is subject to leakage in the rainy season. It was this that militated against cutting cells in the walls at the aisle ends. The flaw is clearly revealed running along the mid-point of the rear aisle ceiling, and has been the focus of continued conservation by the Archaeology Department. It is interesting to note the Cell L5 also responds to the presence of the leaking area. It has been intentionally displaced, so that it is located much more forward than normal. Had its positioning been normal, as expected, it would have “properly” looked out between the nearby pillars (L5 and L6). Instead it is focused directly at pillar L5, a connection which planners at the site almost invariably avoided, even though the actual view from the cells hardly credits the care taken. In fact, for Cave 1 and other caves, such niceties may well have been developed on the drafting table, where the characteristic compulsion toward symmetry would have recommended it. However, when one actually looks out from the cells, the subtlety of such visual adjustments are hardly significant; it is doubtful that the monks cared at all, or even knew that such pains had been taken in their behalf. Although Cave 1’s pillared court complexes must have been undertaken well before the Hiatus, the paired cells opening from the vestibule of the court cell at the left were additions of the post-Hiatus period, as the thickness of their front walls and the non-converted character of their D mode doorways show. The strikingly deeper recessing of their doorways, and the



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relatively large size of their niches suggest that they were completed after the other cells in the cave, probably in 477. It is significant too that the remaining plaster in the vestibule of this left court cell is of the ground brick type, not used at the site prior to 477; it is likely that the plastering of this pillared vestibule was done at that time. However, the plaster in the cells themselves, like those throughout the cave, must be ascribed to the Period of Disruption. As for the large “storage”(?) cell opening off the pillared court cell at the right, its doubled projections (characteristic for storage cells and cisterns prior to the Hiatus) were later cut away, and the doorway recessed in the D mode, presumably to provide a tighter fit for the double doors; this change from projecting to recessed fittings is of course parallel to that found in the residence cells. Although both this and the left court cell must have been part of the cave’s original plan—note their “reserved” monolithic steps— they were not finished until very late; we have seen that the paired cells in the left court cell must be assigned to 477, and it is relevant to note that the presence of various unfinished wall surfaces in the right court cell suggests that it too was still underway when Harisena’s time ran out. Although it seems clear that Harisena’s Cave 1 Buddha was never dedicated, and that the cave, never finished, was ever used for worship—there is no trace of ritual soot, nor of garlands being hung in the hook provided in the shrine antechamber—it may seem remarkable that the pivot holes in the shrine doorway show clear signs of wear. I have suggested that although the cave was used only for residence—all the cells were plastered during the Period of Disruption—but not for worship, that the shrine was utilized as a storage chamber. Such a “conversion” would seem quite sensible, given the assumed requirements of the sangha; there were three useful storage areas in Caves 6L, one (Cell R3A) in Cave 7, one in Cave 11, four in Cave 17 (L5, L6, L6A, PR(?), and one (never completed) in Cave 26 (PL, PLA in its associated Cave 25). The use of the shrine as a storeroom may seem surprising, but it must be remembered that from a ritual point of view Cave 1 was “dead”. Furthermore, if the shrine was never used for worship, but had a storage function, this would not only explain the wear in the door pivots but also the curious fact that the paintings that once covered the walls and ceiling of the shrine have almost totally fallen away, as if from some years of usage as this hypothetical storeroom. What would seem to support this view is the fact that the shrine antechamber, which in the normal course of ritual use would have been damaged as much or more than the shrine, has practically no damage at all.

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Cave 2 Cave 2 has always been considered a characteristically late vihara, although as I have shown elsewhere it was in fact started very early, surely by 464. However, like so many other caves at the site, after its early phase, it suffered a long abandonment starting in 468 and continuing until work was taken up on it again right after the Hiatus. Its early inauguration is evident from the fact that the intercolumniation of the central pillars of the interior is not widened, as would have been the case if a shrine was already planned (even if not yet started) when the pillars were under excavation.30 Furthermore, Cave 2’s porch pillars (unlike those of the interior) were blocked out too early to allow the creation of the high square bases that became conventional after the Hiatus. When working out their final design, the planners had to opt for sixteen-sided shafts, which could be cut from the still-available matrix, even though the amount of such “extra” rock was insufficient for high square bases. However, the most incontrovertible proof of the early date of Cave 2’s interior is the character of the doorway fitting of Cell R2. Like all of the other cells in the cave, R2 has a very assertively recessed D mode doorway, with a strongly defined margin (i.e. outer recess). These features, and the thickness of the front wall of this and the other cells, together with the absence of niches (which appear to have gone out of fashion after 474), suggest that these cells were finally defined and fitted out only shortly before the death of Harisena in late 477. Thus they can properly be assigned to 476 or 477, having been put into service, or at least readied, close to the time when all consistent patronage ended at the site. However, by good fortune—probably because he was not paid to do so—the workman who recessed the doorway of Cell R2 in the nowconventional D mode, did not cut away the half-completed and then abandoned B mode projection above.31 This tells us, indisputably, that by 468, when B mode projections had just come into fashion, the excavators of Cave 2 had roughed out Cave 2’s interior to at least this point. Therefore the cave, where much of the interior was roughed out by 468, is a very “early” excavation in terms of its core, even though its final character appears to be (and is) quite consistently late, typically post-473.

30 See illustration, Spink, Ajanta, V, Fig 5. Also IV, Fig 5. 31 Such monolithic projections, as throughout Caves 1 and 17, were often left in place as strengtheners when the new D-mode upper pivot holes were cut.



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At the same time we can be sure that the cave’s early phase of excavation had been interrupted, in 468, before the shrine antechamber area had yet been penetrated. This is because the antechamber pillars have strongly projecting goddess brackets, a feature that never appears in antechambers at the site until at least 473, after the Hiatus. Had the penetration of the antechamber been begun (typically from the ceiling level downward) before work was cut off by the Recession, the pillars would have been roughed out without brackets, and it would have been impossible to reveal such strongly projecting elements when work was renewed after 473.32 Since it was customary to leave abandoned projections such as that in Cell R2 in place, and since there are no other examples in the doorways in the cave, it seems likely that this was the first and only cell to have been penetrated to this degree in the cave; and even work on this Cell R2 projection had not progressed very far, for although the doorway opening was trimmed to a degree in the early (pre-468) phase, it shows in general a thickness characteristic of the post-Hiatus phase. In fact, the relative thinness of the jamb’s upper level, where the B mode projection was being blocked out, was specifically altered—made thicker—at the lower jamb level, when the conversion to the D mode was being effected. By the same token, the latch arrangement, and the drop slots found throughout the cave—are clearly post-Hiatus features, the latter in particular depending upon the notably deep inner recess of the doorway, which was able to adequately contain it. We shall find as we go through the site that the coincidence of this projecting B mode having been developed just before the Recession, as here, provides us with extremely clear and revealing evidence about the point that various excavations had reached at this crucial moment. And in many cases, just as in Cave 2’s cell R2, because this old mode was no longer used when work started up again in 473, many of the site’s cell doorways were also revealingly converted to the D mode at that time. The ten cells in the interior of Cave 2, including the re-cut R2, are typically late in character; and this is true also of the two inner cells in the porch complexes. They show the careful shaping and orderly layout characteristic of work at the site after 473, as well as the now “desirable” thickness of the

32 In Cave 4, although the shrine area was finished very late and brackets would be expected, the antechamber pilasters had been defined as much simpler forms, when the excavators were revealing this area in 468. By contrast, in Cave 1, the shrine antechamber was roughed out before it became conventional for the antechamber pillars to be supplied with projecting brackets. However, the sculptors, after 473, managed to “squeeze” fine even if compressed brackets out of the still available matrix around the roughed-out pillar forms.

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cells’ front walls with their uniform doorway arrangement, involving a decisive recess at the front and an even deeper cutting at the rear. The effect is very different from that in Cave 1, where the (somewhat earlier) conversion to the D mode in 473 was done quite tentatively, the inner recesses being very shallow. Their uniformity suggests that they were all being cut, with significant efficiency, in 476 and 477. Their absence of niches assigns them to a date when such niches had gone out of style, perhaps being replaced by more convenient movable wooden counterparts. (As I have suggested elsewhere, such modern convenience may have been sold to the authorities at the site by some enterprising entrepreneur). Monolithic doorsteps, which persist earlier at the site, are now omitted, even in the complex porch cells, which themselves would not have been started until after the Hiatus.33 It might be noted that the doorway of Cell PR provides us with the best evidence of the use of large teak inserts typical of such features in door latches throughout the site after 473; before that time, the same arrangement was used, but the latch holes are notably smaller. However, these important technological features in Cell PR have, sadly and unnecessarily, recently been totally obscured by the crude cementing-in of a new wooden doorway in the opening. When we consider that, when such things as ancient pivot holes are unearthed in actual excavations, they are carefully exposed using small brushes and dental picks, the vulgarity of covering these preciously revealing features with an obscuring layer of cement is evident. The cell complexes at the ends of Cave 2’s porch present an interesting problem. It appears that the planners thought of the pillared vestibules of these complexes as areas that could appropriately be painted, since they are so readily visible and so relatively well lit. Thus they filled them with jataka tales at the same time that they decorated the porch, in 476 or 477. This is hardly surprising. But the question is: were the residence cells plastered at the same time; for if so, these would be the first residence cells ever plastered at the site, when it seems to be the case that all of the rest (with the possible—and anomalous—exception of Cave 8) were plastered only in the Period of Disruption. What to a degree confuses the issue is that the inner porch cells were plastered with a mix very similar to that in the vestibules, as if they were all done in one campaign. However, since the same

33 When the porch was first underway, before 466, the end walls would have been blank. That single cells were not added there in 466/467 would suggest that the higher priority work on the interior hall occupied the excavators.



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mix was used in the various cells of the interior that appear to have been used for residence in the cave’s interior, it is reasonable to suppose that the inner cells of the porch complexes had remained bare until the cells in the interior were plastered, and that they were then done as part of the same contract, or contracts, in 479 or 480. It appears that when the original program of decoration for Cave 21’s porch was started, the situation was similar to that in Cave 2. The main porch wall and the vestibule of the left porch complex were being plastered with a distinctive thin smooth mix when work was broken off by Harisena’s death, even before the right porch complex got similarly surfaced, as part of the same program, essentially similar to that in the porch of Cave 2. This supports the assumption that the inner cells of Cave 2’s porch complexes were not plastered until the Period of Disruption, rather than in 477, as part of the total porch program.34 This being the case, the earliest plastered cells at the site might be those in Cave 8, which were probably surfaced along with the interior hall in 478, by its suddenly motivated patron. Cave 4 Cave 4, the largest cave at the site, must have been started in 463 or 464, slightly later than some of the other major caves. This, and the fact that it was the most afflicted of all caves in its development—its ceiling having disastrously collapsed sometime after 468—makes it hardly surprising that its more forward cells were not fully cut out until almost the time that the early phase of work stopped on this cave due to the Recession of 468. Furthermore, it appears, when we analyze the chiseling procedures, that at least in the pre-Recession phase, the cells were not penetrated until the cave walls had been largely smoothed; this again suggests how late it was before the first cells—those toward the front of the cave—must have been started. Considering the slight delay in getting started, as well as the huge size of the cave, it is no surprise to find B mode projections, (which did not come into use at the site until just before the Recession) in both of the porch cells. Nor is it a surprise to find that in both cases they were converted, after the Hiatus, to the D mode, the doors never having been hung as originally intended. In fact, in the case of Cell PL, the doorstep, probably roughed out by 466 or 467, was never finished; like various other elements in the porch, 34 Refer to my suggestion that the Cave 2 inner porch cells might have been plastered in 478, or possibly even 477. (Spink, Ajanta, V, 50–51).

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it was still being worked on when interrupted by the Recession late in 468, and in the frenzy of work on the troubled cave after 473 this relatively inessential area continued to escape attention. In the case of Cell L1’s B mode projection, surprisingly cut on the “wrong” side, probably due the unexpected breakage of the intended “right side” projection, the fitting was never completed, and (not surprisingly) never fitted out for residence. In fact, that is characteristic in this blighted cave, where many cells are little more than started, while only a few of the others show signs of use. Indeed it would appear that none were used for residence until sometime after work on the cave was renewed after the Hiatus, while the shrine Buddha, although dedicated, could hardly have been used for worship at all. After all, the Buddha image was finished—and then in a great rush—only in the fateful year 478; and time obviously ran out before the huge shrine doors could be provided with the necessary pivot holes, from which great double doors could be hung. Cell R1, with its unfinished B mode fitting, was started, like L1, with its high entrance steps, in 468; but like PR it was completed, with a D mode doorway, only after the Hiatus. The presence of the nearby cistern, and possibly plans for a similar cistern (never undertaken) at the left, explain the heightening of Cells R1, R2, and R3, along with that of the equivalent cells at the left. Their thin walls, and their relatively imprecise shaping, are features characteristic of cells largely excavated before the Recession; indeed, when the main hall’s extensive right side wall was being smoothed, it broke into Cell R3, so poor and warped was the latter’s planning. The points of the breakthrough (caused in part by the “early” unevenness of the wall) have recently been repaired with cement, unfortunately obscuring the significant evidence about the cave’s development that they would better provide if left alone. Various other cells along the sides and back (including the barely started Cells R4 and R5) were probably at least penetrated before the Recession, although their deep doorways signal a late date for their completion. After the Hiatus Cells R6, R8, and rR2, the three at the rear that contain niches, along with typically late D mode doorways, may have been put into urgent service as early as 473, despite the extremely unfinished state of the excavation as a whole. Cell L6, and three cells at the right rear (two in the unfinished complex discussed below) were also fitted out in the D mode. A few others (L8, R7, as well as the left rear complex) are barely penetrated, and were clearly abandoned at the end of 477, when the patron’s total focus turned to work in the shrine area.



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After the Hiatus had ended, perhaps because of the increasing need for housing for the monks, special complexes were planned in a number of caves, wherein “extra” cells open off a pillared vestibule, as at the right rear in Cave 4. The arrangement may reflect that earlier developed (just before the Recession) in Cave 7, and it has counterparts in both Caves 21 and 23; both of the latter, like the complex in Cave 4, were never completed after Harisena died. Whereas the pillared entrance of the right rear complex in Cave 4 was never finished, that at the left rear was barely started. It seems likely that in the latter, three appended cells, rather than two, were planned, since the space at the right of the intended complex is rather constricted, and could hardly contain a cell that opened in the standard fashion from the rear aisle. It is clear that in Cave 4 as in most other caves, the planners made a point of having the cell doorways look out between the pillars, adjusting the position of the doorway openings to achieve this. As a consequence they have “squeezed” cells L3 and L4 on the one hand, and L5 and L6 on the other, very close together. As a result, which of course was not intended, both of these pairs show a breakthrough where their sidewalls meet. This is mostly due to the careless technology characteristic of the earliest of the Vakataka excavations, a lack of control both on the part of the workers and their supervisors which is also to be seen in the unintended and unwanted manner in which the cave’s sidewalls splay outward toward the rear, and the ceiling angles upward nearly 5 feet (!) from the front of the hall to the back of the shrine. The hall floor would have angled upward too, roughly in parallel with the ceiling. This must have been at least roughly cut down, to make the floor level, as soon as the excavation program was started up again after the Hiatus. Evidence of this can be seen along the still rough lower level of the left wall, which like the (still rough) upper margin of this same wall shows this “corrective” work in progress, aiming to improve upon the remarkably lax early excavation procedures.35 Cave 5 Cave 5, after years of being too sporadically under excavation, at the end remained far from being finished, and for this reason has no door fittings as such for our consideration.

35 Needless to say, Cell L1–L8 were never occupied.

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The very absence of a cell in the left end wall of the porch is revealing. In 463, when the cave was begun, cells were never planned for the porchends. Thus the left end of the porch, with a typical economy of space, was made to directly abut Cave Lower 6.36 This of course made any later addition of a cell to this left porch wall impossible, even though such additions, when possible, were always made in or after 466, when porch end cells became newly conventional. However, a simple cell could (and almost certainly would) have been cut into the right porch end had work been going on in the cave in 466; that that was not done suggests that work had been interrupted on the cave sometime before 466; and given the evidence of the early abandonment of pillars, windows, doorway, interior throughout the unfinished cave, this is a reasonable conclusion. In fact, it is reasonable to conclude that the patron of this small cave stopped work on it before 466, perhaps because of financial problems or because his workers were lured away by other patrons. By the same token, he still did not continue developing his cave when work began again after the Hiatus. It was not until as late as 477 that, in a spurt of new attention, he began work on the fine late doorway (its nearly completed design clearly “477” in type), the two (redesigned but unfinished) windows, and the pillars and pillar capitals. It was then that he finally, following convention, decided to add a cell—now a late pillared complex, to the right porch end. The opening that now appears to be a doorway at the right porch end is actually only the space between the yet-to-be-defined pillars flanking the doorway opening; such a blocking-out procedure was customary, being found in the right rear complex in Cave 4, the court cells of Cave 7, in the shrinelets (converted from cells) at the right in Cave Upper 6, at the right rear of Cave 23, and in the (converted) court complex of Cave 24. It was only after the central space was revealed that the two pillars would be cut. Of course time ran out in this particular case; indeed, the problems caused by an extremely serious flaw where the right pillar was to be carved, may have been partly responsible for work on this pillared complex being delayed. Although the vestibule and the residence cell within have been roughed out, they too were never finished, when work on the cave was suddenly abandoned at the time of Harisena’s death.

36 Cave 6L’s cistern (in its porch) was typically started very early; and in any case, Cave 6L’s placement vis-à-vis Cave 5’s almost surely suggests that it was underway before Cave 5 was started.



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Most of the very incomplete excavation of the interior hall must have been done at this time too, since the front aisle pillars, although barely blocked out, are widely spaced. This was customary in caves underway later than 466, in order to provide an axially emphasized approach to the shrine. The roughed-out single cell at the right end of the roughed-out front aisle must have been underway at the same time. That no similar cell was started at the left must be due to the fact that, a few years after Cave 5’s early phase of excavation had ended, the neighboring Cave 6L’s wings were added, presumably because of the assumption that Cave 5 had been permanently abandoned.37 Just what the patron was planning to do when he started work again in about 477 is hard to say, but we can assume that he had accepted the idea that he could not have a cell at the left end of the front aisle, and would have had to have been satisfied with merely three cells along the left wall. This would have been possible, since the three equivalent and abutting cells in Cave 6L do not usurp the space that he needed. Cave Lower 6 (Cave 6L) Cave Lower 6 was one of the first excavations of the Vakataka phase, so one would expect to find very early A mode doorway fittings, at least in the more forward areas of the cave. Instead, every one of the sixteen cells has D mode fittings, which with their deep inner recesses and associated niches can be assigned with some assurance to the years immediately after the Hiatus. After this time, niches of this square type were no longer used. Not only the clearly early character of the cave as a whole, but also the typically early thin and irregular front walls of the cells, make it evident that in all of the cave’s cells we are dealing with early (A mode) doorways that were recut and newly defined, in the D mode, in the post-Hiatus period. (That is, they should be considered to be A-D mode cells. The first of the cave’s cells, located along the main side walls, and fronted by typically early candrasilas, must have been penetrated by about 464. These six earliest cells (L2,3,4 and R2,3,4) would have been underway for the next year or two; the later ones, at the rear, cut when candrasilas had just gone out of fashion, had probably already been roughed out by 467,

37 In the same way, Cave 8 usurped space from Cave 7, when work on the latter broke off in 465 or 466, presumably thinking that Cave 7 was permanently abandoned; and in any case, the “intrusion” might not have been a problem, because at that point there had been no plan to add Cave 7’s present lateral complexes.

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since there is no evidence that they ever had the B mode projections that became standard in 468. These cells, crowded along the rear wall, might have been started as early as 466; but they could not have been started before that date since they clearly respond to the presence of (or plans for) the Cave Lower 6 shrine, which would not have been conceived and started prior to 466. The cells opening from the four extensions were not part of the original plan for the cave, but being originally cut in the A mode, they too would not have been underway later than 467. The shallow outer recesses of the cell doorways in the rear wall were hurriedly cut in early 469, to help hide the fact that the very rough (unfinished) wall surface in that area (which was expediently plastered when the shrine area was being rushed to completion) had not been properly finished. Significantly, these are the first examples of such outer recesses, a nicety that immediately became popular at the site; earlier doorways never have them whereas later ones invariably do. Without doubt, the origin of this insistent convention can be found in the expedient bordering of these rear doorways in Cave 6L. Not surprisingly, the refitting of the obsolete A mode doorways to the new D mode appears to have been started as soon as peace was restored to the site after the Hiatus. This assumption seems to be confirmed by the fact that all of the cells have excavated niches at their rear; and niches of this type (similar to those in Cave 1) go out of general usage by 476. The uniform cutting of the recesses for the new D mode fittings, like the treatment of the niches, suggests that such tasks were being done on contract, and this same unified effort surely included the cutting of holes for the clothes poles, doorlatches, drop slots, door stops and so forth; these features were customarily added, at least in the late phase of work at the site, after the doors were hung. Cell L2 is of particular interest, for it must have had some special function. Its doorway is enlarged, and it has a storage shelf at the back, with a sunken repository—once supplied with a cover—at the right end.38 Unhappily a great number of these functional features have been cemented in, in some misguided attempt at conservation, or perhaps for no other reason than an unthinking work order. An item of interest is to be seen in the remaining stump of the teak door latch in Cell R2, similar to the equally rare but better preserved (now unhappily cemented in) example in the door latch of Cell PR of Cave 2. 38 For other storage areas in Cave Lower 6, see Spink, Ajanta, V, 88–89.



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The cells’ plastering would also have been done by a contractor (or perhaps two or three contractors); however, as in many other caves, this was not done until at least 478, and more probably in the Period of Disruption (479–480). The plastering of many of the cells was done with a characteristic red (brick) mix never found at the site until at least 477 and more probably 478. Cave Upper 6 (Cave 6U) The upper story of Cave 6 was not started until at least 465, so it is not surprising to find the new-fangled pillared complexes, which started to be used (first in Cave 7) at the site in 467, at the porch ends. In Cave 11 they may have been under excavation in 467/468, but the Recession occurred before they were fully cut out and before any door fittings were added to the inner cells. The fittings, not surprisingly, were added after the Hiatus, in the expected D mode. Turning to the interior hall, we can get a good impression of how far excavation on the cells had progressed from the presence of a half-defined B mode fitting in Cell L2; this must date from 468, being left unfinished due to the Recession. There may well have been B mode projections in Cell L1, and perhaps in Cell R1 too, for they lie even closer to the front of the cave; but if so they were later removed when these cells were drastically recut and redesigned just after the Hiatus. Cell L1 (with its conventionally deep dimensions and its characteristically early thin front wall was turned into the pillared vestibule of a doubled complex, and the same was being done to Cell Rl when time ran out with Harisena’s death in 477. Had time allowed, R1 would have duplicated L1 in its final plan, but instead, it was taken over in its unfinished state by an intrusive donor in 479 (or late 478) in order to make a special shrine.39 The other pillared complexes in Cave U6 were part of the intended program for the cave. The fact that the excavators encountered a troubling flaw, affecting the right aisle in particular, may explain why work in the other (left) aisle was favored. Thus both the complex at the middle of the left aisle (Cell L3) and the complex at the left rear were essentially completed as intended. By contrast, the complex at the center of the right aisle is revealingly unfinished, while that at the right rear had been only partially 39 Although the Period of Disruption runs generally for the whole site during 479 and 480, the Vakataka patrons had all left the site by mid-478; thus some intrusions might well have been made late in 478, in the Vakataka caves (only).

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penetrated when Harisena died and so was never completed as a cell complex. Like Cell R1 (but in 480), this area was converted into an intrusive shrinelet; in both of these unfinished complexes the space that had first been opened up between the intended fronting pillars was “converted” into a wide doorway opening. In the right rear complex only the fine Buddha group at the rear got fully carved (and summarily painted), while the chamber’s interior, in contrast to that of Cell R1, never got properly decorated. The presence of niches in Cells L2 and R2 suggests that their D mode doorways had been fitted by 474 at the latest, so it is reasonable to conclude that the D mode doorways in all of the other cells in the cave were finished just thereafter, in 477, perhaps with finishing touches hurriedly added in early 478. The precision with which the cells and their functional features were excavated is notably different from their counterparts in Cave 6L, surely reflecting the increased experience of the craftsmen, as well as the increased esthetic expectations of the patron.40 The latches and upper and lower pivot holes, as well as the deep recesses characteristic of the D mode are defined with an obvious concern for neatness. The same care in workmanship equally extends to the notches cut for (now lost) inserts with which broken areas in the doorways of Cells L4 and L5 were repaired. Cell U6’s cells were probably occupied by about 477, probably because accommodation for the growing site was needed, even though the cave’s interior was still very unfinished, particularly at the floor and lower wall levels. The evidence of considerable wear in the pivot holes makes it evident that occupation by the monks must have continued well into the 480s, long after the patron had been forced to leave, due to the Asmaka takeover of the site. It might be noted that where the threshold of Cell R5 was damaged by a geological fault, the excavators restored it with a fitted block of stone, as if a raised threshold, even of such an expedient type, was important. A similar block was put into the left aisle doorway of Cave 26, again to repair damage caused by a geological flaw.

40 Could this suggest that after 473 the patron who controlled the final work on Cave 6U was different from the patron completing the lower storey? Or could it reflect a difference in planners and/or contractors?



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Cave 7 Cave 7 was begun along with other inaugural Vakataka caves as a large early vihara, but with a particularly grand two-portico entrance.41 However, even before the rear porch wall, to say nothing of the (originally plain) side walls, had been reached and penetrated, work broke off for some unknown reason.42 This abandonment (which turned out to be temporary) probably occurred as early as 464 or 465. Then, in about 467 the patron (or perhaps a new patron) decided to continue work, almost surely energized by the fact that the cave could and should now be supplied with a Buddha shrine. However, instead of continuing the excavation to make the expected hall, he decided, perhaps because of financial constraints, to add the now-intended shrine at the center of the rear porch wall. At the same time he decided to fill the rest of the truncated excavation with as many residence cells as he could, as if to make up for those sacrificed in the redesigning of the original conception. In order to do this, innovative pillared complexes—probably the first at the site—were added at the porch ends, each filled efficiently with a triad of cells. Most of these cells were clearly intended for residence, although the double cell in the group at the right was probably reserved for a storage function, since its added inner cell was not fitted with a doorway. The first three cells cut in the cave—those flanking the shrine and one at the left end of the rear wall must have been roughed out in 467, although at this point they were not fitted out for residence, the cave still being so incomplete. These cells, laid out in the rather imprecise early manner, would all have been planned for A mode doorways. Then, to fit even more cells in, the excavators added the two complexes at the porch ends. The first of these porch end cells (e.g. those directly facing into the porch) were also intended originally for A mode doorways, but a number of the cells, reamed out in 468, have been supplied with B mode projections. However, these updated projections were never used, since the cells were provided with D mode doorways after the Hiatus. The same change of mode was made in the cell at the extreme left of the rear wall, which was only excavated after the adjacent pillared porch end complex was underway; all of these cells at the left end of the cave had to be 41 The grandeur—never realized—could possibly suggest some other usage planned, or possibly merely reflects that predilections of its (unknown) patron. 42 When the porch was first abandoned, it had been only partially excavated, as is evident from the fact that when, later on, the left pillared complex was planned, there was still much matrix in the area, some of which remains today, at least in part because of the problems caused by Cave 8’s extension.

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raised up much higher than normal due to the enlargement of Cave 8 during the period when work on Cave 7 was in abeyance. Even though Cave 7 was located at a somewhat higher level, the late additions to the right side of Cave 8, made when work on Cave 7 had seemingly been abandoned, extend so close to the left end of Cave 7, that their proximity necessitated the adjustments. The encroachment of Cave 8, which caused such problems when Cave 7’s left complex was started, even caused the breakage of Cave 7’s cistern because some of the new cells in Cave 8 were cut so close to it. This damage to the Cave 7 cistern was probably quite innocent, since the Cave 8 cells in question were cut at a time when Cave 7 was lying abandoned; in fact, the cells did not actually cut into the cistern’s space, but came so loose that later, if not then, the breakthrough occurred. Since work was still going on throughout Cave 7 in 468, it is hardly surprising that its cell doors had not been hung by the time the Recession began. All of the doorway fittings in the completed cells prove to be of the recessed D mode but, perhaps because of other distractions, a few may not have been fitted out until as late as early 478, as discussed below. In one case—that of the cell at the left of the shrine—the new D mode fitting turned out to be flawed and so was replaced by another D mode fitting on the opposite side of the doorway. As was so often the case in other caves too, the now vestigial and earlier B mode projections all have been effectively abandoned; they were all left in place, however, probably both to save time and money but also to strengthen the upper pivot holes of the new D mode fittings. Although most of the cells in Cave 7 were finally fitted out with the D mode, the two still-unfinished cells at the right end of the rear wall have anomalous fittings. That nearest the shrine shows a particularly clumsy version of the already clumsy E-mode that we have elsewhere assigned to the troubled year of 478 (in Cave 16) or probably 479 (in Cave 20). The fitting of the cell beyond, involving nothing more than corresponding holes in the reveal and the threshold, is even more expedient, and the cell itself is only half finished, suggesting that it might not have been put into service until the Period of Disruption. Indeed, the arrangement is so simple that it might even have been added at a later date, when someone—presumably a sadhu—appears to have taken up residence in the porch, which is sadly begrimed by the smoke from the fires used for cooking or warmth. The two pillared complexes in the court—that at the left quite unfinished and that at the right badly broken—were not started until 477, work on them being interrupted when Harisena died. Their conventionally late date is confirmed by the fact that they did not fit properly under the



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projecting eave of the cave; this is evident particularly at the left, where the court wall is intact. Furthermore, because they had not been conceived (and the stone needed for steps reserved) when the excavation was started, some kind of structural steps would have been required to gain access to them. As expected, the cell doorways within these complexes were planned in the late D mode, but were never fitted out. This is not surprising, since such court complexes, influenced by the earlier ones in the influential Cave 1, never were cut in caves at the site until sometime during 477, just when consistent work at the site was about to end. Traces of plaster and a few small “pole holes” can still be seen in the niche in the right complex so it is probable that they were used for residence during the Period of Disruption and perhaps for a short time thereafter. The long shelf at the rear of these complexes appears to be a later variation on the more standard niches that go out of fashion in about 474. Five of the cave’s earlier cells also have what might be called “shelves”, to distinguish them from the generally smaller and more standardized “niches” found elsewhere at the site between 471 and 474. It seems possible that all of these cells, with their hasty and clumsy D mode fittings, were fitted out only in early 478, the “shelves” being cut at the same time, all being more characteristic of work in this year than of the higher quality cutting typical of 477. Such a dating for the fitting-out would hardly apply to most of the caves underway in the late period. However, the cave’s patron was obsessed with filling his shrine and shrine antechamber with a plethora of Buddha images well into 478, as well as rushing (with less than full success) to plaster and paint the whole porch area in that same year; therefore, with all this activity going on, it seems reasonable to assign the final fitting out many of the cave’s cells to this same period—early 478. Cave 8 Cave 8 started out as one of the smallest and earliest Vakataka excavations, but in 466 it was revised and enlarged, in order to now be updated with a shrine, as well as extra residence cells. It must be due to the delay that this occasioned that we find a B mode projection (the pivot hole showing no evidence of use) in its now-broken Cell L2, proving that work was still going on in the cave in 468, at which point it was interrupted by the Recession. Although it was generally the case that cells were not fitted out until they were about to be used, it may well be that this pivot hole was cut so close to the time that work throughout the site was interrupted by the Recession,

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that the fitting never was put into service at this time. Later on, when work was hurriedly taken up again about a decade later, neither this nor any of the other cells in the cave were converted, as was generally the case, to the later D mode. Time, having earlier run out in 468, in early 478 it quickly ran out again. The other cell doorways were all cut slightly earlier than that of Cell L2. They would all have been originally cut in the featureless A mode, to which a number of clumsy fitting arrangements were added. The doorway of Cells rL2 has a crude fitting, involving holes cut directly into the doorways’ upper and lower reveals, while the doorway of Call R2 has rather crude notches at the top, perhaps showing an attempt to find a way to get the door fitted with applied wooden inserts, somewhat reminiscent of a common Hinayana procedure. It seems likely that these clumsy fittings were the first used in the site’s Vakataka phase, preceding the development of the more complex and practical B mode and A+ mode projections. Although the cave was finally plastered and painted, apparently in early 478, there appears to have been no attempt to improve (or perhaps even to use) these primitive door arrangements. This is suggestive of the kind of rush that characterized all of the “Vakataka” caves at the site in early 478, and would seem to confirm the assumption that this late work in the cave was not done in 477, the vigorous year when Harisena was still reigning, but in far less auspicious, indeed frantic, times. It might be noted that inside Cell rL2, at the left, there is a stone projection surely intended for an oil lamp. There are no others at the site, although there is a recessed inset probably used for the same purpose in Cave 17’s Cell R6, and a crude conversion of a pole hole into a lamp, by means of applied mud, made by a later sadhu in Cave 11, Cell PLa.43 Cave 11 If we are searching for evidence that Ajanta’s early Vakataka excavations were all first conceived as mere dormitories, and then were converted to Buddha shrines, Cave 11 is the most revealing place to start. It is easy to see that the shrine was created by the transformation of an already essentially defined earlier cell.44 This is clear from the fact that when the excavators were struggling to make the shrine as spacious as possible, they 43 A shaped mud “wall lamp” can also be found in the shrine of Bagh Cave 2. 44 There was still enough rough matrix on the floor of the old cell to allow the carving of the front of the throne base, when the transformation to the shrine was made. It was often



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broke through into the right rear corner of the adjacent (and also fully exposed) cell at the left; the break (clearly from the developing shrine into the affected cell rather than vice versa) was of course in large part caused by the characteristically early misalignment of the cells. Another matter, about which the present excavators could do nothing, relates to the thickness of the new shrine’s front wall, which now had to hold the massive shrine doors. Because the front wall of the shrine reflects the transformed cell’s depth, it is somewhat thinner than expected, given the weight of the massive shrine doors.45 As we might expect in such a relatively small and early excavation, Cave 11’s cell doorways (except for one later addition at the left rear) were all cut in the simple A mode, having all been defined well before 468, after which work on the cave was soon to be interrupted by the Recession. But before this happened, in 468 or possibly early 469 (when work on the stupa originally planned had been abandoned and the newly conceived Buddha image was being rushed to completion) the decision was made to “upgrade” the old cells, by converting them to something approximating the new and more efficient B mode, which must have been introduced barely a few months before. For this reason, in what we call the A+ mode, attached wooden projections were pinned on at the back of the doorways in “imitation” of the B mode’s stone projections. At the upper left (from the inside) of some of the doorways one can still see the stumps of two teak pegs, or, in the cases where they have been lost completely, at least the holes that held them. Wooden receptacles to retain the lower pivot still remain in a few cases too, showing distinct signs of wear. The pivoted door could be efficiently lifted in place because of a slot cut at the very top, between the retaining pegs. The lower pivot could then, after the door was lifted into place, be dropped into the hole cut to receive it. In many later cells, notably those in the D mode, a slot is found at the bottom, into which the lower pivot could be slid. The pivot would then be locked into place, by packing the slot with a stone (or possibly wooden or clay) plug. When, in 466 or 467, the decision was made to add a shrine to this vihara, this of course occasioned the loss of one cell; possibly for this reason the the case at the site that the upper levels were essentially finished while the floors were still in process. 45 Note the more conventional thickness of the cave’s front wall, holding the door and windows. In fact this may be even thicker than expected, due to the need to support the ceiling from the possible effects of a large flaw in the rock about it.

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“extra” cell at the left rear (not part of the original plan) was started at this time, when A mode doorways were still being cut. Along with its “early” candrasila, created only when the cave’s floor was lowered in 466 or 467, it may have been finally finished (somewhat roughly) by the time that work on the cave was interrupted by the Recession.46 However, the cell’s door was not fitted until after the Hiatus, as is evident from its D mode fitting. Since the earlier (A+ mode) cells in the cave were never converted, as was customary, to the more efficient D mode, and since the originally planned decoration of the already-plastered interior was never accomplished, it seems more likely that no patron spent any money on the cave in the normally productive years after the Hiatus. For this reason, and because there is no wear in Cell rL1’s pivot holes, it seems likely that the doorway was fitted out, along with the hasty refurbishment of the Buddha image, in the rushed activity of early 478, as some last minute devotional project. The fact that the doorway’s D mode fitting is on the “wrong” side may be explained by the necessarily cramped positioning of the cell; perhaps, with such an adjusted door opening, the cave’s front area could better accommodate a monk’s bed or mat, than would have been the case with the more exposed right wall. By about 464 or 465, the planner of Cave 11 realized that he had made a serious blunder, and would have to do something to placate his distressed and probably angry patron. His really inexcusable mistake had been to assume that there was plenty of space in the curving scarp to locate his Cave 11 in the normal fashion, excavated straight back in from the cliff face. With so much else on his mind, and the new developments at the site just getting underway, he had failed to notice, until the workers had penetrated deep into the cave, that he was faced with an intractable problem. The huge Hinayana caitya hall, Cave 10, lying just to the right of his modest new excavation, by no means stretched straight back into the cliff, but was angled sharply to the left, apparently in compensation for an otherwise destructive fault which can be seen running down parallel to the right side of the façade. When reality dawned upon the Cave 11 planner, it was clear that plans for the whole right wall of the new Cave 11 had to be aborted, for any cells cut there could break into the vault area of the great caitya hall. Having had to sacrifice three cells along the interior right wall, because of

46 The remaining candrasila of Cell L3 (cut earlier than that of Cell L2) rose from the original floor level.



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the misunderstanding about the positioning of the adjacent Cave 10, the planner(s) now came up with what was a most ingenious solution. From the start of excavation work at the site in 462, convention had ordained that the walls at the end of the porches would be left blank. The reason for this was apparently nothing more than that this was a “convention”, sanctioned by the example of Hinayana precedents. But pressured by the need to retrieve something of the cave’s lost living space, and something of his own honor, the planner (or the patron) of Cave 11 made the decision, in 465–466, to utilize the valuable and available porch end areas as a new location for no less than four new cells. Like the slightly earlier cells inside the hall, these porch cells all had A mode doorways, with no certain fitting arrangement provided, until 468 or 469, when all of Cave 11’s cells (except that at the left rear) were provided with A+ mode fittings, emulating the new (and better!) B mode. Whether or not the major Cave 11 adjustments were the result of a local initiative or (as seems more likely) a decision from on high, now nearly every other patron at the site, over the course of the next year or two, suddenly decided to have cells cut at those same highly convenient points, significantly increasing residence space in the caves. Thus the new idea of adding cells to the porch ends was a response to the problem that confronted the embarrassed excavators of Cave 11, faced with the loss of the cells along the right wall. At first, in 465–466, as in Cave 11, these new porch end cells were invariably simple; but by 467 porch end cells throughout the site become more complex, being provided with fronting pillars.47 The proof that the four porch cells were never part of the original plan of the cave is evident from their disorderly (or one might say typically early) placement. Their positioning, however, was determined significantly by the need to locate the left cells above the adjacent old (Hinayana) Cave 12, while the right cells had to adjust to the presence of the aisle vaults of the adjacent Cave 10. The consequent need to raise the cells up well above the level of the porch floor in turn demanded that the porch ends be set well back, to allow the monolithic steps necessary to provide access to the elevated cells. Consequently the expected “normal” alignment with the walls of the interior has been sacrificed; the porch, from left to right, considerably exceeds the dimensions of the hall. As originally planned the porch

47 Often these pillared complexes replaced the intended simpler cells. In at least one case (26LW) the original simple porch end cell was converted to this new type. The cell at the left end of the front aisle of Cave 6U shows a similar conversion.

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end walls would have been aligned with the wall of the hall. Their subsequent dis-alignment is but one more proof that the revisions of the porch ends were made well after the cave’s interior was already underway. It is of interest to note that there is part of a broken chisel used as a wedge against a remaining piece of teak in the peg hole on the left side of the doorway’s reveal in Cell PL. Another similar piece of chisel is used as a wedge a similarly placed peg hole in Cell rR1. Projecting into the slot made for the door latch, it would have secured the (now-missing) teak insert. Cave 14 Cave 14, still barely underway in 477, when work on it broke off with Harisena’s death, has no cells. However, one can see that places were planned for them at either end of the porch; at the right, the pillared outer vestibule, intended to front a cell within, has already been summarily defined, while that at the left is still very much in process. Given the character of all of the associated features in Cave 14, we can be quite sure that the cell doorways in these complexes—had they been finished in better times—would have been cut in the D mode. Cave 15 Cave 15’s cells were all blocked out with thin-walled A mode doorways well before 468. This is clear from the fact that none of them have the monolithic projections (B mode) that came into use in that year. They also are supplied with typically early semicircular candrasilas. The cells at the porch ends (never added before 466 at the site) were probably started slightly after those of the interior. Significantly, they are bereft of candrasilas; presumably the porch floor had been leveled before the cells were started, so there was no matrix now available in that area available for such conventional early steps—the cells had still not been planned for when the porch was cut. None of the cells of Cave 15 appear to have been put into use very early; this is hardly surprising when we realize that the whole cave was still very incomplete when work was interrupted in 468. The first evidence of usage does not appear until that year, when two of the cells (L1, L3) were fitted out with pegged-on holders to convert them to the A+ mode (approximating the B mode). It seems reasonable to assume, given the unfinished state of the cave at this point, that these were the first cells put into use. All of the rest were fitted out only after the Hiatus, when they were converted to the new and sensibly recessed D mode. Thus, as in various other early



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excavations, the originally planned-for A mode was in fact replaced by better systems before the time came when the cells needed to be (or could be) used. At least until a few years ago, many of the door latches and even some of the pole holes even higher up on the walls in Cave 15’s cells were packed with mud. The explanation for this curious phenomenon, supplied to me by an old attendant at the site, was that the whole cave was once filled almost to the ceiling level with debris washed down from the cliff above over the course of many centuries. This would explain why, although much of the ceiling retains a layer of (never-painted) plaster, the wall surfaces preserve only bare traces of such a surfacing, always at a high level. Cave 16 Despite its being the donation of the imperial Prime Minister—or perhaps because of this—Cave 16 painfully mirrors the political traumas that occurred during the course of Ajanta’s Vakataka period development. As one of the first caves undertaken in the site’s fifth century renaissance, its more forward cells were provided with the simple featureless openings (A mode) characteristic of the first Vakataka undertakings, while the relative thinness of their front walls—an early feature—is also what we would expect at this date. However, the huge cave was very unfinished when work first broke off in 469, early in the Recession. Therefore it is not surprising that none of these more forward cell doorways had been fitted out for use in this early phase, for the cave was far from ready for occupancy at that time. Although the A mode origin of these more forward cells has been masked by their conversion, after the Hiatus, to the D mode, what confirms the very early date of these simply cut cells in the front of the cave is the presence of a projecting B mode fitting in Cell L4. Its positioning about halfway down the left aisle gives clear evidence that the excavators, having already defined the more forward cells in the A mode, had reached this point in 468, the very moment that the consistent early excavation of the cave was interrupted.48 Significantly, L4’s projection has no pivot hole, showing that the cell had not yet been fitted out in the cave at this point. This must also have been true of the more forward cells, for if they had been put into use 48 As discussed elsewhere, work went on in Cave 16 well into 469, but at that point interest was focused on far more “essential” things than cutting out the cells. (Spink, Ajanta, V, 192–195).

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in 468 or early 469, when the first phase of work on the cave ended, they would have been converted to the A+ mode, as was the case with early doorways in Caves 11, 15, and 17. As we might expect, most of the more rearward cells must have been at least penetrated by this same time. However, as a group they would have been barely started; this is evident from the situation in the two most central cells originally started in the rear wall, the central area of which would normally have been given priority in terms of excavation. What these two cell doorways show is that when work on the cave was interrupted on them (as it had been on Cell L4) at the end of 468, their penetration had been extremely shallow. Therefore, when work in the shrine area was resumed nearly a decade later, it was possible to incorporate their (very limited) excavated portions directly into the new shrine’s left and right “corridors”, an “incorporation” that never could have been possible if they had been more fully excavated.49 The fact that the walls of both of these laterdesigned corridors “wow” out slightly where the early-abandoned cells were being opened out is proof of their transformation. It should be noted that these “corridors” cannot be construed as passages, because the two old cell doorways, neither of which had been finished when abandoned in 469, were never redesigned into entrances; they are too unfinished for that, being left in their original state, where they at least provide a degree of light and ventilation. Since these two barely penetrated central cells were so unfinished when work was interrupted in 469, we would hardly expect the more laterally placed cells in the rear of the cave to have been more developed than these two more central cells. The fact that none of these rear cells have monolithic B mode projections, even though they were being penetrated at the time when the B mode was being exclusively used throughout the site, suggests that those that may have indeed have been started at this early date, had not progressed far enough to have such fittings revealed. Of course such monolithic projections, being vestigial elements, could have been cut away. This might well have been the case with the two central cells, which would have been more deeply penetrated than the other less central cells, prior to the time when they were finally incorporated into the design of the new shrine.50 49 See diagram in Spink, Ajanta, V, 170, Fig. 20. 50 See Spink 1975 (Ajanta’s Chronology: the Crucial Cave) for discussion and diagrams. I expect that even these two central cells had not progressed far enough to have had their intended projections cut. However, even if they had been cut, it would not be surprising,



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Although (except for L4) all of the more forward cells in the cave had been fitted out with the expected D mode fittings in the post-Hiatus period, four of the very latest cells in the rear of the cave (L5, L6, rL1, rR1), had still not been fitted out by the time of Harisena’s death at the end of 477. In the following difficult year, when all of the Vakataka patrons were compulsively focusing on getting their shrine images completed, it would appear that Varahadeva, as he turned his cave over “to the community of monks” (Cave 16 inscription), before fleeing from the site, ordered these cells expediently completed, so that they too could also be put into use. Urged on by the awareness of time running out, and even carelessly puncturing the cave’s wall at one point (L5), the excavators cut deep sockets at the top of the doorways’ inner recesses to hold easily adjustable wooden pivot-holders. This type of practical, albeit clumsy-appearing, arrangement, found in a few very late contexts in Caves 20 and 7 also, can be classified as the E-mode, a degraded but efficient version of the highly satisfactory D mode. Among the evidences of Cave 16’s early date, we see candrasilas in front of the more forward cells L2 and R2, probably the first cells to be excavated in the cave. Apparently, throughout the site, cells L1 and R1 would have been completed slightly after cells L2 and R2, because of the demanding excavating activity (requiring obtrusive scaffolding) in the front aisle. The fact that these two cells (L1, R1) are set back at the ends of the front aisle is a typical early feature which disappears after its appearance here; this (unnecessary) setback may have been to more convincingly accommodate the faux-beams at the two ends of the carved front aisle ceiling. Since the late D mode doorways of Cells PR and PL are converted from the A mode, we can assume that they were excavated (in the A mode) prior to 468 during which year the B mode suddenly came into fashion. And since matrix had not been reserved for steps in front of them, we must assume (as indeed we would expect) that the porch’s end walls were originally plain, the cells being added in 466 or 467, after the end walls had already been prepared. As was so often the case at the site, the cells were plastered only during the Period of Disruption (479–480). Most cells were fully plastered at this point, but in a few at the rear of the cave only the walls were plastered, or the cells were not plastered at all. in this particular case, if they were removed by the excavators, since they were making an elaborate shrine chamber, and would not want “useless” old features in it. The situation in cells, where normally projections were not cut away, is different; in those cases, no one really cared, and indeed the projections often served a strengthening purpose.

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Cave 17 NOTE: A more extended discussion of Cave 17’s cells is placed at the end of this section of resumes. Cave 17 is of particular interest because it shows, in a sequence generally paralleling the course of the cave’s development, all of the major types of doorway fitting modes, together with a number of subtypes; and most of this remarkable functional development takes place in a mere half-decade, between 467, when the first cells were fitted out, and 471, when the cave’s royal patron had to give up work on his benefaction in favor of war.51 Since this was the local king’s cave, upon which he proudly “expended abundant wealth”, it was surely in the forefront of technological as well as artistic experimentation, with a consequent impact upon the site as a whole. Cave 19 Cave 19, though a caitya hall, has two cells attached to the pillared units at either side of its court. Three of these four cells were clearly used for residence, the fourth (at front right) was apparently being converted to a cistern chamber before its expected door was hung. The doorways provide definite evidence, like that given in Caves 17 and 1, that this “royal cave” was one of the select few upon which work continued during the “Recession” that started in 468. This is because the doorways, with the possible exception of that at the right front (see below), were cut in the C mode, with projections both above and below; thus they must be dated specifically to 470/471. The shallow outer doorway recess and the rectangular doorsteps like those of the associated Cave 17 also relate particularly to forms of this period, when work was continuing in the “royal” caves alone. The two cells in each of these complexes share a pillared vestibule. Niches, like those later added in 471 to the later cells in Cave 17 and immediately after the Hiatus to the cells in Caves 1 and 6L, were planned for each of these residence cells, although they got cut only in the left complex. The niches in the cells of other caves were placed on the rear wall, but here their placement is different, and for this reason they were wisely disposed instead on the wall best illuminated by the light entering from the courtyard through the pillars of the vestibule. The cells opening from the vestibule of the left complex—the niche of the forward cell is now much

51 The D mode was also used after the Hiatus, to convert cells L5, L6, and Pl to a storage function. But at this point the Asmakas, rather than Upendragupta, controlled the cave.



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broken—should be assigned to 470 or perhaps as late as 471, when such niches first came into use at the site, in this cave and in Cave 17.52 The rearward cell in the right complex may have been under excavation some months later than the cells in the left complex, when the workers on the caitya hall were under greater pressure, and probably for this reason its niche never got cut. Instead, a somewhat shaky “substitute” was provided in the form of a double shelf (supported by two pairs of pegs-only the holes remain); like the niches for which it substitutes, it was positioned on the better-lit wall. As for the more forward cell in the left complex, it was converted to a cistern chamber even before these cell doorways were fitted out, so a niche would never have been added. The door fittings of the two intact (rearward) cells show evidence of use, probably from the later Period of Disruption, when the elaborate intrusive Buddha images and related ceiling and wall paintings were placed in both of these pillared vestibules. The door at front left is much broken (and the cell cut into by the conquering Asmakas) but the C mode doorway type is clear. Unhappily, the original evidence is now confused by the thoughtless (and recent!) cement reconstruction of the front and left portion of this ancient vestibule. The reconstruction of the original doorway to the front left cell is particularly inept, since it fails to reproduce the B mode monolithic projection that was once there, as is (or was) evident from the corresponding pivot hole at the floor level.53 The cell at front right has an upper projection that was never used; not only does its pivot hole—being cut along with those in the other three doorways in anticipation of its use—show no wear, but (significantly) no latch was ever cut on the opposite jamb. Thus the opening never functioned as a doorway; it was utilized instead as a passage, which in fact links Cave 19’s court with that of Cave 17—both significant offerings of King Upendragupta. The obvious abandonment of any residence purpose for this cell was almost certainly due to its having been turned at the last minute—i.e. in late 471—into a cistern chamber, from which water could be conveniently carried into the fine caitya hall and its associated residence cells. Had such a cistern been planned from the start, or its inclusion decided upon somewhat earlier, the monolithic projection would have been neither needed 52 The same type of niches are found again in Cave 1 and Cave 6L, where they are dateable to 473/474. 53 The RC (reinforced concrete) construction is also inept, and is already leaking rust stains on the single original element—the pilaster at the right—as well as on a portion of the beautiful Nagaraja panel.

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nor cut. Indeed, the fact that it already has a pivot hole—typically not cut until the time when a cell was to be fitted out—suggests that the decision to make a cistern chamber instead was not done until the very time that one or all of the other three cells (probably all three) were themselves being fitted out in 471. At this point the lower projection—for the other three cells all have C mode doorways—may have been cut away when the cell was somewhat enlarged for use as a cistern; or, perhaps more likely, it may have eroded away over the centuries, for this whole area was filled up with damaging debris until being cleaned out in the nineteenth century. The alternating seasonal drying out and soaking was particularly hard on basalt, as the evidence of the dozens of fallen pillars at the site (to say nothing of the sometimes total erosion of the Elephanta panels) clearly proves; and even the fact that the lower projection would have already had a hole in it would enhance the damaging process. It should also be noted that the present cut in the court-facing wall of this right front cell was not there when this cell would have been converted to a cistern; that “doorway” and the mirroring one in the front court cell on the left were not made until after 473, when the Asmakas brutally cut through these areas to make a convenient pathway toward their own complex at the western extremity of the site. By this time, even though this would have facilitated access by water-carriers, there could have been no need for such refreshment, since worship in Upendragupta’s hall had been forbidden by the vengeful Asmakas. The surely hurried conversion of the left front cell to a cistern chamber late in 471 involved a slight extension of the east side of the cell, presumably to make the low raised platform in that area, which is typical of cistern chambers. The fact that such a platform was located in the chamber would support the assumption that there was indeed a deep cistern right in the center of the cell, which the platform served. However, the evidence has been obscured by a fill of cement at the point where the cistern would have been. However, without a lucky find of early work records by the Nizam’s department, no definitive answer to this puzzle will be forthcoming until the cemented floor in this area has been at least partially removed. If no abandoned cistern turns up at this point, or if we find out that it never existed, then we can equally explain the conversion of this cell by seeing it as a functional area, where indeed water could be stored or brought through from the nearby cistern—mentioned by Upendragupta with such pride—at the left of Cave 17. Although it would not be quite as convenient as having a cistern with the very precincts of the caitya hall, water could easily have been brought to the hall from the associated



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Cave 17, which in fact had two cisterns-one at the right and one at the left— to supply its own needs.54 Cave 20 Cave 20 was also a donation of the enthusiastically pious local feudatory ruler, Upendragupta, but as time went on and his troubles mounted, he accorded it a lower and lower priority, as compared with his grander Caves 17 and 19. Particularly in its later phase, Cave 20 shows a dilatory as well as sporadic development. Cave 20 was started very early, so it is hardly surprising to find that the two front cells in its interior, with their extremely thin walls, were planned for A mode doorways; thus they can be dated to 467 or earlier, in their original form (later converted). The other two interior cells must have been started with the same intentions; the extreme thinness of Cell L2’s front wall would seem to be proof enough of that. However, had they been finished, work might have progressed into 468, at which point they would have been supplied with B mode projections, for which (as was not the case in cells L1 and R1) there is sufficient matrix at the upper level, possibly reserved for this purpose. Indeed, revealingly, in Cell L2, the excavators cut this cell only up to the level of the top of the doorway, as if to reserve the cutting of the B mode projection for the next stage in their work. However, this cutting was never done; the cell was never finished. Cell R2, which also, with its very unfinished front wall, perhaps was intended as a B mode, was also abandoned by 471, because of Upendragupta’s troubles. However, in the end, Cell R2 was supplied with a clumsy and hasty E mode fitting, presumably during the Period of Disruption, when worship, once the Asmaka connection with the site was broken, was finally able to continue in the cave. It is likely that Cell R1 was converted to the D mode in this same late period, and briefly used, for its pivot hole shows wear, while a similar conversion of Cell L1 was also started, but never finished, presumably because of the constraints of time. Since Cave 20 was started very early, the planners at first had no intention of adding cells at the porch ends. Although porch end cells were often added in 466 (but never before) these cells were probably not started until about 467, or perhaps 468, since the excavators were able to include projecting B mode fittings during the course of their cutting; and such projections were never made until that latter year. By then, we can assume 54 For Upendragupta’s (similarly presumed) Cave 20 cistern, see below (Cave 20), and Spink, Ajanta, V, 253–255.

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(although we cannot see it due to obscuring cementing), that a cistern— typically an early feature—was cut at the left of the court, extending under the porch of the cave in that same area. Thus the planner felt it necessary to slightly elevate Cell PL. Then, to provide the raised cell with a step, he had to set the cell back well beyond the position that it would have occupied if no such adjustments were required. Thus (as can also be seen in Cave 11, the plane of the interior walls is by no means continuous with that of the porch, as one would normally expect. Cell PR has been set back and raised up, although to a lesser degree; this was probably for esthetic balance. Surprising as it may seem, this is something with which Ajanta’s planners were often concerned, and which is evident in the disposition of the cells at the porch ends of both Cave 7 and 17, as well as here. Cell PL has a B mode projection, the wear in its pivot holes probably being ascribable to the Period of Disruption, when someone may have finally cut the upper and lower pivot holes to make the cell ready for use. It would have been unusual to have supplied the pivot holes before Upendragupta’s excavators had finished the cell—even the candrasila never got finished—and it is certain that the wear does not date from the period when the Asmakas took over the site, after the Hiatus. Cell PR was once supplied with a B mode projection too, for which the lower pivot hole remains, although the monolithic projection above appears to have broken off during the process of excavation. It was, however, probably in the Period of Disruption, supplied—on the still intact “wrong” side—with a D mode fitting. Although Upendragupta himself was never able to finish or to use his caves (17–20; 29) after 471, due to his defeat by the Asmakas, later residents did appear to make use of his abandoned Cave 20 during the Period of Disruption. The very expedient fittings or re-fittings of Cells PL, PR, R1, and R2—those of Cells L1 and L2 never completed—seem to prove that a hasty attempt to put the old cells into use was made, starting in 479, by which time the inimical Asmakas were no longer controlling the site. As mentioned above, the right porch cell doorway was refitted with a D mode doorway sometime after 473, and it is conceivable (as mentioned above) that the fitting out of the doorway in Cell PL was done at the same time. Cell R1’s very thin doorway was converted to a D mode also; its pivot shows definite signs of use. Cell L1’s doorway was recessed, but never supplied with pivot holes, which further supports the assumption that all of these cells were taken over very late, in the Period of Disruption, when all consistent planning at the site had come to an end. The dating of this



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sporadic work to the Period of Disruption could be strongly supported by the example of Cell R2, where a particularly clumsy and expedient version of the E mode was used. What might further suggest that the cave was not used for residence until the Period of Disruption is the manner in which the Asmakas dishonored the adjacent and associated caitya hall (Cave 19) heedlessly cutting through the two cells at the front of the court to make a convenient passage to their own western complex. The fact that their new walk-way went exactly in front of Cave 20 would perhaps not be a compelling reason to explain why worship in Cave 20 was apparently disallowed while the Asmakas were still dominant at the site; but when we realize that they had not only violated the structure of the adjacent caitya Cave 19 but had cut off worship therein, it adds some force to the suggestion. The continuation of earlier programs of work—even on cell doorways—would be unusual in the Period of Disruption; elsewhere at the site no such late work on earlier doorways is found in this late and troubled period.55 Indeed, even in Cave 20 such late work was expedient, involving little more than trying (not always successfully) to get the cell doors hung. However, there are two significant carved Buddha images—both of course intrusions—in the porch, while an even more impressive intrusion was added at the left rear of the hall at this same time.56 Thus it is clear that the cave enjoyed a new burst of activity in the Period of Disruption, and this could help to explain these attempts to put at least some of the cells into use. In this regard, I have suggested that the expelled local king, King Upendragupta, or his relatives, may have at that time been able to come back to the site to renew their connections with the caves that they had once so lavishly supported. It may be that the bhadrasana Buddha at the left rear of Cave 20’s hall was added at this time. It was even supplied with some kind of fitted-in platform, presumably for worship. What is of particular interest is that similar platforms were fitted into Upendragupta’s two other major caves—Caves 17 and 19—during this same period; they can be found nowhere else at the site, giving some force to the suggestion that Upendragupta or his family members may have been able to worship at their previously-donated caves at this time.

55 The only examples may be two clumsily fitted-out cells in Cave 7; see above. 56 There may have also been painted offerings, especially in the porch, but they have long since vanished.

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Cave 21 Although the excavation of the closely related Caves 21, 23, and 24 had started by about 466/467, work was cut off abruptly by the Recession; the greater part of their excavation and all of their decoration was done after the Hiatus. Thus it is hardly surprising to find that all of their completed cells, without exception, have thick front walls and deep inner (as well as outer) recesses, with neat and deep-set pivot holes characteristic of welldeveloped D mode fittings. In Cave 21, nine of the cells in the cave were actually fitted out and used for residence, because they show wear in their pivot holes; but whether the monks moved in as early as 477 or even 478 is hard to say. The cave, so vigorously developing in 477, would hardly have been an ideal place to stay at the time, but it was very active in 478 too, when the Buddha image was finally hurried to completion, and so much work was still being done in the interior. In any case, whether or not the monks were living there while the excavation was still in process, surely they were living there during the Period of Disruption. In fact, it was at this point (and not before) that many of the cells were plastered. However, this plastering was done in a very idiosyncratic way. Five cells in which doors were hung and used were plastered, but four were not, whereas three cells with no door fittings at all were also plastered; a few cells, although fully roughed out, were neither plastered nor fitted with doors. The randomness of this plastering suggests that the resident monks—who must have been living in some of the doorless cells too, either were able to order such plastering on their own or to choose that their cell be included in the some devotee’s initiative. The fact that there are clear signs of wear in many of the pivot holes suggests considerable usage, but of course it is hardly surprising that monks continued living in the cave even into the 480s. After all, in this time of troubles, there was no better place to go. Cave 22 Cave 22’s four cells are very unfinished, but surely D mode doorways were anticipated, since the tiny cave, located up above Caves 21 and 23, was not even started until 477. Because of the necessarily small size of its porch, it is not surprising that no cells were cut in this area.



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Cave 23 If, as seems likely, the excavators of Cave 23 also kept at work in this troubled year, 478, they made the same mistake as their counterparts in Cave 21. That is, as a result of a certain degree of hubris, they could not believe that time, for the Asmakas, would run out so soon. Therefore, instead of concentrating of getting the Buddha image carved and completed, they continued their excavation, albeit hastily, in something of the normal course from front to back. They obviously did not realize how suddenly their efforts would be brought to an end, as the dreams of the Asmaka patrons were confronted by the nightmare of war—even if the nightmare was of their own making. Although work on four of the cave’s cells (PLa, L1, L3, R2) progressed far enough for the inner recesses of the doorways to have been cut, only two of these (PLa and L1) were supplied with pivot holes, and these are among the very few cells in the cave with relatively finished floors. Doors must have been hung in both of these more finished cells, since the pivot holes show signs of wear—and therefore occupancy. Only PLa was plastered, the mix used being apparently the same as that on the porch ceiling. This might suggest that the cell was plastered in 478, although it is quite possible that essentially the same mix was used in the Period of Disruption, when the plastering of cells was more conventional. A revealing point of interest is the problem encountered by the excavators when cutting out the pillared complex at the right of the porch. When exposing the inner cell of this complex, the workers involved suddenly broke through into the abutting inner cell of the pillared complex at the left of the porch of Cave 21. This was due to the fact that they did not realize that this area was originally planned, prior to 468, for single porch end cells in both of the abutting caves. Then when, in 468, just before the Recession, it was decided to cut pillared complexes in this area instead of the previously conventional single cells, these complexes would not fit in the space provided without being somewhat reduced in their dimensions. The excavators working in Cave 21’s porch in 468 took cognizance of this by reducing the dimensions of their left pillared complex.57 However, in 473, when work was taken up again, after the Hiatus, in Cave 23’s porch, the requirement had been forgotten. Thus the Cave 23 excavator, unaware

57 See Spink, Ajanta, V, 274–275.

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of the impending breakthrough, proceeded quite innocently on his potentially disastrous course. The cell in question, which could not be finished, was understandably abandoned.58 It is reasonable to ascribe the mistake make in the cutting of the right porch complex to the troubled year of 478, when haste tended to be more honored than precision. In this regard, one could note other excavating mistakes that would be very surprising if made in 477 rather than in the rushed context of 478. Quite apart from the problem in the porch, there are “inexcusable” breaks between no less than three pairs of cells in the interior (L1/L2; L4/L5; R4/R5), generally caused by the apparently disregarded skewing of one or both of the cells in question.59 Perhaps significantly, L2 is the offender in the first of these examples, and it is likely that, this being unnoticed, the excavators of L1, working just slightly later (as was typical for such front aisle cells), were responsible for the breakage, even if not for the cause of it.60 Cave 24 Cave 24 is the largest and most incomplete of the triad of related caves: 21, 23, and 24). The porch would have been barely penetrated at the time of the Asmaka’s expulsion late in 468. However, work must have started up again vigorously after the Hiatus. By the time that work on the cave was abandoned due to Harisena’s death late in 477, its splendid porch was almost fully carved, its left end cell in particular being already revealed. However, its porch was almost fully carved, with its left end cell in particular already revealed when work on the cave was abandoned in 477, at the time of Harisena’s death. This cell is the only one in the cave to have been provided with a D mode recess; however, pivot holes were never cut, so no doorway was ever hung. Nor was the cell plastered. In fact, there is no evidence whatsoever that any monks took up residence in the very unfinished cave either before or after Harisena’s death.

58 See Spink, Ajanta, V, 291–293 where the necessary shifting of the Cave 23 façade, to provide extra space, is discussed. 59 See Spink, Ajanta, V, 303 for further discussion. 60 See Spink, Ajanta, V, 303, where I was probably wrong in placing the blame on the workers in Cell L2; generally at the site, the cells at the end of the front aisle were underway a bit later than those just beyond, probably because from the start of work on the interior, there was so much activity and scaffolding in the front aisle.



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Inside the cave, the excavation of the cells along the left and right walls was progressing sequentially, following the course of the excavation of the aisles as it proceeded from front to back. This is typical of excavation work in this late phase of activity at the site, whereas in the first few years of activity caves (such as the early Cave 25) were typically blocked out in general terms before various details, including the cells, were started. Cave 24’s adjacent court cell was also underway in 477, but was not fully excavated when time ran out; neither the fronting pillars nor the doorway were more than roughed out at that time. The splendid bhadrasana Buddha, and the newly popular Six Buddhas (four in the shrine and two in the vestibule) are intrusive offerings put into the little complex during the Period of Disruption, in 479/480.61 Cave 25 The very fact that Cave 25’s hall, although largely cut out, does not show cells underway, is a signal of its early date, since early excavations often were wholly blocked out before their subsidiary features, such as cells or carved decorative or iconic motifs, were made. As originally planned, Cave 25’s hall would have had three cells on each side (left, right, and rear), although after 466 a shrine would surely have been cut at the back had work on the cave not been interrupted. Of course because the cave was essentially abandoned at that time, with priority given to the adjacent Cave 24, the shrine never got started. There was an effort to “update” the cave, as well as to provide it with an anomalous shrine, in 478, but there was no further effort at that time to provide the cave with residence cells.62 The anomalous complex that opens to the left of the porch must have been cut in 478 or very shortly before. It may well have had (or been intended to have) a storage function, an important feature quite lacking elsewhere in the complex, but obviously needed. Had it been started in the early phase, its floor would never have been treated as an extension of the still-unfinished floor of the porch, as is now the case. Its doorways are unfinished, but surely would have been in the D mode, if ever completed.

61 The pivots of the shrine doors were fitted into a pair of projections, similar to those provided (also in the Period of Disruption) to the shrinelets in Cave 6U. 62 For the updating of the cave, and the planning for a shrine, in 478, see Spink, Ajanta, V, 340–341.

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Perhaps typical of the hasty and expedient treatment accorded Cave 25 during its last-minute reworking in 478, one of the aforementioned cells at the left of the porch breaks into the long-established vault of Cave 26, near the front. It is unlikely that this is why this left complex was never finished, but it does represent the breakdown of precise workmanship, at least in such lesser contexts, in 478, the last year of hurried Asmaka activity at the site. Cave 26 The two cell complexes opening off the porch of Cave 26 are announced by pillared fronts that were decorated after the Hiatus, so it is hardly surprising to find characteristic D mode door fittings in the inner cells. However, cells PR and PRa, opening from the right porch end of Cave 26, were at least penetrated by the time that work originally broke off on the cave in 468. We can conclude this because they usurp the space that would otherwise be utilized by the “missing” cells at the left porch end and left front of the abutting right wing (26RW); both of these “missing” cells, like the two actually completed (at the left rear and right front) of Cave 26RW, would surely have been cut during or even before 468 had this still been possible; but the space had already been taken by the cells at the right of Cave 26. The curious “ninety-degree” placement of the inner cell that opens from the vestibule of Cell PL of Cave 26 is explained by the fact that both the cell at the left porch end of Cave 26 and the cell at the adjacent right porch end of Cave 26LW were originally conceived and begun as single cells. Consequently, if completed as earlier expected, there would have been no “conflict” in their positioning; Cave 26’s Cell PL’s inner chamber (i.e. Cell PLa) would have been directly aligned with its vestibule, occupying the space instead usurped by the “extension” of the right porch cell of Cave 26LW. However, it may well be that Cave 26’s Cell PL—hardly a high-priority concern in the caitya hall, had not even been penetrated by 468, and that when work was taken up again after 473 the by-then conventional pillared complex could be developed from the start. That is, no conversion of a previous single cell would have been necessary. This could explain the relatively thick character of the cell vestibule’s pillars, as in the complex at porch right too; they would have been much thinner if cut from the thin front walls of earlier single cells. But with so much to do in the creation of the great caitya hall, the single porch cells were not even started. It might be noted that the inner cell (PRa) opening directly from Cave 26’s Cell PR has a niche (not shown on Yazdani’s plan), suggesting that it was fitted out in either 473 or 47—that is before such niches went out of



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fashion.63 By the same token, we might conclude that the adjacent nicheless cell along with the inner cell (PLa) at porch left, were fitted out with their doors (also D mode) in 477/478, by which time such niches may have been replaced by movable “cabinets” sold to the sangha by some entrepreneur. Cave 26LW Preliminary Note: I have renamed the lower left wing of the Cave 26 complex as “Cave 26 Left Wing”, or “Cave 26LW”. This suggests its intimate connection (like that of Cave 26RW) with the main hall. It used to be called “Cave 27”, a number that should now be ascribed to the upper right wing of the complex, just as (traditionally) the upper right wing has been called “Cave 25”. The upper left wing used to be called “Upper 27”, a numbering which can only cause confusion and should no longer be used. Just as in the main cave, Cave 26’s left wing was largely blocked out when work on the whole complex broke off in 468; then, like the main cave, it was completed after the Hiatus. Although the doorways, as expected, are in the late recessed D mode, their relatively thin front walls can be explained by the fact that they were first penetrated very early, with A mode doorways surely planned at that time, presumably in 466 and 467. Cave 26LW originally was planned to have two cells on left, right, and rear, exactly mirroring the right wing (26RW), which essentially still retains its original form. However, the left wing’s excavation had still not yet been started in 466, so when, finally, Buddhabhadra decided to undertake it, he decided to make some drastic changes to his original plan, in order to keep up with the times. Most important: all such early caves, whether already started or merely planned, now must incorporate a Buddha shrine, typically opening from the center of the rear wall. At the same time, any cave underway in 466 (but not before) should have cells (simple cells) at the porch ends, a sensible addition that had not been thought of before. For these two reasons, the cave was first set back enough to allow for the new porch cells. Remarkably, the main courtyard needed to be adjusted accordingly at the left, even though, surprisingly, this broke its earlier intended symmetry! At the same time, as part of these drastic revisions, a shrine was laid out at the rear center of the now-enlarged hall. Its projecting format, which allows for “extra” cells at the left and right rear, was borrowed from

63 Space has been left for it on the plan, however. For a detailed analysis of these developments, see Spink, Ajanta, II, Chapters 2 and 3.

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that of Upendragupta’s Cave 20, underway at this same time. Although the shrine itself was not fully revealed at this time (being finished in 477/478), the caves’ cells were all well underway before work on the little cave was interrupted by the Asmaka expulsion in late 468. We know that Cave 26LW’s cells had probably all been at least roughed out by the end of 467, since their doorways were all cut in the simple (and impractical) A mode. However, they were not fitted out—and then in the practical D mode—until after work started up again on the cave after the Hiatus. Admittedly, one might at first, seeing their D mode doorways, think that they were excavated after the Hiatus, but the total development of the cave disallows such a conclusion, as does the fact that their relatively thin front walls are typically early, not late. The fact that none of Cave 26LW’s cells have B mode projections would seem to prove that they were all under excavation before 468, work on them having progressed rather efficiently after Buddhabhadra made the decision to enlarge the little cave, and add a shrine to it.64 As noted in the discussion of the main cave (Cave 26), developing convention in 467/468 required that the single cell planned at the right of the porch in this left wing (Cave 26LW) be converted to the vestibule of a pillared complex that now was cut in this area. The dramatic conversion of the original Cell PR, which would have been made sometime after 473, is proved by the uncharacteristic thinness of the fronting pillars and pilasters as well as by the fact that the new vestibule is uncharacteristically deep, remembering its previous existence as a standard-shaped residence cell. The decoration and the D mode fitting of the inner cell further confirm the late date of the cell’s transformation. It should be noted that only the pilasters (because backed by the solid rock) are still intact; the present pillars of the complex are cement replacements. The falling away of the rock-face at the left of the porch makes it impossible to know if Cell PR, the related cell that was surely cut there once but is has now fallen away, was similarly extended. We would also expect that the present cells at the right of the square hall would have been matched by a similar group of cells at the left, even though the fallen Cell L2 (like the missing Cell PL) may not have had the same “doubled” structure that is seen on the right. Half of the cell at the left rear of Cave 26LW is still somewhat intact; but its left side has long since fallen into the ravine.

64 For a detailed analysis of these developments, see Spink, Ajanta, II, Chapters 2 and 3.



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It should be noted that only some of the cells in Cave 26LW are plastered, and these (on the right side) were surfaced with an unusual mix, which appears to be largely cow dung, applied much more thinly than the typical mud plaster found throughout the site. Telling evidence that this surfacing was probably made for a sadhu who took up residence in the cave in some later century is to be seen in the fact that the plaster was spread up into the previously worn pivot hole in Cell R2a, proving that there was no door in the fitting at that time. The door may have been long since carried away for firewood by the villagers. Cave 26RW Cave 26’s right wing must have been underway by 464, but work on the cramped and old-fashioned cave languished until somet3ime in 468, when the monk Buddhabhadra, keeping up with the times, decided (too late!) to add a Buddha shrine to it. For this reason, and perhaps due to the need for more residence cells, work on the abandoned cave was briefly and perhaps sporadically renewed. At that time (468) a mere two cells (both very thin-walled) were started, all of the other standard locations having been blocked as the complex evolved. The excavation of the first cell at the left was blocked by the main cave’s right porch cells, while Cell R2 could not be cut because of an unanticipated corruption of the rock. The two expected cells at the rear could no longer be excavated by the time the work was renewed on the cave in 468 because in the meantime the floor of the courtyard of the higher priority Cave 24 had been cut so close to their required positions that their ceilings would be in danger of collapsing. Indeed, the problem of putting cells at the rear of Cave 26RW was further amplified by the fact that their ceilings would have had to have been placed well above a bad flaw running along the rear wall of the cave, and this would have made the relationship to Cave 24’s court floor even more precarious. As for the porch ends, they were typically bereft of cells when the little cave was begun, although they surely would have been added in 468 if possible. However, this could not be done because a cistern already occupied the required position at the right end; it had been cut very early, at which point porch end cells would not even have been conceived. As for the situation at the left end of the porch, a cell could not be placed here either, because the porch cell (Cell PR) of the main cave (Cave 26) would have priority. This explains the absence of the expected Cell L1 as well. Since when most of the work on the interior of the cave was taken up after the Hiatus, the cell planned for the end of Cave 26’s porch would have been of

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the complex (doubled) type then in favor; and this complex would have extended well into the area shared with Cave 26RW. The cell (“L2”) at the rear of the left wall—the one intact cell in the cave—provides significant evidence bearing on the development of both this little cave, and of the whole complex, of which it forms an integral part.65 Since its doorway is of the B mode, used only in 468 and 469, and since the Asmakas were expelled from the site at the end of 468, the doorway, with its characteristic monolithic projection, must have been cut at that time, just prior to the Recession. On the other hand, because the cell (and indeed the whole cave complex) was still being roughed out in 468, the doorway was not fitted out until after the Hiatus, when the Asmakas had taken over the region.66 It is reasonable to suppose that as soon as the Asmakas had established themselves in power in 473, they fitted out the cells in the Cave 26 complex for residence as soon as they could. In the main cave and in the left wing the cells would have been converted from the earlier A mode, but here the cell (“L2”) had been cut a bit later (in 468) and so the conversion was from the B mode. Because the front wall of the cell was very thin—characteristic in early cells—the cutting of the D mode recess is shallow enough to be confusing, but the positioning of the lower pivot within the recessed area proves that the doorway has indeed been converted to this later mode. That this conversion was indeed done in 473 or possibly early 474 [474] is suggested by the presence of the niche on the cell’s rear wall.67 Such niches, typically cut when doorways were fitted out (or, as in this case, re-fitted), go out of general use sometime in 474. Of course, it is hardly surprising that when the Asmakas took over the site in 473, they put the available cells into use as soon as they could. Judging from the traces of its lower fitting, the very broken cell R1 was also supplied with a B mode doorway, and like “L2” was also finally fittedout in the D mode in 473 or shortly thereafter. We know this because the remaining pivot hole at the doorway’s base is set back into the (nowruined) recess, as is characteristic of the D mode but not the B mode. This cell’s high placement responds to the presence of the cistern (cut much earlier) below. 65 I call this cell “L2” because that represents its placement in the original conception, and would seem to be its appropriate designation, even though the adjacent Cell L1 was never cut. 66 See also Spink, Ajanta, II, 58–59, and V, 328; 332–333. 67 This niche, like the one in the main cave’s PRa, has been omitted from Burgess’s plan.



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Cave 27 Cave 27 and Cave 25 were surely among the first caves started at the site, excavated in tandem with the great Cave 26, which they flank at the (now somewhat inaccessible) upper level. Like their counterparts in the main cave and its left wing, the doorways of the cells along the two relatively intact walls of the much damaged Cave 27 would all have been planned with A mode doorways. The cave had perhaps been started as early as 462—so early that its excavation would have proceeded with the diffidence typical of early cutting procedures. As was to be the case in the related Cave 25, Cave 27’s main hall, following early convention, was undoubtedly roughed out in its entirety before the excavation of the cells themselves was undertaken, so it is likely that many of the cells (later converted to the D mode over a decade later) were still in process when work apparently broke off on both this cave and Cave 25 in about 466. Only a few candrasilas, commonly used in the site’s first half-decade, appear to have been reserved, but they were never finished. Although a number of Cave 27’s cells were surely penetrated to some degree in the early 460s, some may not have been started at all; this is because work on both of these upper wings appears to have been abandoned in favor of the more developed lower wings no later than 466. This explains why the doorways of the still intact (but unfinished) right and left cells on the cave’s right wall can be so thick. Although their steps (candrasilas?) were reserved in the cave’s first phase, the more completed doorway of the right cell (with its deep and developed D mode fitting) may not have even been penetrated until perhaps as late as 478, that troubled year when, throughout the site, the dedication of the Buddha images—and the consequent making of merit—became so crucial. This was when the patron, Buddhabhadra, decided to finally take up work again on this old and abandoned “dormitory”, and to supply it with a shrine—something not even considered in the early phase, in which work had broken off too soon. He was able to do this because, at most, only one of the two central cells planned for this west wall had been earlier penetrated, and then only very slightly. Thus he was able to incorporate it into his new (even if unfinished) shrine/shrine antechamber conception, probably directly influenced by the manner in which the Prime Minister Varahadeva’s planners were incorporating two barely penetrated cells into their new shrine. The placement of the shrine antechamber (still unfinished)in the right wall, is curious, but can be explained by the fact that it had not been planned prior to 478, and in the meantime (in 477) Cave 28 had been

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started, making a “normal” (rear wall) placement of the Cave 27 shrine impossible, because of its proximity. We can assume that the Asmakas’ time and money were fast running out, in the midst of the anxieties of 478, and that this made the further excavation of the large projected shrine impossible. This may explain the surprising—in fact unique—conversion of Cell R1 into a small shrinelet, perhaps created in 478 to “sanctify” the otherwise shrineless cave, at a time when the creation of or the completion of shrines had become a veritable compulsion. It was provided with a proper D mode fitting, as expected, but it is remarkable in being the only cell sponsored by any of the original patrons at the site that was decorated with paintings. The manner of the interior painting here would seem to confirm that the cell functioned as a shrinelet, for it not only has a painted medallion on the ceiling, but the medallion has a garland hook at its center. There is another hole, probably for a (now removed) garland hook, above the niche at the rear of the cell. Although there is no reason to think that such niches were normally used for purposes of worship, it seems likely that this was the case here in this special cell, and that it might once have contained a loose image, being treated like so many small shrines in private homes today. It might also be noted that the “standard” size (relatively small) niches go out of style at the site sometime in 476, even though larger and longer variants remain utilized in later contexts. The niche here, which in terms of its context I would assign to 478, may not fit the pattern of development exactly, but it is easy to believe that the choice of size was determined, given the cell’s particular purpose, specifically to satisfy the planner’s wishes. As for the remaining cell on the porch right, overlooking Cave 26’s court, it now exists only as a (broken) pillared vestibule, opening through a D mode doorway into an inner cell beyond. However, the notably thin walls of the vestibule, its carefully smoothed walls, and its tellingly deep plan, make it fairly clear that this was once a simple porch-end cell dating to 465 or 466, which was brought “up-to-date” and made into a pillared cell complex by Buddhabhadra during the very last year or two of his patronage. As if to confirm this conversion, we can note that both the presently pillared complexes at the right porch end of Cave 26LW (just below) and at the left end of the front aisle of Cave Upper 6 both were similarly converted from earlier single cells.



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Porch and Shrine Doorways at Ajanta It is reasonable to suppose that fitting arrangements in porch doorways, and in certain instances in shrine doorways, would have preceded the development of the doorways found in the monks’ cells. This is not only because of the precedence naturally given to the more important doorways in the caves—which of course had to be opened up in order to remove the excavated rock—but also because cells were normally added to the excavations and/or finished only after the major doorways were in place.68 Thus although the first A mode cell doorways probably never date before 465 or 466, certain porch doorways must have been penetrated (although of course not decorated) a year or so earlier, when the porch was first being cut out. Just as in the case of cell doorways, most of the first porch doorways appear to have been innocent of any clear conception of how their doors were going to be fitted. Started, in the course of excavation, earlier than the cell doorways, most of them were, in a sense, merely “holes in the wall” and, like the earliest cell doorways were obviously going to require attached or applied fixtures to hold the doors. Only two, in the first vigorous phase of excavation at the site—prior to the beginning of the Recession in early 469—were supplied with fittings at the time of excavation. The first of these was the carefully planned Caitya Cave 26 that, with its boldly projecting dual monolithic projections, introduces the B mode to the site, perhaps as early as 464, by which time the first stages of work on the cave’s interior— starting at the upper level and the front—would have been underway. As we shall see, this workable but nonetheless clumsy mode of door fitting had its impact on both major doorways and cell doorways, but not until after a delay of a few years. And even then, its impact was short-lived, since the far more appropriate D mode was exclusively used as soon as work started up again after the Hiatus. Only one other variant of this type of dual fitting was ever developed at Ajanta for porch or shrine doorways. This is to be seen in the porch doorway of Cave 11, penetrated perhaps as early as 465; in place of the carefully shaped monolithic pivot holders of Cave 26, it has two block-like projections at its upper corners. However, they were never provided with pivot holes, so it would appear that the doorway was not fitted out until after

68 This is particularly true in the earlier caves: compare Cave 25 to the much later Cave 24.

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the Hiatus, when it was simply converted to the practical D mode. This is not particularly surprising, since work on the cave was still underway, and quite unfinished, when interrupted by the Recession early in 469. The simplest and earliest examples of fitted-out major (as opposed to cell) doorways are the shrine doorway of Cave 8 on the one hand and the porch doorway of Cave Lower 6 on the other. In Cave 8’s shrine, it would appear that a simple (wooden?) beam was placed across the top of the (A mode) doorway, connecting the left and right sides; it has of course long since gone, but presumably it would have had the necessary pivot holes to hold the double doors. The porch door of Cave Lower 6 is also much damaged, but apparently the opening was framed with wooden fittings, the pivot holes being cut into the top beam. At the base the doors’ pivots may have turned in holes cut into projecting stone elements at the base; the fact that both are broken may be due in part to the fact that they were weakened by these (hypothetical) holes. In the case of the site’s cells, we have designated the simple featureless doorway types as A mode, and noted that they invariably date earlier than 468, at which point the far more practical B mode, supplied with monolithic pivot-projections, was developed and immediately became the fitting of choice. These pivot-projections were invariably placed inside the doorway at the upper left (viewed from inside the cell), unless breakage or flaws in the stone required that they be cut on the other side.69 At the same time that the B mode was developed in 468, or very shortly thereafter (early 469 at the latest) the planners realized that they could make a functional variant of this newly developed type of fixture by using two teak pegs to pin on a wooden version of the B mode’s monolithic projection. Such a variant (whether in cells, or shrines, or porches) can be classified as the A+ mode, for it involves a functional addition to the recalcitrant early doorway type.70 Like the newly developed B mode cell doorways, these newly developed “copies” of the B mode arrangement equally must date to 468 or later. After that date, no one ever cut a simple and impractical A mode cell doorway again, just as before that date they had never cut a B mode fixture, or added an A+ mode attachment, to hold the cell door.

69 It was conventional at the site to attach the cell doors at the left, as viewed from inside the cell. 70 As explained above, in discussion of doorway types, A+ mode doorways could also represent a conversion from early A mode doorways to the C and D (and even E modes).



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Cave 15: Shrine Doorway (penetrated 467) Although Cave 15’s shrine and its half-finished Buddha image were being hastily worked on in early 469, at the very start of the Recession, the shrine doorway does not have the B mode fittings, such as we might expect at this date. It seems likely, since the shrine antechamber, like the open hall and cells was already being done in normal course by this time, that shrine had already been penetrated in 467, just before the B mode had come into common usage. If so, we can assume that A+ mode fittings would have been planned but, like the shrine and the shrine Buddha itself, never got properly realized before work on the cave was interrupted, presumably after the still somewhat unfinished image was hastily dedicated in early 469. Although this shrine doorway could have easily been converted to the D mode when the cave was being worked on again in 477, time obviously ran out by 478, just as was also the case in a number of other caves at that time (Cave 4, 11, 15, 21, 23), where the shrine doorways were never fitted out. In confirmation of this the Buddha image itself had to be rushed precipitously to completion at the beginning of 478, and except for a limited amount of hasty painting in the shrine and shrine antechamber, plans for the painting of the rest of the cave were also aborted at this time. Cave 26 Development As mentioned above, the earliest of all of the B mode porch (or shrine) doorways was almost certainly that in the great Cave 26, where two massive monolithic projections once held the heavy panels of the double doors. They are no longer used today, but the wear in their pivot holes proves (as expected) that they did do service in ancient times—starting as soon as work on the Asmaka caves was taken up again just after the Hiatus. As is too often the case at the site, the corresponding lower pivot holes are now obscured by recent cement. Because the whole vast interior of Cave 26 had been essentially roughed out by the end of 468, its porch wall must have been roughed out fairly early in the course of excavation, with work proceeding downward from the vault level. Perhaps these heavy fittings would have been reached, and the matrix reserved, as early as 464. However, they would not have been provided with their pivot holes at this time, when the whole cave was still being roughed out. In fact, even after the Hiatus, when the projections were finally put into use, their upper surfaces were still very rough, reflecting the way they had been left in 468; later on, when the pivot holes were cut, only the more visible portions of the projections were properly smoothed.

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Needless to say, as excavation of the great hall reached its lower levels just before the Recession, the excavated matrix in the cave would no longer have been removed through the great arch; the three doorways opening from the porch obviously functioned as “exits” for the stone, long before they served as actual entrances for the public. It is of interest to note that, despite the impressive projection-arrangement of the main doorway, neither of these side doorways, even though probably penetrated slightly later than the main doorway, have the new B mode fittings; they must have been cut in the A mode (perhaps 465/466), being finally fitted out in the D mode only after the Hiatus. Indeed, since the cave was merely roughed out when work on it was interrupted in 468, there would have been no reason to have fitted these aisle doorways out when the cave was still so incomplete. By the same token, the main doorway, although provided with projections, would not have been provided with its double doors at such an early moment in the cave’s development. Indeed, Cave 26’s projecting double fittings probably remained rough and unused until nearly ten years later, when Cave 26’s main Buddha was being finished (477/478); then along with the doorway’s very late external decoration, the projections would have been properly defined and the heavy pivoted doors set into them.71 At that same time, the aisle doorways, surely cut originally as featureless A mode types, were converted to the practical D mode. We can imagine that it was the very size and importance of the central doorway of Cave 26 that urged the planners to find such a strong and workable type of fitting. Indeed, it is likely that it was already in use in palaces and temples of the time, for even today one can find its counterparts in structural contexts, where a stone (or wooden) projection is locked into the top of the constructed stone (or wood) doorways. Although it took a few years for the planners and excavators of the earliest cells at Ajanta to realize the practicality and applicability of such projections for their own purposes, by 468 the idea had impacted strongly throughout the site. A particularly revealing instance (Cave 26RW Cell “L2”) is the B mode fitting found deep in the right wing of Cave 26 itself. This B most fitting (later converted to the D mode in 473) could not date earlier than 468, in emulation of the grander fixture close by in the main cave itself. This was when Buddhabhadra, just before the Recession had taken up work again on this old dormitory, which he now wanted to convert into a shrine. 71 For the complex development of Cave 26, see Spink, Ajanta II, Chapters 2 and 3.



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Cave 26RW Porch Doorway The porch doorway of Cave 26’s right wing was roughed out in general terms, probably when the projection for the intended Buddha image was started in the cave in 468. It remained unfinished even after 473 when it appears to have been fitted out in the D mode. Even though the whole doorway has mostly fallen away, this is proved by the placement of the pivot hole at the doorbase; it is set well back into the typically early (thin) front wall. Cave 26LW Porch Doorway The front of this doorway was splendidly decorated at the height of Asmaka productivity in 477/478. Since, like the same cave’s cell doorways, it was not finished until well after the Hiatus, it is not surprising that at its remaining lower level we find evidence of a D mode fitting in the positioning of the lower pivot hole (the upper fitting is lost). One can also see how a channels were made on either side to aid in the insertion of the heavy double doors; the same system was used in the nearby window, also fitted out very late, probably 477/478. Cave 26LW Shrine Doorway Although the left wing’s shrine, like the associated cells, may have been penetrated by 468, its doorway was not fitted out until work was resumed on the cave after the Hiatus. As we would expect, it is in the D mode, although recent cementing largely obscures the evidence for this. Cave 25 Porch Doorway Work on Cave 25 had been abandoned by 466, when the porch doorway was little more than penetrated. Its surrounding wall is much thicker than expected for such an early excavation, but this is surely because it was never fully cut when originally under excavation. Since the interrupted interior was unusable, it is not surprising that no fittings are to be found at the rear of the doorway. Indeed, like the floor of the hall itself, work on it was abandoned before it had been cut down to the originally planned floor level. However, even though so unfinished, it should be noted that in 478 Buddhabhadra ordered a very late lintel design for the old doorway, as if to add some kind of appropriate decoration to this hopeless excavation, which he apparently planned to supply with a Buddha image, even though work was cut off before this plan was accomplished.

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Not surprisingly, there are a number of fittings for porch or shrine doorways that are variants of the standard (monolithic) B mode. The simplest type is little more than a projecting monolithic beam over the back of the doorway, with pivot holes at either end that correspond with holes in the floor below. Were the mid-portion of the beam removed, one would have in essence two projections for the upper door pivots. Instead, very sensibly, the whole beam, blocked out as the first step in defining the intended projections, was left intact, saving the time and money and bother of converting the ends of the monolithic beam into unnecessarily defined projections. However, we can understand how the excavators first assigned the task of making such B mode projections might well have felt that they had to cut the center of the blocked-out beam away, to conform to convention rather than out of necessity. When making the monolithic B mode projections in the various caves’ cells, the excavators may well have “reserved” a block or “beam” over the back of the doorway, prior to cutting it down into the projection itself. An example of the process leading to the definition of the projection survives in Cell L2 of Cave Upper 6.72 Cave 6L: Shrine Doorway This “beamed” type—actually a rather efficient variant of the standard B mode—is found in Cave Lower 6’s shrine. The large pivot holes in the “beam” correspond with the expected holes in the floor below; these lower pivot holders are “protected” by rounded receptacles carved from the original matrix.73 Cave 11: Porch Doorway The porch doorway of Cave 11 must also have been planned as a variant of the monolithic B mode; it is characterized by two stone projections, apparently designed to hold the double porch doors, but never put into 72 A B mode projection may have been planned for the doorway of cell L2 in Cave 20, and this may be the reason that the first phase of the cell’s excavation stopped at a point level with the top of the doorway, above which the B mode projection would have been cut. However, even if this were the plan, it was never accomplished, since the cell remains unfinished. 73 The carved receptacle on the left (as viewed from within the shrine) is well preserved; that on the right is not. Another hole in the beam faces out toward the Buddha image. Its function is so far unexplained.



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use. It seems likely that they reflect the assertive B mode projections in Cave 26, and if so may well have been cut a year or two before 468, when the use of the B mode became conventional for use in cell doorways. That the porch doorway was not fitted out before general work on the cave was interrupted in 468 was probably due to the patron’s rush to complete the Buddha image and to provide housing for the monks, which he managed to do. Since Cave 11’s Buddha image appears to have been refurbished sometime after the Hiatus, this was probably the time when the porch doorway and the doorway of the cell at the left rear were finally fitted out, both in the late and efficient D mode.74 Cave 15: Porch Doorway The porch doorway of Cave 15 is curious, for at its back it has a monolithic beam, somewhat related to the B mode, like that in Cave Lower 6; however, the pivot holes were never cut in it, so it was never used. Instead, it has on either side the kind of peg holes utilized to convert the A mode to A+ mode, in emulation of the B mode. Whether or not the original A+ doors were ever hung is problematic, since the modern wooden frame obscures the relevant pair of pivot holes that must have been cut in the floor below, and might have shown revealing wear. This frame also covers two of the old peg holes that must have been cut at the upper corners, to share the burden of the attached projections. However, these small holes have no traces of the wooden pegs that would have held the projections, adding to the assumption that the porch doors were not hung until after the Hiatus. Such a delay would hardly be surprising, since when at the time of the Recession the cave was quite unfinished, with no need as yet for its porch doors. There are, interestingly, small peg holes at some distance to left and right on the front wall of the hall, placed so that they could have held the double swinging doors open. But this is a nicety more likely to have been added later on, probably in 477, when the decoration of the doorway’s front was drastically “updated” and its now-obsolete fitting was converted to the practical D mode.

74 For the (problematic) refurbishing of the Cave 11 Buddha image, see Spink, Ajanta, V, 156–157.

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Cave 20: Shrine Doorway The shrine doorway of Cave 20 (471) and that of Cave 17 (470/471) both had “locked-in” projections (presumably of wood) at either end, bearing some connection with the applied wooden projections used to convert so many A mode cell doorways to B mode types. Later Porch and Shrine Doorways All of the other porch and shrine doorways at the site are in the D mode. Of course this does not mean that some of them were not fitted out in earlier modes previously. In many cases these were originally “useless” A mode openings being finally finished in the D mode at a late date. This would seem to be true of the porch doorways of Cave 1, Cave 2, Cave 4, Cave 6L (?), Cave 6U, Cave 7 (?), Cave 16, Cave 17, possibly Cave 21, Cave 26 Right Wing and Cave 26 Left Wing. The very unfinished porch doorways of Cave 5 and 25 remain in the A mode—were never converted. The shrine doorways of later excavations were generally in the “pure” (non-converted) D mode: Cave 1, Cave 2, Cave 4 (unf), Cave Upper 6, Cave 15 (unf ), Cave 21 (unf), Cave 23 (unf), Cave 26 Left Wing; but of these only the doorways of Cave 1, 2, Upper 6, Cave 26LW were fitted out. There is one at first surprising but perhaps finally understandable anomaly among the porch/shrine doorways at the site. This is the uniquely fitted out doorway in Upendragupta’s beautiful caitya hall, Cave 19. It would certainly have been penetrated-if only to remove the excavated matrix from the lower areas of the hall—well before 468; and so it would be expected that it must have been originally cut as a simple A mode opening. However, when it came time to actually fit its double doors, the planners developed a very sophisticated fitting-mode, just as we might be expected, in this superbly planned excavation. They recessed the back of the doorway sufficiently to hold the pivot holes, and then cut the opening back at a diagonal on either side, so that the two doors could swing back neatly and “out of the way”, at least to some degree, when they were opened. What is surprising is that this doorway, probably fitted out in 471, when the interior of the cave had just been completed, is very much of the same order as the recessed D mode doorways that become conventional after 473, by which time Cave 19’s patron had long since fled the region, or at least lost control of it. I have suggested that the very idea of D mode fittings at the site was an “import” from Bagh, probably dating from the renewal of activity at Ajanta after the Hiatus; however, it is certainly possible that



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the knowledge of the Bagh (D mode) fittings had already been transmitted somewhat earlier, even though (as we know from the manner in which the Cave 17 and Cave 20 shrine doorways were fitted out in 470/471), its practicality may not have been properly recognized at that time. However, considering the creativity—sometimes daring—of the planners of Cave 19, it would not be surprising if, in 471, they developed this quasi-D mode fitting to secure the doorway, for the decoration of the interior had just been completed.75 It is interesting to note that where double doors were required or desired at the site for shrinelets or cistern chambers or the like, they were generally supplied with double projections even if they were excavated after 473, by which time such projections had gone out of style for the main porch and shrine doorways, to say nothing of cell doorways. Such doubled projections are to be found in the right court cell of Cave 1 (penetrated before 471 but still somewhat unfinished in 477), the four shrinelets in Cave Upper 6 (all dating 479–480), the cistern chamber of Cave 16 (468 or earlier), and the right court shrinelet (converted from a pillared cell complex) of Cave 24. Note: Listing of Porch (P) and Shrine (S) Doorways Using or Converted to the D Mode: Porch and Shrine doorways with D mode, often obscured by modern framing—the latter listed with “??” 1P, 2P, 4P, 6LP, 6UP??, 7??, 11P, 15P, 16P, 17P, 19??, 21P 22??, 23P, 24??, 26P, 26LWP??, 26LWS, AUR3P??, AUR3S Detailed Discussion of Door Fittings in Cave 17 An analysis of Cave 17, in particular, can show how a study of cell doorways alone can contribute to our knowledge of the development of both a single cave itself and of the site as a whole. Allowing a margin of error of a year or 75 It is possible that the porch doorway of Cave 1 was also fitted out in 471, since work in that imperial cave was, like the work in Upendragupta’s royal caves, still underway, just before the Hiatus. However, in the case of Cave 1 (as opposed to Cave 19) there was no reason the fit out the porch doorway at this time, since the whole interior was still under excavation. In fact, if my suggestion is reasonable, Cell R3 in Cave 1 could be closed (possibly locked) in 468/469, when its B mode fitting was carved; this would hardly have been necessary if there were porch doors were already in place, and could close the whole cave off the at night.

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two, we can provide a yearly date to every fitting in the cave. Just as in our consideration of all the doorways at the site, we can “map” our results upon the larger picture of the site’s overall development, in order to more specifically elucidate the course of its history. As we might expect, considering Upendragupta’s royal status, work progressed on Cave 17 vigorously and without interruption from the moment when it was started in 463 up until the end of 468, at which point he daringly expelled the troublesome Asmakas from the region. At this point the Recession began, and although work on the great majority of the caves at the site was summarily halted at this point, the excavation of Upendragupta’s own privileged caves 17, 19, and 20, along with the emperor Harisena’s Cave 1 still continued at this time. However, even though his Cave 17 donative record, inscribed in 471, correctly states that he continued “to expend abundant wealth” upon his “measureless hall,” the grandeur of which could not “even be imagined by little-souled men” he gradually became more and more hurried and worried, increasingly diverting his resources to building up his military strength in anticipation of Asmaka reprisals.76 Indeed, by 472 (the beginning of the Hiatus) Upendragupta’s fortunes had suffered a drastic reversal. The Asmakas at this point had invaded and taken over control of the Ajanta region. Upendragupta’s patronage suddenly ended; and he himself is never heard from again. Fortunately, however, Cave 17 was almost finished when this occurred and so, like his associated caitya hall, Cave 19, it stands as a significant and beautiful, even if ultimately urgent, document of the period of Upendragupta’s rule. Although the walls of Cave 17’s shrine had been merely plastered but not yet painted when Upendragupta’s patronage was forced to end, the shrine Buddha image itself was complete, and most of the cave’s splendid decoration had also been finished—more and more hastily during the ominous year, 471, when Asmaka revenge was imminent. Most of the cave’s cells had been fully carved out by this time, too, and were already being used as living quarters for the monks, although a few at the very rear corners were still unfinished, as we shall see. Since work on Cave 17 progressed with a fair (if not absolute) consistency from front to back, it is not surprising that we find at least three of our cell doorway types appearing within its course of development—modes A,

76 For Upendragupta’s dedicatory inscription, see Spink, Ajanta, I, 415–418.



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B, and C, which came into use in 467, 468, and 470 respectively. In fact, we shall see that D Mode doorways were used in the cave too, since improvements were made to certain cell doorways in the post-Hiatus period, even if not by Upendragupta himself. It is relevant to note that Cave 17 apparently continued in use for worship and residence throughout the years even after Upendragupta lost control of the cave and of the region starting in early 472. Especially since the shrine Buddha was not dedicated (and thus put into worship) until late 471, the heavy begriming of the cave, particularly near the shrine area, suggests that devotional rituals continued vigorously from that time on, probably even during the period of the Hiatus, when the monks still must have been resident in the cave. Four cells (PL, PR, L1, R2) are located in the part of Cave 17 that was under excavation first. Two in the porch and two in the forward part of the interior, they were cut with typical A mode doorways—thin-walled, and without projections (See Plan, with fitting modes). Considering the overall development of the cave, and of the site as a whole, it is reasonable to date the excavation of all of these cells to 467, shortly after the first of such simple cells came to be added to porches at the site. All of these A mode cells must have been started shortly before the A mode went out of fashion early in 468. It is not likely that any of these cells could date earlier than 467, since this would put an unreasonable gap between them and the adjacent B mode cells such as R1 and L2 in the rapidly developing cave. By the same token, one can hardly imagine that the adjacent cells L2 and R1 would have been excavated later than 468, because this too would cause an unreasonable gap in the course of the cave’s quite consistent development, which was essentially completed by the end of 471. Although the planners of the cave must have intended for the “featureless” doorways in Cave 17’s four early A mode cells to be supplied with doors, it is clear that no practical plan had been made in advance to accomplish this. By good fortune, however, in 468, just when it was time to face the problem of fitting out the first of Cave 17’s doorways, the B mode arrangement was developed; and at the same time the idea of replicating this monolithic mode with applied projections for holding the upper door pivot—the A+ mode—was also developed. Therefore the doorways of Cell PR and R2 were now converted to approximate the B mode, with two small but strong teak pegs inserted above to secure an attached (now lost) wooden holder for the upper door pivot. The lower door pivot would have been set into an aligned hole in the floor below, just outside the door opening and in close proximity to the cell’s front wall. The two expected peg holes in Cell PR are now cemented in, but their presence can be inferred from the fact that

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a stick (which protrudes from the applied cement) appears to have been stuck into one of them by one of the workers hanging the recent door. The same system of conversion was also used in Cave 11 (9 cells) and Cave 15 (2 cells) just before work was interrupted in 468, so it would not be unreasonable to date this conversion in Cave 17 to that same year. However, since work continued on the cave without a break, after 468, it is perhaps more likely that they were converted in 469, by which time the excavation of the interior hall must have been so far advanced that some of the earlier cells in the front of the hall could be occupied. There is reason to believe, however, that cells PR and R2 were not converted after 469. This is because Cell L1, which also had an A mode doorway, shows a slightly more “advanced” modes of conversion. First of all Cell L1 has a slot (some 6” deep) instead of a peg arrangement, to hold the applied projection. This was presumably a later development, since such a variant never occurs in the many A+ conversions in the other caves where work was interrupted in 468. Secondly, it has a very slightly raised projection at the floor level, apparently reflecting the influence of the C mode doorways (with their projections below as well as above) that replaced the earlier B mode in 470. It appears that the slight (1”) projection on the floor of Cell L1 was created by slightly lowering the immediately surrounding floor level. Possibly this was done when the roughly excavated floor was finally finished. However, it is clear that a “standard” lower (C mode) projection had not been earlier reserved; it appears to have been very much an afterthought, to emulate the now-conventional C mode, with a view to facilitating the swing of the opening door by raising it slightly above the level of the surrounding floor. This unusual conversion from the A mode is described as an A++ mode in the plan of “Doorway Types” previously published.77 Of the four A mode doorways, only that of cell PL shows no evidence of having been later provided with applied projections; indeed, it is clear that it had no door at all until the post-Hiatus phase, when it was clearly converted to a D mode doorway by the addition of a characteristic recess at the rear, with associated pivot holes. As I shall explain later, this very late conversion was probably done at the same time that cells L5 and L6 were fitted with D mode doors as well. Needless to say, one wants to explain why this cell was not fitted with a door until so late, particularly since doors were hung in all other cells in the 77 The plan of Cave 17 “Doorway Types” is Fig. 35 in Spink, Ajanta, IV and also V.



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main phase of the cave’s patronage, with the understandable exception of the unfinished cell R6 and its counterpart L6, both of which were nearing completion in 471, but never were fitted out at that time. The explanation may be that PL’s doorway opening had to be reshaped when the wellknown Wheel of Life was painted on the porch’s left end-wall in 469 or 470; and in anticipation of this change (which of course could have been made even before the time that this wall was plastered and painted) the fitting out of this door was delayed. As one can see by tracing the arc of the wheel down to the doorway—indeed the artist has scratched it into the stone as a guide—it was necessary to fill in the upper part of PL’s doorway opening. Slots to support some filling material (perhaps a stone support packed with mud plaster above) can be seen on either side of the doorway opening, a few inches down from the top. It may be that, because of the delay caused by having to reduce the height of the door opening, the workers had become involved in other matters, with the result that this bit of unfinished business—the subsequent fitting of the smaller-than-conventional doorstill remained to be done when the Hiatus occurred. But it may also be the significant reduction in the height of the doorway was responsible for its low-priority (and ultimately late) treatment; even at “fifth century” heights, the cell with its cramped doorway could not be entered with the customary ease.78 Before leaving Cell PL, it is of interest to ask why it appears anomalous in other regards as well. First of all, its porch doorway is unique at the site in being off-center in the porch’s end wall. This asymmetrical placement happens to be as informative as it is surprising, for it provides one more piece of evidence proving that when the earliest Vakataka caves were planned, cells were never cut or even planned at the porch ends; in this the architects were following Hinayana precedents, as was so often the case at the site. After all, when the Vakataka patrons began their work at Ajanta in the early 460s, not a single major cave had been excavated in India for over three hundred years; so one can well understand how both patrons and excavators looked—and needed to look—for guidance from the evidence of these ancient prototypes.79 78 It might even be surmised that PL was not used, because of the significance of the Wheel of Life as a worshipful motif above the doorway. 79 The only possible precedent might be considered to be the small, totally undecorated, unfinished and never used excavation at Patur, first noticed by Dr. A. Jamkhedkar. His suggestion that it should be dated to around 400 CE seems most reasonable, in which case it would have been an undertaking of the so-called “Eastern Branch” of the Vakatakas many decades before. However, it must be admitted that its extremely simple and unique

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The fact that the porch ends were always left plain when the first Vakataka caves were started, explains why the cistern chamber (=Cave 18) near the left end of the porch was understandably set back so far in the then-available space when it was excavated; and this tells us that the cistern must have been underway shortly after work on the cave started; but surely prior to 466. That is the date at which the concept of porch end cells first developed, and that such useful residence cells were added to every porch end at the site if it was possible. Thus, either in 466 or more probably 467 (judging from the evidence of their A mode doorways) the cells in Cave 17’s porch ends would have been added, that on the left (PL) having to be placed off-center in order to allow the desired amount of space within, to accommodate the intended sleeping arrangements for the monks—one of either side of the cell. The fact that the porch floor had already been cut (before porch end cells became virtual requirements) meant that PL and PR alone in the cave could not have rectangular monolithic steps. This was a feature that had come into fashion in about 466 or 467, gradually being substituted for the older semicircular candrasilas found in generally earlier contexts (variously in Cave 1 porch, Lower 6, 7, 11, 15, 16, 20, 26RW, 27) This explains the otherwise unexplainable omission of the steps here. However, as if in compensation, a year or so later the architect reserved a large “plinth” in front of each of these cells when he was further lowering the whole porch floor, apparently merely to provide his main porch door with a properly up-to-date large candrasila. This important feature apparently had not been included in the original plan, presumably because its inclusion had not yet become a necessary feature when the cave was planned as a mere dormitory. At the same time, the planners may have been hesitant to lower the porch floor very much more—even by a few inches—in these two lateral areas, since the cave’s two cisterns extended deep under them. The presence of such cisterns also explains the unusually

character makes its dating difficult, and is based largely on the assumption that it probably belongs to the period when various important Vakataka sculptures were made in that region. It might be argued instead that, paralleling the situation at Ajanta and Bagh, this isolated cave reflects a sudden new interest in sponsoring such excavations, but that at Patur there was still no clear knowledge of how excavations were being developed at those distant sites, and how they might be compared to this rather rudimentary and unfinished counterpart. Even though it has no distinctive features, it is likely that the cave is Saivite; indeed, since it has two shrines, it could hardly be Buddhist, since shrines did not even appear at Ajanta and Bagh until those caves were already underway in the 460s.



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high placement of the floors and thresholds of the more forward cells in the cave, especially on the right. Starting in 468, by which time the excavation of the interior hall of Cave 17 was well underway, any new cell doorways were cut exclusively in the B mode. That is, they were provided with monolithic projections at the upper right (as viewed from front of cell). All in all, the doorways of eight cells, (L2-L5; R1; R3-R5), all located along the left and right walls of the cave interior, were defined during 468 and 469, the brief span of time during which usage of this B mode doorway was standard at the site. Only one of them, R1, occupies a slightly anomalous position; since it is nearer to the front of the cave than cell R2, which has an A mode (i.e. earlier) doorway, we might ask why cell R1 does not have the earlier type of doorway too. The answer to such a question is that there are numerous such instances at the site where features were not started or did not develop in an absolutely sequential way, or where more forward areas were completed later than those at the rear. One can easily understand how this could happen if certain workmen were particularly slow, or fell sick, or were called away to other tasks or to the marriage of one of their children, or if larger crews were working in one area than in some other. Even considerations such as the quality of the illumination, or the character of the rock, in a particular area, might cause it to be worked on somewhat in advance of another. Another reason, particularly applicable here, would be that at the time when the cave interior was initially penetrated, the front aisle would be full of so many excavators working (often with space-consuming scaffolding) on the doorways, windows, long front wall, and front colonnade that it was not the time to worry about starting the front aisle cells. Indeed, not only in Cave 17, but in Caves 1, 2, 4, and 16 as well, the relative placement of one or more of the cells in question strongly suggests that the cells at the ends of the front aisle were indeed started somewhat after those beyond them. This adjustment in the positions of the cells at the ends of the front aisle is particularly clear in Caves 16 and 17 where the cells were laid out in a characteristically early and less precise way. However, even in the slightly later Cave 1, one can see a subtle shift in the positioning of the cells at the ends of the front aisle; and, significantly, the later date of cell R1 is confirmed by the fact that it is the only cell in the cave with a D mode door fitting.80

80 The excavators encountered geological flaws in the cell, which may have delayed the work.

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In the same regard, it might be noted that the unusual B mode door fitting in Cave 1’s cell L1 may well represent an advance over the more standard B mode fitting in cell L2. We might also note, with regard to Cave 16, that the presence of candrasilas in front of the doorways of cells L2 and R2 suggests that they were started earlier than any of the other cells in the cave, none of which have these early features. In Cave 2, the surprising and significant presence of an early unfinished B mode fitting in Cell R2 gives it a clear priority over Cell R1, while in Cave 4, Cell L2 far more complete than Cell L1. The same is true in Cave 23; but in such late caves, with their more sophisticated excavation procedures, the pattern is by no means consistent. Often by examining plans of the caves—notably those supervised by James Burgess, where the subtle idiosyncrasies of layout have been so remarkably recorded—we can also reconstruct certain developments in the progress of work on the caves.81 A mere glance at the plans of those caves that were underway very early—such as Lower 6, 11, 16, 17—as compared with caves by and large developed very late—such as 2, 21, 23, 24—reflects, in a two-dimensional format, the dramatic difference in the excavators’ control which took place over the course of hardly more than a decade of work at the site.82 On the other hand, even in the earliest caves, the planners (probably developing the new cave conceptions up in the cities) understandably insisted upon a proper placement of the porch doorways and windows and the proper disposition of the pillars of the porch and interiors. Furthermore, they appear to have insisted upon—and planned for—the placement of the cell doorways in such a way that the view from within the cells was not directly obstructed by the positioning of the pillars of the hypostyle. Actually, such niceties of positioning would have made little difference to the monks because a slight angle of view to left and right makes hardly any difference in the view outward from the cells; but it is the kind of thing that looks effective on the drawing board. The adjustments to allow a “straight-on” view, clear in both the left and the right aisles of Cave 17, are of course done at some expense to Cells R2/

81 The very specific detailing of the plans prepared by Burgess for these and other caves is remarkably trustworthy, and notably helpful, although needless to say their use should be combined with in situ observations. The general tendency today, both in publications and in actual survey work, to “adjust,” “improve,” and “straighten out” the cave plans, often makes them virtually useless; in fact they are often totally misleading. 82 See Spink, “The innocent evolution of Ajanta’s technology”, in Bakker, 2004, 86–106.



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L2 and R5/L5 (and by extension, R6/L6), where the doorways are not in the center of the front walls of the cells. This in turn meant that a “normal” positioning of the sleeping areas, to the left and right of the cell entrance, was compromised. Here, as in other caves, the affected cells were lengthened to some degree, possibly so that if one monk slept along the more spacious wall, there still was room for another to sleep along the cell’s rear wall, a “right-angled” arrangement sometimes found also in Hinayana caves.83 Along the left wall, the planners show particular concern that the cell doorways are centered in the cells’ front wall, even if this meant sacrificing the “ideal” viewing arrangement. This may well represent a conscious choice of “better sleeping arrangements” over the matter of the view, suggesting that the more doctrinaire right side was laid out first, while the left side arrangement represents a revision. Admittedly, it was only cell L3 that was affected, and even here the “displacement” is very slight. But what is worth noting, here and in other caves, is the care taken in working out such arrangements.84 The doorway of Cave 17’s Cell L5, like those of Cells PR, R2, and L1, which we have already discussed, obviously had a pegged holder for the door pivot at the top, as well as an aligned pivot hole in the floor below. Thus one might at first assume that it too was originally an A mode doorway which, in 468 or slightly later, was converted to approximate the newer B mode (i.e. = A+ mode). However, this seems most unlikely, when we consider its position near the rear of the cave, an area that the excavators probably would not have reached by 467, the last year in which A mode doorways were ever carved. Judging from its location, we should expect Cell L5, like Cell R5, just across from it, and like the cells (L2, L3, L4) lying just forward of it, to have had a doorway of the B mode, carved out in 468 or in 469. Indeed Cell L5’s proximity to the six cells in the rear aisle, all of which (as befits their “late” positioning) have C mode doorways carved no earlier than 470, emphasizes this point. Despite the logic of the above, we should at least consider the possibility that, for one reason or another, Cell L5 was begun “out of turn”, at a time when only the A mode cells were underway, and that it therefore could 83 I have mentioned (Spink, Ajanta, V, 169) that in the Hinayana Cave 13 the beds were “expediently placed”; however, the character of the expediency is far less evident there than it is in such Vakataka examples. In Cave 12 some of the beds are shortened to allow for the placement of the niches; but in the one example at the rear of the right wall where the beds are placed at right angles no benefit is gained, since the rear walls in the cells are relatively short. 84 For the surprising reposition of Cell L5 in Cave 1, see Cave 1 discussion above.

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have been done in this earlier mode. As it turns out, when we examine the layout of the various cells along the wall, this possibility—weak in any case—can almost certainly be discounted. If Cell L5 had been started before L2-L4, its excavator would not have felt it necessary to crowd its doorway so close to the adjacent pilaster; this crowding is even more drastic in the case of Cell R5 where (to allow the cell door to swing back in the conventional way, against the cell’s right front wall) the whole unit had to be shifted even further to the rear. In both cases we can see that these cells (L5 and R5) are being affected by the previous positioning of the adjacent cells, L4 and R4, and this would seem to be sufficient evidence to prove that excavating work on all of these cells had proceeded in the normal sequence, gradually developing toward the rear of the cave. Indeed, we can also see how the excavator of L5 “warped” the positioning of his cell slightly, in response to the already established positioning of L4, which was surely under excavation first; whereas the reverse would not be true, because L4, having been started quite a distance from L3, in order (typically) that its view not be obstructed by a pillar, had room to spare. Thus here again we have confirmation that work proceeded in the normal fashion along this wall, and since the nearby cells in the rear aisle were themselves not excavated until 470–471, it seems eminently reasonable to assign L5’s doorway to 469. Assuming then that the doorway of L5 was indeed defined in 469, when it would not have been cut as an A mode opening, we are left to conclude that it must originally have been of the B mode, with a projection which must have broken in the course of cutting, or possibly when its pivot hole was later chiseled out, and which was then carefully trimmed away prior to being refitted in the D mode. It is not difficult to conceive this possibility, since in Cave 17 alone there are five other instances (R1, R4, L3, L4, rL2) where such projections broke to one degree or another during the course of carving. In one case (R1) apparently so much of the projection broke off that it had to be replaced by a holding device composed of pegs (= B-mode), and it is hardly surprising that this is precisely the same kind of two-peg “holder” that was used when the A mode doorways in Cells PR and R2 were converted to the B mode. But even in this rather drastic example, the projection was not trimmed off completely, so there is no confusion possible about the original form of the doorway in question. By way of contrast, in the case of the doorway of Cell L5, there is no trace of the projection whatsoever, so the doorway might be thought of (incorrectly) as once having been a simple A mode opening that (like PR, R2, and



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L1) was converted to the B mode, rather than a B mode doorway that broke and was subsequently repaired, as was apparently the case. When we seek a reason for L5’s doorway projection having been so carefully trimmed off, the explanation seems to be that a new and very neat type of repair arrangement was being tried here, in which two thin metal pins (the broken ends of which can still be seen) were driven into receiving holes in the stone. Presumably these pins once secured a projecting attachment, perhaps a piece of wood of dimensions similar to those of the piece which once was inserted above the doorway of L1, when that A mode opening was converted to the quasi-C mode, with a slight projection created at the floor level. We suggest this because the immediate area into which the pins are stuck shows a specially smoothed rectangle of the same shape as the slot over L1’s doorway, and it is just possible that this area had been defined for a slot like the latter’s before the idea of using pins was developed instead. Whether or not such a conjecture has any merit, a date of about 470 for the conversion of both doorways seems most reasonable. Assuming that their conversion was effected in order to prepare them for use, again we have support for a dating no later than 470. This is because neither L1, L5, nor L6 were supplied with a niche, a feature that first makes its appearance at the site only in 471.85 If it is very unlikely that the door of L5 would have been hung after 470, it is equally unlikely that it was hung before that date, since it is evident that none of the cells toward the back of Cave 17 were ready for residence before then. As we have suggested, L5’s doorway was probably not even defined until 469, and as we shall see, all of the cells opening into the rear aisle were themselves still under excavation at that time. Furthermore, Cells L2 and L3, which are of course located farther forward than L5, were not themselves prepared for residence until 471, as the presence of niches in their rear walls shows. The completion of their excavation and/or of their fitting out must have been slightly delayed, but this is hardly unusual.86 Before leaving our discussion of the B mode doorways in Cave 17, we should mention a few other points of interest connected with them:

85 Although, flanked by two cells without niches, it seems reasonable to suppose that L5 was lacking a niche too, it is conceivable that a niche could have been cut away when the rear wall of the cell was cut back. 86 Although niches continued in use briefly after the Hiatus, the cave 17 niches could not have been added in that period (c. 473–474), for any niches cut at that time they would have been carved in tandem with later D mode fittings.

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Cell R1 is located closer to the front of Cave 17 than any other cell containing a B mode doorway, and so its projecting fitting was probably the first of that type to have been carved in the cave; indeed, since it can be dated with considerable assurance to 468, the year in which this type first was developed, it must be one of the first examples of this mode at the site. However, it is evident that it broke during the course of carving, either when the projection was being shaped, or when, not too long after, a pivot hole was being cut in it for the reception of the door. It seems reasonable to assume that the door was not hung until at least 469, by which time the whole interior hall (even if not all of the cells in the rear) would have been fully excavated, making it likely that monks could have started moving in to the first cells to be completed and fitted out. We must remember that when work was initially underway in most of the earliest caves (as opposed to the situation in the later caves) the excavators generally roughed out the whole interior before starting the cells.87 This is why, although Cave 17 was begun in 463, the first cells Pl, L1, PR, R2 were not undertaken until 467, and not fitted out for residence until at least 468 or 469. The assumption that none of the cells in the cave would have been fitted with doors and thus finally readied for residence prior to 469, is supported by the observation that the six cells at the rear of the cave had not even been defined by that time, while in the case of a number of somewhat earlier cells we can ascertain that the doors were not fitted until at least 470. We have already provided evidence for this in the case of Cells L1 and L5; and the case of Cell R4 is even more compelling. The R4 doorway has a characteristic B mode fitting, with a monolithic projection above and an aligned pivot hole in the floor below. However, around this hole in the floor there is a circlet of six smaller holes, apparently for the insertion of pegs which would secure a fitted-on wooden (or stone) “projection” or pivot holder, to contain and secure the lower door pivot. It seems clear that this unusual arrangement represents an effort to convert the existing B mode fitting (dateable to 469) to a somewhat makeshift C mode, presumably at the time the door was hung. Consequently, the door must have been hung in 470, since C mode fittings had not developed

87 The more sophisticated approach is already evident in Cave 2 by 468 (see Spink, Ajanta, V, 355 for illustration); the more “primitive” approach, evident in the four wings of the Cave 26 complex, was apparently superseded after the first few years of activity.



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before that time. The door would not have been hung later than this—i.e. in 471—because the cell has no niche. The monolithic projection above cell R4’s doorway is of the expected type, but is somewhat smaller than usual, apparently because a portion of it (near the pivot side) broke off during the course of cutting; both here and in the case of L4, which clearly suffered some loss too, the flaws responsible for the problem are still in evidence. R4’s upper pivot hole, which is quite large, shows no wear, as is the case also in a few other doorways where, as here, the bottom hole does show wear, just as one would expect. This suggests that some kind of “packing” to improve the pivoting, must have been put in the upper holes. This was surely the case somewhat later on in Caves 16 and 15, where all of the D mode doorways appear to have been thus packed at the time that they were fitted out in 477. In the case of L3’s projection, as in that of R1, although breakage obviously occurred, the responsible flaws are not in evidence; either the breakage was caused by inept or unlucky cutting, or the flaws were so localized, or so integrated in the stone, that they cannot now be seen. However, it is clear that L3’s reduced projection necessitated special adjustments when that cell’s door was hung. Because the projection sticks out from the wall only a few inches, the pivot hole had to be set back somewhat into the wall itself; consequently the doorway had to be recessed slightly in order to set the pivot pole in place and to insure a proper door closure. At first glance, this recessed doorway looks as if it had been converted to the D mode, like the doorways of Cells PL, L5, and L6. However, this is clearly not the case, as the location of the lower pivot hole, largely outside of the recessed area, makes clear. Thus we can confidently assign the hanging of the door to the pre-Hiatus phase. Just as in the case of the adjacent cell L2, this must have been done in 471, because a niche was cut in the rear wall when the cell was fitted out for residence. As we have already mentioned, the six cells at the rear of the cave all have C mode doorways, a fitting mode characterized by monolithic projections both above and below, and referable solely to the brief period from 470 through 471.88 This was of course just prior to the Hiatus, at which point the consistent patronage of this royal cave abruptly ended. The four cells along the rear wall of the cave may well have been underway in 470—as was probably also the case with the shrine area that they flank. However, they were certainly not completed until 471, the last year 88 L6’s C mode was converted to D after the Hiatus.

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of Upendragupta’s control over the site; a sense of haste is evident from the fact that the reveals of their doorway openings (like those of the nearby cells R5, R6, and L6 too) were generally more roughly carved prior to being plastered and painted than those of the more forward cells.89 This same problem of time running out in 471 just as the excavation and decoration of the rear of the cave was drawing near to completion surely accounts for the fact that the walls at the rear of the cave were, in general, never properly smoothed by the excavators, thus often requiring an extremely thick application of plaster before they could be painted. This same sense of haste may explain the curious treatment of the doorway in Call rL2, which was obviously planned as a very typical C mode form, with monolithic projections above and below, into which the pivot pole would be fitted. However the bottom part of the upper projection must have broken in the course of cutting (as often happened), and therefore the now-familiar peg arrangement was used to secure the upper end of the pivot pole when the door was finally fitted. The standard two peg holes— one still containing a stump of original wood—can be clearly seen, while it is evident that the pole was locked into the stone projection at the doorway base by being set within a wooden insert (now lost). Such inserts had quite often been used at the site from 468 on, to make the operation of the turning pivot pole smoother and more efficient. What at first might seem strange is that the Cell rL2 doorfitters considered it necessary to secure the top of the door pivot with an attached holder, when so much of the upper projection was still intact. But the explanation, even if not immediately evident, is clear, and supports the suggestion that this doorway may have been excavated too hastily. The doorway opening, when cut out, was carelessly defined, with the result that it skews inward at the base, particularly on the side where the pivot would appear, and this in turn affected the positioning of the lower projection and the pivot hole cut into it. A door whose lower pivot was fitted into the lower projection and put in proper vertical alignment, would go directly between the two added peg-holes at the top, but would miss the projection completely. Thus the upper projection was actually useless, being placed too far to the left, given the position of the lower projection. For this reason the doorfitter had to make do without it.

89 Some relatively early doorways, especially at the right, never got properly finished and therefore had to be heavily plastered.



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It is interesting to note that when the doorfitter opted for the alternative of a pegged holder he cut the bottom of the upper projection away more than would seem necessary if the pegs alone were going to secure the door with something like a cord or strap stretched between them. It seems evident that the pegs secured some kind of attached (probably wooden) block or thick board, into which the upper pivot hole was drilled. I have already suggested that the evidence of the “repaired” fitting in Cell L5, especially considered in the light of the slotted fitting in Cell L2, equally hints at a rather strong and solid projection having been used. One does have to wonder about the relative slenderness of the two pegs that were used here in rL2 and in most of the similar cases, for they are seldom more than three quarters of an inch in diameter, and are sometimes even less. Would they snap off from the tension exerted by the door, once it was hung in the projections that they sustained? By the same token, one wonders why thicker pegs, like those seen in Cell R4 in Cave 1 were not used or why iron pins, as in Cave 17’s Cell L5, were not favored. However, it seems clear that such concerns are unnecessary, since good teak has a remarkable tensile strength, second only to lignum vitae, of all woods available in India, in this regard.90 And in any case, since the pivot pole was stabilized in the hole at the door base, there would be little downward pull—the kind that would tend to snap such pegs. Then, we might ask, would these pegs not pull out? But there is even less need for concern, since if such pegs were first heated (to drive out the natural oils characteristic of teak) and then soaked in water, before being driven into the peg-holes, they would swell up within the roughly cut holes to such a degree that they would be extremely secure.91 Indeed, many of their buried stumps still attest to this today. The “mistake” created by the placement of the rL2 doorway’s upper projection so far away from the door opening brings up another interesting problem, for this hard-to-explain position of the upper projection was characteristic of nearly every B mode and C mode doorway at the site. As a consequence, in Cave 17 alone, in about half the cases, the pivot hole had to be cut very close to the inner (i.e. doorside) edge of the upper projection. This must have caused concern lest the thin side of the pivot hole might fracture, since as we can tell by the evidence of wear in the pivot holes, the

90 As noted later, thin poles of (probably) teak were often stretched across the cells, as poles for holding clothes. Larger holes, often found, may have held bamboo poles. 91 I am grateful to John Holmes for this information.

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stress from the pull of the turning door was on this (door) side of the pivot hole. Yet this problem could easily have been avoided had the projections been cut closer to the door. The difficulties could be particularly acute, if the inner side of the projection was at all reduced by breakage during the course of carving; and such breakage was a common occurrence, because of the many flaws in the rock. In the case of the upper projection in Cell rR2, such a split probably occurred when the pivot hole, which had to be placed too close to the inner edge of the projection anyway, was being cut preparatory to the hanging of the door. It was then expediently repaired by the insertion of a single peg where the stone had broken off. All in all, there does not seem to be any functional or esthetic reason for placing the projections of B mode and C mode doorways so far away from the door openings. It seems likely that such a placement was condoned, and in fact approved, purely by the force of convention. One can perhaps understand why, in a C mode doorway, it might be desirable to keep the lower projection well to the side of the door opening, so that the projecting stone at the base would not be a “stumbling-block” for those entering the cell. But this would hardly have been a factor in the placement of the upper projections, and the first doors of this general type had only upper projections, since they were in the B mode. Yet they too are characteristically placed—or displaced—well to the side. Cells R6 and L6 occupy the lowest priority positions in Cave 17, at the dark and distant ends of the rear aisle, and so it is hardly surprising that, like a number of similarly positioned cells in most other caves, they must have been the last areas undertaken here. Although their cutting out was essentially finished by the time that work broke off at the end of 471, it is poignant witness to the pressures that the patron and the workers must have been under in this final hour before the Hiatus, that they were unable to get these cells into use, when all that was required to make them ready for residence was the cutting of pivot holes in the upper and lower projections of their doorways, the hanging of the doors, and (following a new convention established in 471) the cutting of niches at the center of the rear wall.92 If, as it seems reasonable to suppose, monks lived in Cell R6 after it was abandoned, still incomplete, in 471, they had to use it without a door. That they probably did so is at least suggested by the fact that during the Period

92 The niches were presumably used for icons, personal articles, scriptures, etc. Since there is never any soot begriming them, it seems clear that they were not used for worship.



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of Disruption, when the monks were of course still living at the site, Cell R6 was plastered, along with all of the other residence cells. Evidence that monks were probably using the cell at this time is the fact that a few holes for poles or hooks were cut into R6’s walls. They would not have been there at the time of the cell’s abandonment late in 471, although they might have been added after 473, since the cave was still in use as a residence at that time. Like Cell R6, neither Cell PL nor Cell L6 had been fitted out for use as residences when work on the cave broke off at the end of 471. However, both PL and Cell L6 were eventually fitted with characteristically late D mode fittings. It is reasonable to assume that the D mode conversion of Cell L6 was accomplished shortly after 473, when this cell and the adjacent L5 were being fitted out for storage.93 As for Cell PL, it is conceivable, as noted earlier, that since it had not been fitted out for residence prior to the Hiatus, for one reason or another this never got done later. In this regard it should be noted that, unlike the other cells in the cave, it has no pole holes for the hanging of clothes, etc.94 It seems likely that, needed for storage or some other purpose, it was finally fitted out with its D mode door in 473 or later. The appended cell or chamber (L6a) opening off Cell L6 receives no illumination or good ventilation whatsoever, while its floor is cut some 20″ lower than that of the main cell. Obviously not a residence cell, it must have been excavated as a storage chamber, since Cell L6 itself had this function too. Its walls were thickly coated with plaster, while remaining traces prove that the floor and even the plain threshold of the doorway leading into it were heavily plastered too. One is reminded of the way in which storage areas and storage containers in India today are similarly plastered. One could not believe that a storage cell of such large dimensions as L6a would have been cut out during the Period of Disruption, when such time-consuming tasks involving the removal of some tons of cut stone out through the painted cave—were never undertaken. Nor is it at all likely that the excavation of such a major addition was done during the Asmaka’s “renaissance” (473–477) when the development and use of Upendragupta’s other caves was so totally avoided. Thus it was probably excavated, along with Cell L6 itself and with Cell R6, in 471, a conclusion that the warped 93 Since the cell was being converted to a storage function, one would not expect to find a niche in it, even though such niches were commonly added to cells in 473. 94 The only fitted out residence cell in Cave 17 that does not have such pole holes is R5. It may be that, as is even more evident in the adjacent Cell R6, time was running out in late 471 just at the time that such functional features were being cut in the cells.

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dimensions of Cell L6 would evidently support. Its clumsy shaping would be almost unthinkable during the final phase of established patronage at the site starting in 473. The extra work that cutting this cell involved may be one reason that neither it, nor cells L6 and R6 ever got fully completed and fitted out at that time.95 One should note that Cell L6, unlike other cells in the cave, has no plaster on its ceiling. This supports the assumption that it was conceived of as having a special function. The fact that the associated L6a also had a bare ceiling would further support our hypothesis that L6 was used for storage purposes. Plastered ceilings, from which material could become detached, may have been considered impractical for storage cells, even though they are generally standard (even if hardly necessary!) for residence cells. It might also be noted that this inner storage cell has no doorway, and probably none was intended, for it would only be “in the way”. The careful, indeed redundant, lock arrangement of Cell L6 would surely have provided sufficient security. Indeed, it appears that the omission of doorways, with their locks and latches, from inner storage cells in such caves was conventional, for there are no doors in any of the few examples that we have.96 One can readily see that the projections at the top and bottom of the doorway of Cell R6 have no pivot holes, but the situation is not so immediately clear in the case of Cell L6’s doorway. This is because in the course of the conversion of L6’s doorway to the recessed D mode very late in the cave’s history, both of its still unused projections were somewhat cut away. The lower one was so destroyed in the process that it is not clear if it once had a pivot hole or not. However, in the case of the upper projection, it is evident that hardly more than an inch was trimmed from its under-­ portion when the new recess for the D mode doorway was made; and since a pivot hole, if one had been cut originally, would have been deeper than that, it is evident that none ever existed. (The present pivot hole at the top lies within the recess that was made when the door was converted to the D mode; it obviously belongs to that later phase, just after the Hiatus). Since doors had not been hung in R6’s and L6’s C mode doorways before time ran out in 471, we would not expect them to have niches, which, as we have stated earlier, were only carved (apparently as part of the “contract”) 95 A sizable horizontal niche cut into the stone (or perhaps enlarged from a geological flaw) appears high up on the cell’s right wall. 96 See Cave 7, Cell R3/R3a; Cave 25 left storage (?) complex (unfinished); Bagh Cave 2, Bagh Cave 4 It seems likely that the very idea of the Cave 17 arrangement, with its deep inner storeroom, was transmitted from Bagh.



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when the doorways were hung, and then only between 471 and 474. Significantly, in the four other cells opening onto the rear aisle, all of which were fitted with doors in 471—just before the Hiatus—niches do appear. At the same time (471), Cells L2 and L3 would have been fitted out, since they too have niches; apparently the hanging of their doors (which would have been done at the same time) was somewhat delayed. The only other cave besides Cave 17 that appears to have been properly fitted out for residence prior to the Hiatus was the quite unfinished and only half-decorated Cave 11, where nine cells (out of ten) were fitted with B mode doors in 468, just before the Recession. Two cells were similarly fitted out in Cave 15, and may possibly have been used for residence, while a few of the A mode doorways in Cave 8 also apparently had expedient fittings clumsily applied within the doorway opening itself. The three cells fitted out in Cave 19, and possibly one (PL) in Cave 20, would have been used very briefly, if at all, because of Upendragupta’s defeat in 472; the wear in their pivot holes was probably in large part the result of the use of the in the Period of Disruption. The situation was quite different after the Hiatus and through 478, when the Asmakas were solidly in control of the site. Then doors were finally hung in the still-unused cells in the caves in which work had been interrupted in 468, as well as in Cave 1. This “renaissance” involved the new fitting-out, in the D mode, in 473 and after, of nearly ninety doorways.97 The great majority of these had been cut in the “useless” A mode; a few were B mode types, mostly in Cave 1, but also in some of the caves upon which work had been interrupted by the Recession; while the remainder, in the C mode, were all in Cave 1. Only Upendragupta’s Caves 19 and 20 were denied worship; but they too, like so many other caves, were used briefly after the Asmakas had left the site after 478. It is not surprising that Cave 17 continued in use after the Asmakas had come into control of the site after the Hiatus, for at this time, Cave 17 was the only major Vakataka vihara at the site already properly fitted out as a residence, and must have been sorely needed in this very active period. Furthermore, it may have been difficult, as much for psychological as for practical reasons, for the conquerors to “evict” these established monastic residents. Even if we omit from our consideration those cells whose doors were never fitted out (Cell R6) and those that may have been reserved for

97 See the Cell Count included in this volume.

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storage (Cells L5, L6, and probably PL) Cave 17 could accommodate thirty monks—assuming that two monks lived in each cell. The fact that the walls (especially upper walls) and ceilings of Cave 17 are extremely blackened by soot from oil lamps and incense, notably in the rear of the cave and at the upper levels, would seem to confirm the assumption that Cave 17 was probably used for worship for a decade or more, even during the Asmaka ascendancy. Such usage, surely intensified by the fact that monks were living in the cave, would have started in 471, when the shrine was dedicated. It would then have continued throughout the Hiatus, then during the takeover of the site by the Asmakas, and finally, during, and then briefly after the Period of Disruption. The only other caves that are similarly begrimed are Caves 6L and 11, both of which would have been dedicated and put into worship at the beginning of the Recession, in early 469, even though it is possible that Cave 6L was not being used for residence at that time.98 The many major shrines that were expediently finished and dedicated in the frenzied context of 478 show, by contrast, almost no begriming. This is because the Vakataka patrons appear to have fled the site immediately after getting their shrine Buddhas dedicated in that anxious year, while the Asmaka patrons were forced to leave only some months thereafter, due to their support being cut off due to the demands of the military. And, although it is perhaps surprising, these major images may not have attracted much devotion in the Period of Disruption, when those who could were eager to make donations—and get the merit from them—on their own. Therefore, it seems likely that much of the devotion offered in the Period of Disruption, was the result of these (mostly) new and previously uninvited donors honoring their own private merit-making images.99 This would explain the heavy burden of soot throughout the whole interior of Cave 6U, for it was filled with literally hundreds of separate donations, many of which must have been honored, perhaps even daily. The fact that in Cave 17 all of the pivot holes in the doorways show signs of wear (from the turning of the pivots when the cell doors were in use), is of course revealing in analyzing the cave’s usage. One might note that the 98 There is no evidence of doors being fitted in Cave 6L’s cells until after the Hiatus, when the old A mode doorways were converted to the D mode, and other amenities added to the cells. 99 See Caves 2, 4, 15, 19, 21, as the most striking examples of completed shrines unsullied by soot from the oil lamps used for worship. Worship in Upendragupta’s Caitya Cave 19, and Cave 20 was apparently disallowed as soon as the Asmakas conquered the region. Cave 1’s shrine is unsullied, but because it was never dedicated and thus worshipped.



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wear in the upper pivot holes is generally much more pronounced on the “door side”, due to the weight and pull of the heavy pivoting doors. Often the lower pivot holes show significant wear too; but in other cases, the pivots were set into wooden holders that in turn were set into the stone at the lower level. It is instructive too to see how, as the lower pivot gradually ground away, the lower one would change position, making two (or often more) smooth concentric whorls in the upper pivot hole. It is harder to see, or feel, these in the bottom hole, since the first pattern left by the door’s continual turning was generally smoothed down more evenly, as the level of the hole (and therefore of the door) was ground downward. Furthermore, in many of the lower pivot receptacles a wooden holder (many still remaining) received the lower door pivot to make the door’s turning smoother, and so, except in the numerous cases where this was worn away by usage, the stone beneath does not supply such evidence. And then, of course, a sobering number of these lower pivot holes have been filled with cement, for reasons that it is hard to fathom, in recent times. We do not know what these early cell doors looked like, nor does a study of architectural forms in the paintings shed much light. However, it is reasonable to assume that they were of wood and that the upper and lower pivots, ideally, would be integral parts of the door panel or panels. Assuming that single “planks” as wide as the doorway would not be available, the doors must have been composed of cleated or latticed panels. One can only regret that the mostly unnecessary doors recently added to the caves’ porches did not utilize the old fittings (notably those of the D mode), that would have been both very possible and historically appropriate. Instead, they disregarded the pivot holes, with the result that the new doors had to be (too often clumsily) cemented in. The gradually “sinking” of the door, as the wood of the lower pivot was worn away, was a particular problem in the B mode, where the door might sink down a bit from its weight or else the lower door pivot might wear away enough so that the door would scrape on the cell floor when opened. This problem was faced (perhaps first in Cave 17) by the development of the C mode fitting, where the doorway is lifted up off the cell floor by being set in a lower projection. Typically (and expectedly) these lower C mode holes are also very smoothed from wear, although in perhaps fifty percent of the cases this evidence is again obscured by the all-to-common and compulsive cementing-in of these defenseless features. It is also interesting to note how the doors were put in place. In many cases (necessarily in the B mode, where the lower hole was in the floor next

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to the door opening) the upper pivot hole has been cut deeper (upward) than the established length of the upper door pivot, so that the whole contraption could be lifted up, its upper pivot inserted, and the door then “dropped” into place in the lower pivot hole. However, in many cases (especially in the later doorways), instead of this lift and drop method, a channel was made leading to the lower pivot hole, and the lower pivot could be slid along this until it was in the proper position. After this the lower part was locked in place by means of a retaining block set into a slot horizontally oriented to the channel. This would keep the lower pivot from riding forward. At the same time, such channels were generally cut in a position opposed to the normal pull of the opening and closing door, which must have been to keep the door from “riding forward” in the channel and thus loosening the locking blocks. Such channels become particularly common after 473 in the relatively developed D mode doorways, where the lower pivot hole was generally cut well above the cell’s floor level, because it was located in the lower edge of the doorway’s recess. If such channels, particularly common in the more elevated C mode and D mode doorways, were however not utilized, the upper pivot hole could be cut deeper (higher) than required for merely holding the door, so that the door could be raised up into it, before being dropped into place. Even in A mode doorways that have been converted to approximate the B mode (i.e. A+ doorways) there is commonly a similar provision for extending the upper pivot hole enough to facilitate setting the lower pivot pole in its receiving hole. Further evidence of door use can be seen in the deep rectangular latch slots that once contained large teak inserts, generally long since lost; however at least two examples remain, even though the teak inserts are somewhat broken. These can be seen in Cave 17 (Cell L2 only) and notably in Cell PR of Cave 2, and Cell R2 of Cave 6L.100 Presumably, when the door was shut, it would have been secured on the inside by a piece of wood loosely attached to the back of the door, which could be dropped into a slot in the projecting latch. To facilitate this, there is sometimes a curved “handnotch” in the stone adjacent to the latch, to facilitate lifting up the latching device. Such “cut-outs”, although a convenience, seem hardly necessary and indeed are seldom found in the earliest doorways, appearing rarely in Cave 17 and not at all in Cave 11. They become increasingly larger and often

100  Unhappily, some of the few remaining examples of this revealing feature have been recently covered over with cement.



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well-defined in the later doorways, made after the Hiatus, largely because the deep inner recess characteristic of the D mode both allows and recommends such amenities. There are peg holes carved in the doorways of many of the caves (normally in the left reveal as viewed from the front). Sometimes the teak latch pegs, often lost, penetrated the wooden latch inserts, thus in effect pinning them in place. As mentioned earlier these fixed pegs were probably first heated and then soaked in water prior to insertion, to insure a tight fit. However, a number of these fittings were further secured by iron wedges— typically broken chisels—which were pounded in next to the teak pegs. At other times, where the peg holes do not connect with the wooden latch inserts, they operated quite independently. In such cases perhaps the peg, hitched to the door with a string, could be inserted in the peg hole in order to keep the door closed when the residents left the cell. Even if many of these broken chisel-ends are missing—and unfortunately a number have been removed merely out of curiosity—a few remain in place. Furthermore, in at least one related instance, their prior presence is suggested the impression left when the iron wedges (probably two) were pounded in. This involves the repair of the upper projection in Cave 1’s Cell R4, earlier discussed. The doors in Cave 17 were also sometimes supplied with doorstops (or more properly door holders) on the thresholds of many of the cell doorways. These appear to have been for use for closure once one was inside the cell. Possibly, for convenience, the stoppers would have been hung from a cord at the back of the door. The doorstops are generally small and square and one or two inches deep. Occasionally there are two, although it is hard to explain why this was necessary, at least in the case of cell doors. Nor is it easy to explain why cell doors could be closed from the inside both by using the projecting teak latch and also with a doorstop. Occasionally teak stumps remain in the doorstops, suggesting that the “plugs” to be inserted may have been attached to a cord secured to the door or doorframe. A more surprising example is to be seen on Cave 17 Cell R4’s threshold, where one finds an iron hook or pin (now bent) that would seem to have served a similar purpose; but just why it is now stuck in the threshold is hard to explain. Most of Cave 17’s doorways have a hole (roughly 2” square and 3” deep) a foot or two beneath the more conventional latch inside the doorway; sometimes broken teak inserts still can be seen in them. These mysterious holes are earlier features than the “drop-slots” found exclusively in the thickerwalled post-Hiatus cells, although both devices may have served the same

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purpose. Such drop-slots, always found on the latch side of the doorway’s generous rear recess, are tapered cuts, somewhat deeper above than below. Apparently, a slat or stick loosely affixed to the back of the door could be dropped or angled downward, after one was inside the cell, to secure the door on the inside. Since such drop-slots required a deep recess for their positioning, they were never developed as a feature until the D mode came into use. If there really were—as the above would suggest—three allied ways of securing the door from inside the cell, one surely needs to ask why monks, of all possible residents, needed such privacy. Indeed, one might also ask: what would the monks do in the light-less and air-less cells once the door was closed. Obviously the cells were used for sleeping, but they would hardly be very comfortable either for conversation or meditation, when the doors were closed. At least it seems certain that the cells were not used for any rituals that involved oil lamps, since deposits of ritual soot are totally absent. Another important functional feature in the cells of Cave 17 and elsewhere is evidenced by the presence of the many holes cut into the cell walls. In many cases it is clear that horizontal poles, probably for hanging clothes or the like, were fitted between holes on opposing cell walls. Generally, in Cave 17, the holes are small (2” or less); they sometimes contain fragments of teak, obviously the remains of the strong teak “poles” that once stretched from one side of the cell to the other. Such poles were certainly not used to hang “partitions”, since they generally appear directly over the places, on the left or right sides, where the beds (or sleeping arrangements) would be located; also, in some case they go across the cell rather than lengthwise. In other later contexts the holes are often much larger and rounder, probably for the insertion of bamboo poles, as may have been the case in some of the cells in the Hinayana caves. In fact, a few such examples of the larger rounded holes are found in Cave 17, but only in Cells L5 and L6, both of which were refurbished after 473; the new fixtures surely date from that later time. In Cave 17 the holes are placed quite close together, in groups of either twos (in Cell R2) or threes (in Cell R1) on one or the other side of the doorway, again being matched with similar groups on the opposite wall. In these instances, much more common after 473, the closeness of the holes and the fact that they are in careful horizontal alignment would seem to prove that the poles inserted into them were supports for shelves. Such a conclusion is enhanced by the fact that such closely set holes are never located on the



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side walls of the cell—presumably because shelves running across the cell would be inconveniently in the way. Many of the single holes in the cell walls have no match on the opposite wall. These must have been utilized for some kind of hooks or pegs, upon which clothes or the like could be hung. Sometimes pieces of teak remain in these too. Small storage receptacles were sometimes cut into the floors of the caves’ cells. Probably cut when, or shortly after, the cells were first fitted out, what they held is not known, although a number of them still have their “fitted” covers, made from stone. Sometimes receptacles are cut into the cell walls too; in at least one case (Cave 17 Cell L6) its shape suggests that it may have been an oil lamp, quite appropriate in this storage cave. Cave 17 has a particularly large number of such vaults, small or large, in the cell floors and walls, and this probably reflects the fact that monks lived longer in this cave than in nearly any other, except Cave 11. This is not the kind of work that we associate with the Period of Disruption, although they may still have been used at that time. A large example, also once lidded, is cut into the floor of the large niche at the back of Cave 6L’s Cell L2. It seems reasonable to conclude that, unless space was needed to house some extra residents, the monks, two to a cell, slept on either side of the cell, as was usually (although not invariably) the case in the Hinayana caves, where the evidence has been clearly preserved since the beds were made of stone. However, in some cases adjustments were needed, or advisable, because the cells could not have normal placement due to crowding or other problems. Although monolithic beds were de rigueur in the more austere Hinayana caves, the example of a sculptured bed in Cave 26RW’s hall (like the similar bed upon which the great Dying Buddha reclines in Cave 26) suggests that the monks’ beds were cots or “charpoys”. Evidence from wear and tear on the plastered walls of the cells is not revealing, however. This is in part because most of the cells were not plastered until the Period of Disruption, when many monks must already have been leaving the site, and partly because the plaster at the lower wall levels has often fallen away. Nonetheless, this matter could be further investigated, with an attempt to find revealing stains or breaks on the walls, as well as to face the question of why cells were never plastered at the site until at least 478 (Cave 8), and almost always only in the Period of Disruption. Among other questions one might ask: why did the monks want their cells plastered and why were plastered walls deemed more desirable, finally, than plain walls. Why was there any

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point in plastering the ceilings too? And why was a different plaster (often the characteristically late red ground brick) commonly used to line the inner doorway recesses, notably in Caves 1 and 17, instead of finishing these areas with the same plaster used on the surrounding walls. We might further ask what the monks did in the privacy of their cells; how did they in fact utilize the “clothes poles” and the long shelves that were apparently quite standard features, to say nothing of the single holes in the walls that probably held hooks for hanging things; a few of the latter still have remaining fragments of teak pegs in them. Why did the monks lock the doors, so often having more than one locking device on the inside, as well as peg holes in the reveal for outer closure? And what did the monks keep in the little “treasuries” so often cut into the floors.101 Did the monks have cots, or did they sleep on the floor. How did they utilize the rear niches that were added to the cells only from about 470 to 474; and why were these only in fashion during that brief period?102 Why did the monks want their cells plastered; and why were cells never plastered during the period of the site’s consistent growth, up until the time of Harisena’ death. These are all questions of interest, perhaps most notably to Buddhologists; I myself have not answered many of them here. The fact that the niches found, between 470 and 473/474 in a number of the Vakataka caves (17, 19, 1, 6L especially) were typically placed relatively high up at the center of the most desirable (generally rear) cell wall can be explained by the fact that they not only got better light at this point but were as far above the sleeping areas as possible. However, the situation in the atypically oriented court cells of Cave 19 presents an intriguing (and understandably) exception, where the niches are placed on the side walls, in order to better catch the entering light.103 Despite all the signs of the continued usage of Cave 17’s cells even after the defeat of Cave 17’s patron, Upendragupta, and the late conversion of two cells (L5, L6; and probably PL also) to a storage function, there was no effort to finish the painting of the shrine after 473, when the Asmakas were the dominant force at Ajanta. This was the case despite the fact that excavation and decoration of most of the other caves at the site—except 101 Cell L6 has two in floor, one still with cover, while Cell L6a has long slot-like one in the front wall. Cave 17 has a number of such little vaults or “treasuries” on its cell floors and (more rarely) on the wall. 102 I have suggested that wooden “cabinets” may have replaced these rock-cut amenities after 474. 103 See summary of Cave 19 cells above; also Spink, Ajanta, V, 244–245. A built shelf substituted for the niche in the right rear cell.



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for Upendragupta’s Caves 19, 20, and 29) was being accomplished with tremendous vigor at this time. That is to say, it appears that during this very active period, although monks were allowed to continue living in Cave 17, which could accommodate some thirty monks, no prestigious patrons— surely no one connected with the now-dishonored Upendragupta—took, or was allowed to take, a particular interest in the cave. The most obvious example of this “neglect” is of course the fact that Cave 17’s barren shrine, in which the hastily painted and dedicated Buddha image sits, got plastered, but did not get painted, except for a cursory medallion at the center of the ceiling just in front of the Buddha image. But there are other examples too. Cell R6, which had been fully cut out, even if not perfectly smoothed down in every detail, by 471, had still not been supplied with a door when Upendragupta had to give up his involvement in the site. The same was probably true of Cell L6, although its earlier unfinished and unused C mode fitting was cut away when converted to the D mode after the Hiatus. When one considers the pressure for housing for the monks at the site when the cave was being finished in 471, one would have thought that such cells would have been properly fitted out, particularly since the whole process could certainly have been accomplished in a matter of hours. But this was never done, suggesting how serious Upendragupta’s political situation—his control of his own domains—must have become by this time. Cell and Fitting Count for the Vakataka Caves at Ajanta Count of the different fittings, used and unused, in the cells of the Vakataka caves at Ajanta Up until 468, Ajanta’s excavators cut simple doorway openings for the monks’ cells. Presumably, they assumed that proper door fittings would be provided later, although it seems evident that the excavators did not know—were perhaps not expected to know—what system or systems would be used for this purpose. As explained in the text, there is only one cave—Cave 8—in which an attempt—the earliest—was made to supply the doorways with fittings, and these were notably unsatisfactory, involving only holes or notches in the reveals of the openings. Happily this system was not used in other caves, since the very practical (even if unnecessarily complex) B mode came into fashion in time to be utilized in all excavations dating from 468 and 469, while an even more efficient (if ultimately unnecessary) variant—the C mode—was utilized in

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470 and 471, up until the time of the Hiatus in 472. As for doorways already defined before 468, the A+ mode, based on the B mode type, provided a workable but surely unstable solution to the problem of fitting the doors in such featureless openings, and was utilized, starting in 468, until the far more efficient D mode became standard. The D mode was used not only as the standard fitting mode in caves after 473, but was also used to convert most A, A +, B and C type doorways to this more practical system during this final period of consistent activity at the site. By the beginning of the Recession (468 and for a few caves early 469) no less than 116 “featureless” A-mode doorway openings had been cut at the site. Of these, 35 were converted to the A+ mode by the addition (now long lost) of pegged-on pivot-holder projections; they could hardly have been particularly efficient, held in place by nothing more than two thin (generally teak) pegs. The others, if converted for use at all, were converted after the Hiatus to the D-mode. Such conversion of the early featureless doorways was generally accomplished, to get the cells properly ready for occupation, although a few (where the cells never got put into use) remain today in their simple and unimproved state. By 468, excavators, probably having (finally!) realized the virtues of the projecting fittings in the cells of the early Hinayana viharas, started cutting monolithic projections in the cells during the course of exposing the cell interiors. These B mode fittings, totally 35 at the site, were very practical, with the pivot holes for the doors cut in the rock. They are found in 468, just before the Recession, while more are cut (exclusively) in the “royal” caves (1, 17, 19, 20) in 469, when work was disallowed in other caves. A total of 9, out of the 35, were never finally finished and used, due to the impact of the Recession; they provide a revealing insight into how work was suddenly cut off by the Recession. The same is true of the 21 unfinished/unused C mode fittings, which are found exclusively in the “royal” caves, since they only appear in 470–471, being abandoned in 9 out of the 21 cases due to the outbreak of the AsmakaRisika conflict and the sudden impact of the Hiatus in 472. Although the excavators worked to improve the door fitting system during the first decade of their activity at the site, the solutions they found were far from satisfactory. However, after the Hiatus (472) a remarkably efficient and simple solution was found to the door fitting problem. This can probably be credited to workers—displaced during the troubled times of the Recession and Hiatus—having come back from interim work on Bagh (Ajanta’s sister site), where monolithic projecting fittings, even if desired, could never have been cut from the extremely friable sandstone. Instead,



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at Bagh, deep recesses were made at the back of the doorway, with pivot holes for the insertion of the doorpoles cut at the top and the bottom of the recess. This was surely the simplest and best possible solution; and the planners of the caves at Ajanta appear to have realized this immediately, because from 473 onward, the D-mode becomes the method of choice, not only for all newly cut doorways (87), but as a standard mode of conversion made for no less than 89 earlier doorway types. In many of the latter cases, the previously-planned (even if not always used) fittings were peremptorily cut away, or left in place, unused, to strengthen the pivoting doors put into the later D mode doorways. When the site was in sudden decline in 478, after Harisena’s death, a few patrons rushed the fitting of the doorways in the E mode—a practical but undisciplined variation of the D mode. The few and hurried examples (totally only 4) are found primarily in the Prime Minister’s Cave 16, with a few awkward examples also found in Caves 20 and 7. The various modes of the door fittings in the cells at Ajanta, with suggested dates, can be found in the representation of the plans of the caves found later in this volume. Cell Count for Ajanta’s Vakataka and Hinayana Caves Cave

Cells planned or Started

Used or Ready for Use

1 2 3 4 5 6L 6U 7 8 11 12 13 14 15 15A 16 17 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

18 12 12 26 12 16 16 12 10 10 12 7 18 10 3 18 18 3 6 14 4 14 22 10 3

18 12 5 16 16 8 5 10 12 7 10 3 18 18 3 3 5 1 3

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Cave

Cells planned or Started

Used or Ready for Use

26LW 26RW 27 28 Total

10 4 14 22 354

10 2 2 185

Assuming two monks for each cell: Total

708

370 potential residents

Count of the different fittings, used and unused, in the Vakataka caves at Ajanta DOOR MODE A

CAVE NO

1 2 4 5 6L 6U 7 8 11 14 15 16 17 19 20 21 23 24 25 26 26RW 26LW 27 Ghat Aur#3

A+ B used B unused C used C unused D used D unused 1

3 16 2 7 7

1

2

5

3

6 (5 never cut) 1(R4) 5 3 1? 2

2 2

5 7 6

7

2

19 12 8 16 14 10

1 3 1

10

10 10

8 1 2

11 1 3 2

E

2

1

6 1 2?

8 11

1

2

2

2 8 2 1

1 7 12 9 2 1

2 1 5 2 10 4

5 6

4 2

ILLUSTRATIONS ABCD Mode Door drawings

Type A doorway

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Type B doorway



illustrations

Type C doorway

309

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Type D doorway

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311

A: Illustrations for Trajectory (chapter 1)

1 Ajanta: Site from Viewpoint



312

Trajectory of vakataka history

2 Ajanta: Site plan with patrons

illustrations

3 Ajanta: Cave 16 Interior from front right 462–478

313

4 Ajanta: Cave 17 Interior view to rear 462–471

314 Trajectory of vakataka history

illustrations

5 Ajanta: Cave 19 Façade 462–471; intrusions at sides

315

316

Trajectory of vakataka history

6 Ajanta: Cave 19 Yaksha at left of arch c. 467

illustrations

7 Ajanta: Asmaka complex at western end of site

317

318

Trajectory of vakataka history

8 Ajanta: Cave 26 Mara’s attack, upper left 477–478

illustrations

9 Ajanta: Cave 1 Façade 466–477

319

10 Ajanta: Cave 1 rear aisle from left 466–477

320 Trajectory of vakataka history

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11 Ajanta: Cave 1 façade, detail of hunt c. 469

321

322

Trajectory of vakataka history

12 Ajanta: Cave 1 interior ceiling detail c. 476

illustrations

13 Ajanta: Cave 1 interior, view to front left

323

14 Ajanta: Cave 1 interior, right rear wall, Vajrapani

324 Trajectory of vakataka history



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325

15 South Asia in the Vakataka Age (from J. Schwartzberg Historical Atlas of South Asia, p. 25)

16 Ajanta: Cave 4 shrine antechamber Buddhas 477–478

326 Trajectory of vakataka history

illustrations

17 Ajanta: Cave 26, interior: left with Parinirvana 477–478

327

18 Ajanta: Cave 26, interior, right wall; intrusions 479–480

328 Trajectory of vakataka history



illustrations

19 Ajanta: Cave 1, antechamber, no ritual grime 476–477

329

20 Elephanta: Great Cave, north, Dancing Siva c. 540

330 Trajectory of vakataka history



illustrations B: Cave plans

Ajanta Cave 1

331

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Ajanta Cave 2



illustrations

Ajanta Cave 4

333

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Ajanta Cave 5



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Ajanta Cave 6L

335

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Ajanta Cave 6U



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Ajanta Cave 7

337

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Ajanta Cave 8



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Ajanta Cave 11

339

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Ajanta Cave 13 Hinayana Phase



illustrations

Ajanta Cave 14 (477) suggested plan

341

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Ajanta Cave 15



illustrations

Ajanta Cave 16

343

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Ajanta Cave 17



illustrations

Ajanta Cave 19

345

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Ajanta Cave 20



illustrations

Ajanta Cave 21

347

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Ajanta Cave 22



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Ajanta Cave 23

349

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Ajanta Cave 24



illustrations

351

Yaguchi

Asmaka complex: positives of Cave 24 and upper portion of cave 26 and 27 plan by Naomichi Yaguchi

Asmaka complex: positives of Caves 24-27 plan by Naomichi Yaguchi Yaguchi Ajanta Cave 26RW, 26 and 26LW Complex plan by Naomichi Yaguchi

Part 2: Ajanta’s Cells and Cell Doorways

Ajanta Cave 26 Complex plan

352



illustrations

Aurangabad Cave 3

353

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Ghatotkach Cave



illustrations

355

C: Cell Door fittings

1 Cave 1 CLa D mode 477 Two cells were added to Cave 1’s left court complex well after the Hiatus in order to supply extra residence space for the monks; the deep recesses are characteristically late. Such court cells were never added to the caves before 477, just prior to Harisena’s unexpected death.

2 Cave 1 L2 niche at rear 473 Such niches, cut when the cell doors were fitted out, were excavated only between 470 and 474. Located in all of Cave 1’s cells, they must have held the monk’s personal items. Their mud-plastering, like all of the plastering in the cells, was added only in the Period of Disruption.

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3 Cave 1 L4 (B)/D mode 469/473 Most of the cell doorways toward the front of the cave were originally in the B mode but after the Hiatus all were converted to the D mode. The shallow recess is typical of the earliest D mode doorways; the abandoned B mode projection now functions only as a strengthener.

4 Cave 4 R1 D mode 473 This was the only cell in Cave 1 that was delayed in its excavation until after the Hiatus, probably because there are bad flaws in this area. As we would expect, it has a typical D mode door fitting, with a deep recess and pivot holes (that at the bottom has been cemented in).



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357

5 Cave 1 R3 B/D mode 469/473 The B mode cut in 468/469 was recut in the D mode after the Hiatus. Since the B mode pivot holes shows wear, the cell must have been in use for five or six years before its door was newly fitted out in the D mode. Perhaps it was earlier used for storage while excavation went on.

6 Cave 1 R3 B/D mode 469/473 Throughout the site, the plastering of the cells was never done before the Period of Disruption. Here, traces of the late red plaster (479–480) often used on cell doorways can be seen covering the original painted decoration (barely visible) of the door’s reveal, dating to 477.

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7 Cave 1 R3 B/D mode 469/473 The original B mode pivot pole has shifted position, causing the lower end of the pivot pole to greatly enlarge its receiving hole. The later D mode pivot hole shows only minor realignments and appears to have worked much better.

8 Cave 1 R4 (C)/D mode 470/474 Here, the early C mode’s upper projection broke and was never used. After the Hiatus, to avoid cutting the new D mode recess too deeply in the already thin front wall, an expedient projection (now missing) was attached to hold the D mode’s upper pivot hole.



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9 Cave 1 R4 (C)/D mode 470/474 The lower C mode projection, completed just before the Hiatus, was never used. Just after the Hiatus, in 473 or 474, the shallow D mode recess was defined, and the lower pivot hole, which shows clear signs of use, was cut in the expected position at the base.

10 Cave 1 R4 (C)/D mode 470/474 In converting the doorway to the D mode, after the Hiatus, it was found that the new recess could not be cut back at the top enough to hold the pivot hole; so an attached holder was pegged on. At the right a broken chisel (now missing) was driven in as a wedge.

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11 Cave 1 rL1 (C)/D mode 471/474 Here we see a very typical and particularly clear conversion from the unused C mode to the very shallow type of early D mode used just after the Hiatus. In such cases it is evident that it was useful (and necessary) to leave the abandoned projection as a strengthener.

12 Cave 2 L3 D mode 476 This is a typically late D mode, recessed very deeply to better hold the upper and lower pivots. The teak latch insert is now missing, probably pulled out. Cells cut in the post-Hiatus period may have been made characteristically thick in anticipation such a requirement.



illustrations

361

13 Cave 2 L3 D mode 476 The channel in the doorway’s base allowed the pivot pole to be slid into place for insertion into the upper and lower pivot holes. Then it could be locked into place by inserting a crosswise stone, now missing. The wear made by the turning of the wooden pivot pole is clear.

14 Cave 2 L5 D mode 476 A horizontal stone, locked in, keeps the pivot pole in place. Sometimes a wooden insert smooths the pole’s turning, often showing much wear. The access channel has been filled with a stone, perhaps merely to make the base arrangement neater.

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15 Cave 2 PRa D mode 476 The residence cell within the porch’s right pillared complex is typically of the D mode type cut throughout the cave after the Hiatus. The plastering of the cells, unlike that of the main walls and ceiling of the interior, was done only during the Period of Disruption (479–480).

16 Cave 2 PRa D mode 476 Of particular interest is the surviving (but broken off) teak insert (roughly 1″ × 5″) that once projected out to receive a latch affixed to the door itself. Another latching devise on the door could be dropped into place in the lower “drop-slot”, deeper at the bottom than at the top.



illustrations

363

17 Cave 2 PRa D mode 476 The important evidence, bearing upon the date and type of this and many other cell doorways, has recently been obscured or even totally destroyed by unnecessary cementing-in of important features.

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18 Cave 2 R2 (B)/D mode 468/476 The unused B mode projection in this doorway is proof that the excavators had reached as far as this cell in 468, when the Recession stopped the early development of the cave. It was converted to the D mode after the Hiatus, when the pivot holes were cut in the recess.

19 Cave 4 L1 (B) mode 468 This cell, near the front of the cave, was underway in 468, when work was interrupted by the Recession. Like the earlier and more forward cells in Cave 17, it has been raised up to adjust for the presence of) a cistern that would stretch underneath it.



illustrations

365

20 Cave 4 L1 (B) mode 468 Cell L1’s B mode fitting was defined in 468 but work on it was interrupted by the Recession. Because of a flaw, the projection is on the “wrong” side. When work on the cave started up again in 473, the excavators concentrated on the later cells in the cave, also mostly unfinished.

21 Cave 4 R8 D mode 477 This doorway, toward the cave rear, shows the deep inner recess often used in the latest contexts. A strong piece of teak, now missing, once extended from the empty latch socket. A locking device on the back of the door could easily be raised or lowered from the deep hand-notch.

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22 Cave 4 rR1 D mode 477 This hastily cut D mode doorway is part of an unfinished rear complex, used to provide monks with living space. The pivot pole was slid into place by means of the long channel that provided access to the lower pivot hole into which the door pole could be dropped into place.

23 Cave 4 rR1 D mode 477 Although the teak latch holders would probably stay tight in their sockets if soaked in water, a more certain way of holding them secure was to drill a hole in the socket from the doorway’s reveal and then to use a broken chisel (as was often done) to penetrate the teak fixture.



illustrations

367

24 Cave 6L L2 (A)/D mode 466/473 This early cell, still not fitted out, was converted to a storage function shortly after the Hiatus. A very large niche, containing a lidded receptacle was added at the rear, along with a number of socket holes, most sadly cemented in, to hold poles that must have supported shelves.

25 Cave 6L L2 (A)/D mode 466/473 The doorway of this cell, with its storage (or possibly ritual) function, was much enlarged when all of the originally (A) mode cell doorways in the cave were converted to the more practical D mode. The doorway beyond is of the more standard size used throughout the cave.

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26 Cave 6L R3 (A)/D mode 466/473 This typical D mode doorway, with its relatively shallow recess characteristic of mode conversions in the first year or two after the Hiatus, is flanked by six large holes (fortunately not cemented in) that would have held (bamboo?) poles to support shelves on either side.

27 Cave 6L R3 (A)/D mode 466/473 The rear wall of Cell R3 not only contains a niche—standard in this cave and cut just after the Hiatus—but also six “matching” holes opposite those on the front wall. The shelves that they supported must have been used to hold the monks’ clothes and personal items.



illustrations

369

28 Cave 6U L2 (B)/D mode 468/475 Like most fitted-out cells, L2 has a square doorstop in its base. On the floor there are two tiny “vaults”, one still with its carved stone cover. The lower door pole, after being fitted in place (see the concave wear) was locked into place with a stone block set into the square hole provided.

29 Cave 6U L2 (B)/D mode 468/475 The door, in the D mode, was apparently intended to have a B mode projection, although it was still not cut down to a characteristic monolithic projection when work was interrupted by the Recession. Cells farther to the rear were all cut only in the D mode, in 476 or 477.

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30 Cave 6U L3 D mode 475 Cell L3, the pillared complex at the center of the left aisle, has a large inner chamber (L3a) containing a carefully constructed (now much damaged) bed on the floor beyond its D mode doorway. It seems likely that this special space was reserved for an important monk.

31 Cave 6U L4 D mode 476 This is a typically developed and confidently cut D mode doorway, with its pivot holes set in the deep recess. The door-stop (its socket now empty) on the threshold, and the deeply cut latch arrangement, with a generous hand-hole, are characteristic at this late date.



illustrations

371

32 Cave 6U L4 D mode 476 An iron or teak peg, inserted through the hole provided, would have secured the projecting teak door latch holder; there is now plenty of room for the hand, when lifting the locking device on the door. Beneath is a neat drop-slot into which another latch, also on the door, could fit.

33 Cave 7 CL D mode 477 The various pillared court complexes, like this one, were nearly all unfinished, having all been started during 477, just some months before Harisena died. The expectedly deep-recessed D mode door was put into use, but the fronting pillars did not get carved as intended.

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34 Cave 7 CR (D) mode 477 Unlike its counterpart at court left, the CR complex may have been finished during 477. However, its fronting pillars, as well as the entrance to its inner residence cell, have fallen away. The niche at the rear is much wider than those done in 470–474 contexts.

35 Cave 7 L3 (B)/D mode 468/476 Started in 468 with a B mode projection (never used), this doorway was converted to the D mode in about 476. However, instead of cutting an upper pivot hole, the door seems to have been held in place with two teak pegs, as in the earlier A+ mode.



illustrations

373

36 Cave 7 L3 (B)/D mode 468/476 This unique fitting is anomalous. It was obviously added only after the D mode recess had been cut (c. 476), but the fitting device appears to have copied the earlier A+ mode, as in Cave 11, even though the B mode projection was earlier defined.

37 Cave 7 L5 D mode (re-fitted) 474/476 This doorway was fitted with a standard D mode fitting sometime after the Hiatus, but due to breakage of the jamb, a second fitting, with the pivot holes on the normally-unused other side of the doorway, was added as a replacement a short time later.

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38 Cave 7 R1 B mode 468 This was the only cell put into service (in the B mode) before the Hiatus, in 468. However, there may have been plans, after the Hiatus, to convert it to the more practical D mode. This could explain the incisions on the jamb, perhaps for a later D mode recess that never got cut.

39 Cave 7 R1 B mode 468 This B mode projection must have been cut and put into use in 468, just before the Recession. All of the other cell doorways in the cave were fitted out when work began again in 473 or later, after the Hiatus, and the D mode became the fitting of choice.



illustrations

375

40 Cave 7 R5 E mode 478/479 Cave 7 had a troubled development, which explains why Cells R4 and R5 were never fully shaped or fitted out during the vigorous period of activity prior to Harisena’s death late in 477. A version of the expedient E mode was used here, as in some cells in Cave 16.

41 Cave 11 L2 (A)/A+ mode 464/468 The doorway fittings of Cave 11’s cells were all cut in the early A mode, but in 468, just before the Recession, they were converted to the A+ mode, an expedient version of the projecting (and monolithic) B mode, with a wooden(?) attachment secured with teak pegs.

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42 Cave 11 PR (left) (A)/A+ mode 464/468 This is characteristic of all the cell doorway fittings in Cave 11, except rL1, which was fitted later with the D mode. It was converted from the A mode to the A+ mode in 468 and shows the rough workmanship typical of many such early doorways.

43 Cave 11 PR (left) (A)/A+ mode 464/468 One can see here the manner in which the upper part of the pivot pole was held in place by what must have been a projecting wooden attachment secured by two teak pegs; the stumps remain. The slot above would help in lifting the door up and putting it in place.



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44 Cave 11 rR1 (A)/A+ mode 464/468 A piece of projecting teak, driven into this latch-slot, would receive a piece of wood (or a rope?) from the door, in order to secure the door from the inside. Often a piece of broken chisel, as here, would be hammered into the teak plug via a hole in the doorway’s reveal.

45 Cave 13 L2 C mode 100 BC–100 CE This very neat and strong fitting mode, with monolithic projections both at the top of the doorway and at the base had been in existence for centuries at Ajanta before it was finally taken over by the Vakataka excavators in 468 (B mode) and 470 (C mode).

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46 Cave 13 L2 C mode 100 BC to 100 CE This C mode system must have been in use for a few centuries, for these first caves at the were in use much longer than their Vakataka counterparts. It is clear from the pivot holes in both the upper and lower projections that the doors were reset at some point.

47 Cave 15 L1 (A)/A+ mode 466/468 In Cave 15, started very early, all cells were cut in the useless A mode. When the B mode was introduced in 468, the patron managed to get two cells converted to the A+ mode, with paired teak pegs to hold the attachment and a slot for lifting the door into place.



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48 Cave 15 L2 (A)/D mode 467/475 After the Hiatus, Cave 15’s eight remaining A mode cells were converted to the practical D mode, when the cave was being hurriedly worked on again rather hastily. An incision above the shallow recess in Cell L2 suggests that better cutting had been envisioned.

49 Cave 16 L2 (A)/D mode 467/477 In Cave 16, started very early, the first cells penetrated near the front of the cave have typically early thin front walls. When the doors were finally fitted out with the D mode, in 477, Varahadeva apparently ordered rush work, in an attempt to complete the long-delayed cave.

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50 Cave 16 L4 (B) mode 468 Work had progressed on the cells toward the middle of the cave’s left wall, just as the B mode became the mode of choice. Work on the cells was interrupted by the Recession in 469, at which point the B mode had been defined; but surprisingly, it was not completed later.

51 Cave 16 L6 (A)/E mode 468/478 The cells at the rear of the cave had been merely penetrated when work on them was interrupted by the Recession. In the troubled year 478, when Varahadeva was struggling (unsuccessfully) to complete the cave, a hasty E mode fitting was cut.



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52 Cave 16 R1 (A)/D mode 467/477 Like Cell L2, Cell R2 is near the front of the cave. Originally in the A mode, it was similarly converted to a hasty and shallow version of the D mode when Varahadeva was rushing to get as many cells as possible converted to the D mode in 477.

53 Cave 16 R1 (A)/D mode 467/477 In a somewhat hasty version of the D mode, the lower door pivot was socketed in a wooden inset—a few remain intact at the site. The once carefully covered little “vault” in the floor, cut after the Hiatus, is a feature sometimes found in other caves too, its usage still not known.

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54 Cave 16 rL1 (A)/E mode 468/478 The typically early thin front walls of all cells in the cave explains why their D mode recesses are so shallow, and this explains the expedient E mode fittings made in 478. The mud adjustment to the frame must have been done in 479 or 480, when the cave’s cells were plastered.

55 Cave 17 PL (A)/D mode 467/475 When cut at the left porch end in 466, Cell PL had to be placed off center because of the prior presence of the adjacent cistern. Later its top was adjusted (see notches) to allow the Wheel of Life, planned earlier, to fit. The cell was converted to D mode, probably for storage function, in 475.



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56 Cave 17 L3 B mode 468 Most of Cave 17’s more forward cells were cut in the B mode, in use (only) from 468 to 469. Later, from 470 to 471, the C mode was developed as an improvement. After that, all major work on the cave was cut off by Upendragupta’s defeat in 472, due to the Hiatus.

57 Cave 17 L5 B-/A+/D mode 469/470/475 Cell L5’s expected B mode must have broken in about 469 and then repaired with a neat A+ mode fitting, using iron pins instead of the standard teak pegs. After the Hiatus, the cell was turned into a storeroom and the doorway was given a more secure D mode fitting.

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58 Cave 17 L5 B-/A+/D mode 469/470/475 When the doorway of Cell L5 was deeply recessed for the D mode, the door’s pivot both at the top and the bottom could fit within the new recess, and the earlier fitting, once provided with an inserted block in the floor in a less practical location, was abandoned.

59 Cave 17 L6 (C) mode 471/475 In the lowest priority location, like Cell R6, this cell was not finished when work on the cave was interrupted by the Hiatus. Like the adjacent Cell L5, it was converted to a storeroom at a later date, the old projection being retain as strengthener for the new D mode fitting.



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60 Cave 17 R2 (A)/A+ mode 467/469 The A mode doorway was converted (A+) to approximate the B mode, but with an applied projection attached by two teak pegs, the space around them being trimmed to properly fit the (now lost) projection. The shallow recess was cut to allow a better fit for the door.

61 Cave 17 R4 (B)/C mode 468/470 This B mode fitting, with its upper projections, was converted to the C mode by the somewhat surprising addition of a wooden(?) projection held by a number of teak pegs (now missing) at the base, added to keep the door, once fitted, from scraping on the cell’s floor.

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62 Cave 17 R4 (B)/C mode 468/470 One can see how the lower end of the pivot pole was set into the added lower attachment, to approximate the C mode. A characteristic socket for such a door stop can be seen to the right.

63 Cave 17 R6 (C) mode 471 The doorway, in a low priority area, had been supplied with the new upper and lower C mode projections, but time ran out before the pivot holes were cut and the doorway fitted. Later on the cell was probably used without a door, for it was plastered in 479 or 480.



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64 Cave 17 rL1 C mode 471 By the time the rear cells in Cave 17 were being excavated, the C mode had been developed and was used in all of them. This is a typical example, with the door recessed only shallowly, to improve the door’s fit, and the door still hitting the surrounding wall when opened.

65 Cave 17 rL1 C mode 471 Along with the C mode, small niches located at the rear cell wall, came into fashion in 470, and continued in use, probably to hold the monks’ personal items in 470; the niches continued in use after the Hiatus until 474, when they may have been replaced by movable cabinets or the like.

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66 Cave 19 CL (right) C mode 470 Niches of this small size were used only in 6 cells in Cave 17, as well as throughout Caves 19 and 1—both “royal caves”—between 470 and 474. There is no reason to think that they were personal shrines for the monks, since there is no evidence of damaged from oil lamps.

67 Cave 19 CR (right) D mode 470–471 This C mode doorway, with both is upper and lower projections for pivots (somewhat broken away) can be dated to 470–471. The vestibule between the two cells was taken over for a shrinelet during the Period of Disruption (479–480).



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68 Cave 19 CR (left) C mode 471 Although niches were apparently planned for all four of Cave 19’s cells, perhaps because war was now looming, an expedient version of such a niche was economically and hastily supplied by inserting four teak pegs in the wall here, for the support of a pair of shelves.

69 Cave 19 rR1 CR (right) (C) mode 470 This fitting was never used— the doorway has no latch arrangements—almost certainly because this cell was converted to a cistern chamber, with the doorway used as a passage into the court area.

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70 Cave 20 L1 A (enframement) 467 The elaborate frames around such doorways in Cave 20 reflect the special attention that Upendragupta gave to the planning and development of this cave. However, even as early as 469, concerned about the Asmaka threat, he reduced his support of this special little cave.

71 Cave 20 L1 (A)/(D) mode 467–479 Cave 20, although a special donation of Upendragupta, was never properly completed, due the Asmaka threat developing in the years prior to 472. Unfinished in 471, the doorway may have been finally recessed during the Period of Disruption; but even so, the door was never hung.



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72 Cave 20 PL B mode 469 The cell at the left of the porch, not originally a part of the cave plan—porch cells were never added until at least 466—consequently had to be placed high up because a cistern had already been excavated in the area beneath it. The Buddha image above is intrusive (479 or 480).

73 Cave 20 PL B mode 469 The wear in the B mode pivot may be due to its use in the Period of Disruption, rather than in the troubled years before the Hiatus (472), when the cave was still under excavation—a process finished with only great haste and expediency.

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74 Cave 20 PR (B)/D mode 469/479 The B mode projection, cut in 469, must have broken and been replaced later in the deeply recessed D mode. Little such work was done at the site in the Period of Disruption, but it is possible that Upendragupta took an interest in the cave again at this time.

75 Cave 20 R1 (A)/D mode 467/479 This cell, carved relatively early in the A mode, was finally converted to the D mode when interest in the cave—perhaps by Upendragupta’s family—was renewed in the Period of Disruption. Normally such unique efforts were never made in the Period of Disruption.



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76 Cave 20 R2 (B)/E mode 469/479  Cell R2 was probably planned for a B mode fitting, as its deep uncut wall, as well as its position in the cave suggests. However, abandoned in the troubled period prior to the Hiatus, it was eventually converted, expediently, to the E mode during the Period of Disruption.

77 Cave 20 R2 (B)/E mode 469/479 If C2’s fitting was much delayed, even the excavation of the two rear cells in the cave was abandoned around 470, because of Upendragupta’s concern about the Asmaka threat. Their special frames, blocked out about 469, by 471 they were covered over when the rear wall was hastily plastered.

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78 Cave 20 R1 A/D 462/479 Like the rest of the cave, this elaborate doorway had an ambitious start, but by 469–471, because of the Asmaka threat, work became very rushed. It is of interest to see the point of a broken iron chisel in the area to the right.



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79 Cave 21 PL D 468 This cell was originally planned, in about 468, as a simple single cell, but was converted to an up-to-date pillared cell complex after the Hiatus, its inner chamber somewhat compressed to fit into the new space requirements.

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80 Cave 21 R1 D 475 Both this cell and the nearby window have up-to— date recessed features, but the cave was being completed too late to ever be put to proper use. Its Buddha image did get dedicated, but had been completed in a rather careless rush in 478.



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81 Cave 23 L1 L2 D,  (D) 473 The cave’s decorative pilasters were finished when times were good in 477, and the cells would have been started at this same time; however, most of the cells remained quite unfinished, when time ran out in 478.

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82 Cave 24 L1 D mode 477 Both the cells of the cave and even the windows were very much in process when work was suddenly halted in 477; the unfinished excavation work was so extensive, that there appears to have been no attempt to continue it after Harisena’s sudden death. The low step in front of the doorway is unusual, never appearing in front of cells elsewhere after being used on the left side of Cave 1.



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83 Cave 25 interior 466 Cave 25 was started in 462 as a small and simple vihara with cells at left, right, and rear. However, before they could be cut, the area beneath had been penetrated by the cells in the left side of the more important Cave 24; so it was impossible to continue the work on Cave 25’s unfinished cells.

84 Cave 26 Pla (A)/D 467/477 The right-angled plan of Cave 26 left porch complex had to fit into the space left by the abutting complex in Cave 26LW. Its impractical A mode was finally fitted out in the D mode in 477, after work on the cave was interrupted by the Recession in 468.

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85 Cave 26 PLa (A)/D 467/477 All of the Asmaka caves at the west of the site had two distinct phases, having been started before the Recession and then continued after being abandoned between 469 and 473 (Hiatus). This door fitting, cut in 477, is in the D mode.

86 Cave 26 PRb (A)/D 467/477 Cave 26’s left porch complex took advantage of the available space by cutting two residence cells; a third was not possible because of the abutting Cave26RW porch. The D mode doorways in both were cut in 477, at about the time of Harisena’s death at the end of that year.



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87 Cave 26LW PR (A)/D 467/477 This pillared vestibule was converted from an original A mode cell, explaining its deeper than average format. Its thin pillars, once cut from the cell’s front wall, have been restored to match the design of the still intact pilasters, decorated in 477.

88 Cave 26LW Pra (A)/D 467/477 This D mode doorway has a typical late fitting: the deep recess; the carefully cut area to facilitate lifting the (missing) latch that would drop into the (missing) teak projection; the shaped drop slot below; the hole for the doorstop; and the channel for the lower pivot.

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89 Cave 26LW rL1 (A)/D 467/478 Most of the left side of Cave 26’s left wing has fallen due to geological and structural problems. A mode at first, it was later given its D mode inner fittings and its now conventional outer recess, a feature dating only from 469, when work on all Asmaka caves broke off.



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90 Cave 26RW L1 (B)/D 468/478 Buddhabhadra had barely shaped the projecting shrinelet and the adjacent cell to the right when the Recession interrupted the work. It was, not continued until a decade later, in 478, when the Buddha was added and a later outer recess cut on the cell doorway.

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91 Cave 26RW L1 (B)/D 468/478 Started just before the Recession, with its tellingly early thin wall, this is the only surviving B mode doorway in the Cave 26 complex. Its presence is proof that the whole Cave 26 complex was both well underway and also suddenly interrupted by the time of the Recession.

92 Cave 26RW L1 (B)/D 468/478 Despite the thinness of the cave’s front wall, the excavators made a shallow inner recess when they converted the doorway, with difficulty, to the expected D mode after the Hiatus. They set the door into the recess as deeply as possible, as the slot for the lower pivot shows.



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93 Cave 26RW L1 (B)/D 468/478 The doorway was never fitted out in 468, as time ran out; so as one would expect, the latch-holder hole is of the larger post-Hiatus type. Of particular interest is the broken chisel, applied through a hole in the reveal, which once penetrated the teak holder and held it in place.

94 Cave 26RW L1 (B)/D 468/478 The D mode’s upper recess is so thin that this looks like a B mode fitting; but the pivot pole is actually kept within the recess, as required by the D mode, rather than being set against the wall. Earlier unused, the upper pivot has (necessarily) been kept in place as a strengthener.

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95 Cave 26RW L1 (B)/D 468/478 Now that an obscuring new door has been added, one would have the greatest difficulty proving that this unique doorway dates to 468, providing the most compelling proof that the Cave 26 complex, long thought among the latest caves at the site, is actually one of the earliest.



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96 Cave 27 PR D 468/478 This cell has a complex history. It was started as a simple single cell, by about 466, at the right end of the porch. Then, after the Hiatus, it was converted into the vestibule of a complex cell, its front wall being cut into a two-pillared opening; the stumps remain.

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97 Ghatotkacha R1 A/D 467 This simple cell was started just before the Recession interrupted all work at the Ghatotkacha vihara. Although work continued vigorously after 473, this was a low priority concern and was never completed. The images clustered around it are intrusions, attracted to this area by the presence of the relief stupa.



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98 Ghatotkacha R3–R5 475–477 468 The cells along this right wall were still barely started when work was interrupted in 468 by the Recession. Then, after 473, one of them was incorporated into a pillared complex, itself still unfinished when time ran out again with Harisena’s death at the end of 477.

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99 Ajanta Door Modes, types A, B, C, D overview



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100 Ajanta Door Modes, types A+, B–D, C–D, E overview

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101 B-Mode Cell Interior



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D: Defining Features and Time Charts

Fig. 1 Defining Features (1)

Fig. 40. Defining Features (1)

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OASI/BRIL/SPIN5/17018/08-11-2006

Fig. 2 Defining Features (2)

Fig. 41. Defining Features (2)





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Fig. 3 Painted Caves at Ajanta

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Vinod

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Fig. 4 Time Chart B: Ajanta and Related Sites, www.walterspink.com



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Fig. 5 Time Chart B, right half: the Time Chart is composed by Sumant Rao and Vinod Pancharath

BIBLIOGRAPHY This bibliography, originally intended for Ajanta: History and Development Volume 7, has been expanded in order to be of use for the previous volumes (1 to 6) as well. Aall, Ingrid. “Ajanta: An Artistic Appreciation,” in Ghosh, A. (ed.), Ajanta Murals: an Album of Eighty-Five Reproductions in Colour (New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India, 1967; reprint 1987). Agrawal, O.P. “Problems of Conservation of Ajanta Wall Paintings,” in Parimoo, Ratan et al. (ed.), The Art of Ajanta: New Perspectives, ii. (New Delhi: Books & Books, 1991), 379–86. Ajanta Frescoes; Being Reproductions in Colour and Monochrome of Frescoes in Some of the Caves at Ajanta, After Copies Taken in 1909–11 by Lady Herringham and Her Assistants (Mumbai: India Society, Oxford University Press, 1915; repr. Aryan Books International 1998). Ajanta Paintings (New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi and Dept. of Archaeology, Govt. of India, 1956). Alexander, J.E. “Notice of a Visit to the Cavern Temples of Adjunta in the East-Indies,” Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, ii (1830), 362–70. Anand, Mulk Raj. Ajanta (Marg Publications and Tata McGraw-Hill, 1971). Annual Report of the Archaeological Department of His Exalted Highness the Nizam’s Dominions, 1917–18 (1919), 11–12; 1918–19 (1920), 7–8; 1919–20 (1922), 3–4; 1920–21 (1923), 14–16; 1921–22 (1926), 7–9; 1924–25 (1926), 7–8; 1936–37 (1939), 25–30. Asvaghosa. Saundarananda, ed. Johnston, E.H. (London: 1928). Auboyer, Jeannine. “Composition and Perspective at Ajanta,” Arts and Letters, India and Pakistan, New Series, 27/1, 20–28. Bakker, Hans T. The Vākāṭakas. Essays in Hindu Iconology. Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1997. Barrett, Douglas. “The Later Schools of Amaravati and its influences,” Arts and Letters, 28, No. 2 (1954). Barrett, Douglas; and Gray, Basil. Painting of India (Cleveland: World Publishing Co., Skira, 1963). Beal, S. Buddhist Record of the Western World translated from the Chinese of Hiuen-tsiang (AD 629), 2 vols. (London: Kegan Paul, 1906). Begley, Wayne E. The Chronology of Mahayana Buddhist Architecture and Painting at Ajanta, Ph.D. dissertation (University of Penn, 1966) and Microfilms No. 67-3050 (Michigan: University of Michigan). Behl, Benoy K. Ajanta Caves: Artistic Wonder of Ancient Buddhist India (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 1998). Bird, James. “The Bauddha and Jaina Religious Sculptures in the Caves of Western India,” Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2 (Mumbai: 1844–47), 71–108. Brancaccio, Pia. “The Buddhist Caves at Aurangabad: The Impact of the Laity.” In Chāchājī. Professor Walter M. Spink Felicitation Volume. Ars Orientalis Supplement 1, 41–50. Michigan: University of Michigan, 2000. Brown, Robert L. “Narrative as Icon: The Jātaka Stories in Ancient Indian and Southeast Asian Asia, ed. J. Schober, 64–101. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1997. Burgess, James. Buddhist Cave Temples and Their Inscriptions, Archaeological Survey of Western India, 4 (London: Trubner & Co., 1883; Varanasi: Indological Book House, 1964). ———. Notes on the Bauddha Rock-Temples of Ajanta, Their Paintings and Sculpture and on the Paintings of the Bagh Caves, Modern Bauddha Mythology, &c. (Archaeological Survey of Western India no. 9) Bombay: Government Central Press, 1879. ———. Report on the Buddhist Cave Temples and Their Inscriptions (Archaeological Survey of Western India vol. 4). First Indian Reprint, Varanasi: Indological Book House, 1964.

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Cohen, Richard Scott. “Appendix, Ajanta’s Inscriptions,” in Spink, Walter M. Ajanta, History and Development, vol. 2—Arguments about Ajanta. Handbook of Oriental Studies (HdO) series, Section 2: India. (ed.) J. Bronkhorst (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 273–339. ———. “Naga, Yaksini, Buddha: local deities and local Buddhism at Ajanta,” History of Religions, 37/4 May (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1998), 360–400. ———. “Setting the Three Jewels: The Complex Culture of Buddhism at the Ajanta Caves,” Ph.D. diss. (University of Michigan, 1995). Collins, Mark Geographical Data of the Raghuvamsa and dasakumaracharita (1907); Philosophical Faculty, University of Leipzig. Coomaraswamy, A.K. “The Technique and Theory of Indian Painting,” Technical Studies, 3/2 (1934), 59–89. Cowell, E.B. The Jataka, 6 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge, 1895; repr. 1907). Dandin. Dandin’s Dasakumaracharita; trans. & eds. Satakopan, V., Anantacharya, V., and Bhaktavatsalam, M. (Madras: 1963). ———. Dasakumaracharita of Dandin, ed. Acharya, N.R. (Mumbai: Nirnayasagar Press, 1951). ———. Dasakumaracharita: the Ten Princes, trans. Ryder, Arthur W. (Chicago: 1927; repr. 1960). Dave, Parul. “Correlatives between Ajanta Painting and Amaravati Sculptures,” in Parimoo, Ratan et al. (ed.), The Art of Ajanta: New Perspectives, ii. (New Delhi: Books & Books, 1991), 342–50. DeCaroli, Robert. “An Analysis of Dandin’s Dasakumaracarita and its Implications for the Vakataka and Pallava Courts,” Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1995, 671–78. Dehejia, Vidya. Early Buddhist Rock Temples. A Chronology. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1972. Deshpande, Brahmanand. “Dasakumaracharita and the Date of the Ajintha Caves,” in Studies in Epigraphy, i (Aurangabad: Kailash Publications, 2002), 80–91. ———. “Dating of Ajintha Caves in the Context of Vakataka Decline,” Maharashtra Pathik, Newsletter of the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation, Mumbai (July 1992); repr. in Spink, Walter M. Ajanta, History and Development, vol. 2—Arguments about Ajanta. Handbook of Oriental Studies (HdO) series, Section 2: India. (ed.) J. Bronkhorst (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 128–34. ———. “The Vakataka-Traikutaka Relations,” in Studies in Epigraphy, I (Aurangabad: Kailash Publications, 2002), 54–64. Dey, Mukul, My Pilgrimages to Ajanta and Bagh, Oxford (London), 1925. Dhavalikar, M.K. “The Beginnings of Mahayana Architecture at Ajanta.” In Madhu: Recent Researches in Indian Archaeology and Art History. Shri M.N. Deshpande Festschrift, ed. M.S. Nagaraja Rao, 133–138. Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan, 1981. ———. “Shri Yugadhara Sutradhara: Master Artist of Ajanta,” Artibus Asiae, 30/13 (Switzerland: Ascona, 1969), 301–08. ———. Ajanta: A Cultural Study (Poona: University of Poona, 1973). ———. Late Hinayana Caves of Western India (Poona: Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Institute, 1984). Dikshit, Moreshwar G. The Origin and Development of the Buddhist Settlements of Western India, Ph.D. thesis (Mumbai: Indian Historical Research Institute, St. Xavier College, University of Mumbai, 1942). Dutt, S. Buddhist Monks and Monasteries of India, London, 1963. Fabri, Charles. “Frescoes of Ajanta,” Marg, 9/1 (Mumbai: Tata House, December 1955), 61–76. Fa-hsien. A Record of the Buddhist Kingdoms, trans. Legge, James (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886). Fergusson, James and James Burgess. Cave Temples of India (London: W.H. Allen & Co., 1880; repr. Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 2000). Fergusson, James. “On the Identification of Chrosroes II among the Paintings of Ajanta,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, New Series, 9 (1879), 155–70.



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INDEX

A mode 465 through 467 219 A+ mode 222 actuarial site’s time span 9 actuarial considerations 11 adjustment Cave 19 facade 47 degrees 43 of vault arches 45 Ajanta 3–5, 7–11, 12–13, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22 n. 23, 25 n. 33, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 n. 11, 36, 38–39, 41, 42 n. 4, 44 n. 10, 47, 51 n. 23, 54 n. 28, 56, 58, 61, 64, 66–67 Bagh as sister site 16 Ajanta Cave 1 56 Ajanta Cave 2 58 Ajanta Cave 16 61 Ajanta Cave 17 64 Anantavarman 24 Anupa 11, 15–19 n. 19, 23, 26–27, 34, 64 held by Vakataka viceroy 18 survives Asmaka aggression 17 Asmaka 62 aggression 15 Asmaka coalition 61 destruction of Vakataka power 22 impact on Ajanta 16 Asmaka patrons departure from site 296 Asmaka threat 65 Asmakas 5–7, 9–10, 15 n. 8, 23–24, 26, 42, 45, 48, 53, 54, 62, 65–66 coalition 10 menace 14 takeover of site 218 victory over Upendragupta 6 Avantisundarikatha re Dandin’s ancestry 22

B mode 468–469 219 early usage 213 Variants 274 Bagh 11, 14 n. 7, 16–22 n. 24, 25, 31–36 Ajanta connections 16 development vs. Ajanta 33 final years 17 no intrusions 18 source for stupa shrines 32 space available 20 Subandhu’s plate 19 Bagh Cave 2 attached images 33 Bagh Cave 7 projection for images 33 Bagh plate text 19 Bagh’s sandstone effect of friability 31 Barwani 12 n. 4, 14 n. 7, 16, 19 n. 19, 34 n. 8, 35 n. 9 Subandhu 19 Barwani inscription dated to Gupta era 14 basalt 64 Basim Vatsagulma 41 Bhadrabandhu 8 bhadrasana 63 Bhoja 15 n. 9, 24–25, 30 = Vidhabha 27 Birth of the Buddha 59 Buddha 4, 7–9, 16, 19–20, 32 n. 4, 34, 35 n. 11, 44 n. 10, 45, 50, 57–65 in Cave 17 65 Buddha image dedication 8 first appearance Ajanta Cave 11 32

428 Buddhabhadra 7 cave 26 inscription 7 funding 42 Buddhism 3, 5, 21 n. 21 Burgess, James remarkable recording 284 C mode 470–471 220 caitya 3–4, 6–7, 31–32, 41–44, 48, 51, 53–55, 66 caitya hall missing at Bagh 31 with Buddha images 32 Calukyas 24 Cave 1 223 brief analysis. See 217 door variations. See ave 1 215 importance 4 Cave 2 230 Cave 4 cells 233 Cave 5 cells. See avv 235 Cave 6L B mode variant 274 early fitting 270 Cave 6L cells. See ave 237 Cave 6U cellls 239 Cave 7 cells. See ave 241 Cave 8 early doors 212 early fittings 270 Cave 8 cells 243 Cave 11 B mode variant 274 early projections 269 Stupa roughed ou 32 Cave 11 cells 244 Cave 14 cells 248 Cave 15 B mode variant 275 shrine doorway 271 Cave 15 cells 248 Cave 16 cells 249 Cave 17 brief analysis 217 cell features 210 course of usage 279

index Cave 17 cells 252 Cave 17 usage evidence of soot 296 wear in pivot hotes 296 Cave 19 46, 66 shifting of axis 48 winter solstice 46 Cave 19 cells 252 Cave 20 B mode variant 276 Cave 21 cells 258 Cave 22 cells 258 Cave 23 cells 259 Cave 24 development 212 Cave 24 cells 260 Cave 25 Porch doorway 273 Cave 25 cells 261 Cave 26 7, 42 B mode origin 269 course of excavation 271 development 271 Cave 26 cells 262 Cave 26LW porch doorway 273 shrine doorway 273 Cave 26RW cells 265 Cave 27 cells 267 Cave 29 53 orientation in cliff 55 progress of excavation 54 Caves 1 32 cell count for all Ajanta caves 303 cell doorways. B and C mode development 304 broken chisels used 299 doorstops 299 earliest types 303 latches 298 precedence of D mode 305 cells beds 301 clothes poles 300 peg holes in walls 299 storage receptacles 301



index

usage features 302 usage questions 302 vaults in floor 301 cells in Cave 17 usage after 473 302 Classic Age 5, 66 court cells. See 229 D mode 473–478 221 late development 214 list of porch/shrine doorways 277 wide usage after 473 295 Dalrymple re song-story tradition 23 Dandin 7, 11 n. 1, 12 n. 3, 13 n. 6, 14–18 n. 15, 21 n. 21, 22 n. 23, 23 n. 26, 24–30, 34, 64, 67 as Vakataka story 28 new names given 23 Vakataka connections 12 Dasakumaracarita 11 n. 1, 22, 26 n. 38, 34, 64, 67 Dasakumara ten princes 14 debris 57 in Cave 1 57 DeCaroli 11 n. 1, 12 n. 2, 21, 22, 23 n. 26, 24–25 Dandin story 24 Vakataka Pallava connections 22 Deccan 3 Dhaky article in honor of 31 Dharmadatta 8 discursus on door fittings 216 doorways porch and shrine 269 Durga supports Visruta 27 E mode 478–479 222 Early Kalacuri dynasty 16 excavation early mode 48

429

Golden Age 11 grime 58 from oil lamps 18 suggesting usage at Bagh 34 thickness develops at Bagh 19 Gupta 11, 12 n. 4, 13–15, 19, 21, 26–29, 34 n. 8, 35 n. 9 Gupta prince 26 re Subandhu 14 Harisena 3–5, 7–9, 11–13 n. 5, 16, 18, 23, 28, 31, 33–34, 38 n. 1, 39, 41–42, 47 n. 14, 56–64 death 7 Harisena’s death 209 Hariti in Cave 2 59 Hiatus 218 Hinayana precedents 211 Hinduism ecumenical 5 Hisse Borala inscr 207 inscription 19 same donor for Bagh, Barwani inscr 19 intrusions 9 by monks and local people 9 Kalacuri 15 n. 10, 16–17, 21 n. 21, 28, 35 n. 9 dynasty begins 26 Kalacuri, Early Subandhu as founder 12 Maharashtra 3 Mahishmati flight to, for safety 12 Mahismati 11, 12 n. 4, 13, 14 n. 7, 15–19, 21, 24 n. 28, 25–28, 34, 35 n. 9, 64, 207 malwa 66 Malwa 14, 24, 27–28 Malwa prince intended marriage 14 Minor modes 223 Mitravarman Vakataka viceroy 26

430 Mohan epic—Bapuji 23 monks 208 mural paintings in Cave 1 57 nagaraja Cave 16 61 Narasimhavarman II Pallava king 12, 22 nidhis in Cave 2 59 offerings 19 for Buddha by Bagh sangha 19 orientation to solstices 42 Pallava 12 Paramesvaravarman I young Pallava king 22 patronage time span 39 Period of Disruption 9, 17 n. 13–14, 21 n. 22, 33 n. 6, 40 n. 5, 58, 60, 63 pivot holes channels below 298 problems from wear 297 Prachandavarman malwa prince 27 Punyavarman = Harisena 28 Recession effect on Cave 2 58 effect on caves 62 Risika 64 ritual soot 229 royal family support of Bagh caves 18 sandstone speed of excavation 33 sangha at Bagh 19 Sarvasena 7, 9–10, 16, 23–24, 26, 28

index Sarvasena III accession 7 Asmaka plot 7 incompetence 9 totally averse to science of politics 9 Schopen 35 Short Chronology 209 shrines central block 32 solstitial adjustments date of initiation 47 stupa 16, 31, 32 n. 4, 42–46, 48–50, 52, 54 n. 26 missing top 44 rightward shift 44 stupa shrine Bagh Cave 2 31 stupa shrine 31 Subandhu 11, 12 n. 4, 13 n. 5, 14 n. 7, 15–21, 25–26, 28–30, 34–36, 207 and Early Kalacuri dynasty 17 care of Bagh caves 21 is Visruta 25 protects Bagh caves 19 repairs Bagh caves 11 support of Bagh 19 summer solstice cave 26 43 sumptuary edict 5 Thousand Buddhas in Cave 2 60 Upendragupta 4–8, 41, 48, 53–55, 61–62, 64–66 assaulted 66 Upendragupta, banished 6 Upendragupta Cave 17 patron 64 course of patronage 278 impact of defeat 295 limit of patronage 218 Upendragupta, the lord of Risika 5 Vakataka 3–5, 7–19, 21–30, 32, 34–36, 39, 41–42, 47 n. 14, 54, 56, 58, 60–64, 66

Buddhas 208 trajectory of history 30 Vakataka dynasty 3 Vakataka patrons departure from site 296 disruption at Ajanta 17 leaving site 8 Vakataka queen in Mahismati 17 protected by Visruta 12 Varahadeva 4, 8, 38, 61–64 Cave 16 patron 61 protects queen 13 Vakataka Prime Minister 4 Vasantabhanu 27 Vatsagulma 13, 41 vault adjustment 45

index

431

adjustments 52 adjustments in Cave 19 50 Vidarbha Dandin’s roots in 22 vihara 5, 19, 31–32, 34, 35 n. 11, 56 repairs by Subandhu 20 as dormitories 31 Visruta 11 n. 1, 12–16, 18 n. 15, 21 n. 21, 23–30 as regent 14 Visrutacarita 11 n. 1, 21 n. 21, 23, 25, 26 n. 38 Dandin 22 Visruta end of Vakataka rule 30 exploits 28 Vakataka connections 12 Wheel of Existence in Cave 17 65