Allure of Ajanta, Ellora

His name may sound commonplace, but John Smith was special — in 1819, he discovered one of the greatest archaeological treasures of the subcontinent, the caves at Ajanta. The English cavalry officer was on a tiger hunt, about 100 km from Aurangabad in present-day Maharashtra, when he saw his quarry slip into an opening in the rock face of the opposite hill. He raced across the valley of the Waghur river and hacked his way through the dust, debris and undergrowth into the cave he had seen the tiger disappear into. He did not find his prey, but as William Dalrymple writes in ‘The Golden Road’, “Smith stopped dead in his tracks” at the sight.

What he saw was an incredible treasure of rock sculptures and frescoes dating back about 2,000 years. He had, in fact, stepped accidentally into one of the 30 caves burrowed in the sheer face of the volcanic rock mountain, around the U-shaped bend of the river. Even today, the external view of the caves, with vertical columns on their entrances, gives little indication of what lies within. But once one commences the demanding trek over steep steps cut into the rock face, and checks out one cave after another, what meets the eye is a truly incredible sight.

Right from the first cave to the 26th (the last four have still not been restored for public view), a profusion of sculptures and wall paintings from Buddhist lore adorn the walls, ceilings, galleries and deep recesses within. Cave 10, the one Smith stepped into, and the one before it, are from the BCE era. Most were dug in between 400 CE and 600 CE. The frescoes in small frames across several caves, still in colours quite vivid, tell of stories from the life of the Buddha and the Jataka tales. And, the sculptures are not confined to a few that one sees on the covers of books on Indian art, but are seen in abundance across the entire complex.

The spirituality of the Bodhisattva blends exquisitely with the physical beauty of women with their curved torsos, elongated eyes and elaborate bodily adornments.

Word of caution

• Wear shoes without laces, if possible, because you have to take them off

  repeatedly to enter the caves.

• The full round may take more than two hours, and there is no washroom once you start the ascent. So, use the one at the base before the climb.
• Some parapets are quite low, and on the other side lies a 60m deep ravine. Mountain goats may find them easy, but one needs to be cautious while negotiating the rock-cut steps.
• Particular care needs to be taken while negotiating the narrow steps inside the

  double-storeyed cave 6 because the stones have become slippery with age and use.

• Guidebooks come in quite handy while

  visiting Ajanta. While one may skip some of the caves in the row, numbers 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 10, 16, 17, 19 and 26 must be seen. The last is probably the richest in content.

• Ajanta is 107 km from Aurangabad. The nearest railway station is Jalgaon. The caves are

  4 km from Ajanta for which there’s a shuttle service. Get set for a tough trek ahead.

Exploring Ellora

• Ellora, 28 km north-west of Ajanta, dates to a slightly later period, is easier to reach and explore, and is a mix of Buddhist (caves 1 to 12), Hindu (13 to 29) and Jain (30 to 34, about 1.5 km away from the rest) edifices.
• The Buddhist structures are mostly Viharas, where the monks lived and learnt the scriptures. Cave 5 is a huge cavern 36m deep with rows of raised concrete where monks sat and studied or dined. Cave 10 has as many as 30 carved pillars, along an elongated apse, and even a music gallery. Caves 11 and 12 are three-storeyed structures hewn into solid rock.

• The piece de resistance is the massive Kailasa temple in the Hindu section, which was scooped out, as were a few others, downwards from up and sculpted as they kept going down. It is one of the largest monolithic structures in the world. The pit is 31m deep, 76m long and 49m wide. It has corridors and carvings in the walls. An enormous rock was left in the middle and chiselled over two centuries to carve out the profusely carved double-storeyed temple. The pillar on the Rs 20 note is a part of this complex.
• Since Ellora is quite close to Aurangabad, one can also throw in a visit to Daulatabad Fort that lies en route. This was where Mohd Tughlak transferred his capital — lock, stock, barrel and the entire populace — to, in 1327. But soon after he got there, he realised that he had made a mistake, exclaimed “Oops”, and marched everyone back to Delhi! — LM

— The writer is a freelance journalist