1. AJANTA
We were on a pilgrimage of sorts, bumping along a rough Maharashtra road in a derelict bus held together by old duct tape and spit. The grimy windows fitfully illuminated scenes – it’s hard to describe now – but the scenes were more like something you would witness through the blurred porthole of a Time Machine, … a bullock cart stacked high with sugar cane slowly trundling beside ragged fields of cotton and corn… a farmer struggling to plow a rocky field with mismatched oxen and a wooden plow. Or then, just for the sheer perverse joy of it all, an Indian man with his dhoti down below his knees carefully defecating in a dried-up riverbed. Oh India!
Two thousand years ago similar scenes were probably at play when groups of monks descended the steep trail to the Ajanta caves. Originally built as a Rains Retreat center (a three month long retreat during the monsoon), the Ajanta caves were added to over a period of four hundred years. Today, after the arduous bus ride from Aurangabad, pilgrims are first introduced to Cave 1.
Cave 1 was one of the last caves excavated under the patronage of Hindu Emperor Harishena. With his death in 477 pretty much all the excavations at Ajanta ceased.
Cave 1 is commonly associated with beautiful frescoes illustrating the Jataka Tales, (stories of the Buddha in his previous existence as a bodhisattva). The Padmapani and Vajrapani frescoes are fine examples of classical Indian painting and they must have been vivid and alive when first painted. Unfortunately now the lighting is so poor and you are so far removed from the paintings that it’s a wonder you can see anything at all!
The Indian artists of the day employed a painting process strikingly similar to the fresco painters in late medieval Florence. First the rock surface was covered with a plaster of cow dung, clay and rice husks. Then the surface was smoothed with lime juice to produce a workable surface. Again like the early classical painters of Europe, Indian painters sourced simple pigments from the earth: red, yellow and brown ochre, myrobalan fruit mixed with iron dust for black, and lapis lazuli from Central Asia and Persia for the blues. The skill of the painters, whether Hindu or Buddhist, was so great that the abbot of the Vihara, or monastery, merely dictated what Jataka Tale to paint and the individual artisans would make the Jataka Tale come alive.
Cave 2 was built several years before Harishena’s death, in the great building spree of the 470’s. It’s likely that the patron of Cave 2 was an influential woman in the Emporer’s court. Along the colonnades of the veranda are frequent reliefs of the Buddhist goddess Hariti – the goddess of fertility, easy childbirth and children.
At the dawn of our common era the Satavahana Dynasty ruled the Deccan Plateau of the Indian subcontinent from the Arabian Sea to the Indian Ocean. It’s hard to even get a concept about what the life was like for people two thousand years ago. Little is known of the Satavahana Dynasty today besides for their adoption of metal coinage; the first in India. The coins look strongly Roman, which is likely considering Roman and Arab traders regularly called at ports along the Maharashtra coast. Trading in spices, ivory and jewels the wealthy Maharashtran merchants gradually sought to gain merit through sponsoring Buddhist temples.
The rulers the Satavahana Dynasty lived in a truly cosmopolitan milieu. The gods of the Aryan Rig Veda- Indra, Agni and Vishnu, the fire pits and the horse sacrifice, were gradually fading, replaced by a more Brahmanical canon.
Buddhism itself had changed from an austere practice devoid of figurative representation to one that joyed in the physicality of the Buddha’s form. Again, this was a foreign import. The earliest caves at Ajanta, the Chaitya (or “Cave of the Stupa”) are Cave 9 and 10. They came from a time period after Pre-sectarian Buddhism had lapsed. Today we call these earlier groups Hinayana.
Gradually, as time progressed different views of the Buddha arose: there were many Buddhas, multiple Buddhas and Bodhisattvas all dedicated to freeing beings from this samsara place. Today we call these groups Mahayana, and for these practitioners not only is the self ’empty’ of existence but external phenomena are as well.
In the earliest caves from the Satavahana dynasty there is little ornamentation. The Buddha was represented by a dharma wheel, or a deer or sometimes even an elephant. How could you represent something that had no essence, that didn’t truly exist ? After the first years of cave building the caves were apparently abandoned. It wasn’t until the rise of the Vakataka Empire in the fifth century CE that cave building resumed. Then Buddha and Bodhisattva statues were heavily featured in all the caves and the earlier frescoes were overpainted.
In 1819 a British Cavalry officer by the name of John Smith stumbled across the entrance to Cave 10 while hunting tigers in the Wahgur River gorge. As with most culturally insensitive Englishman of the day he immediately climbed atop a pile of rubble and scratched his name across a priceless bodhisattva fresco!
Cave 9 and 10 are amongst the oldest caves at Ajanta. Both however have been significantly reworked. The Bodhisattva figures flanking the doors of Cave 9 were added by a private donor four hundred years after the Chaitya hall was originally built.
The Vakataka Empire flourished during the great Indian Classical era. To the north, along the Ganges Plain, the Gupta Empire kept pace with marvelous examples of both Hindu and Buddhist art. It was not uncommon for a senior Hindu minister of the Vakataka or the Gupta Empire to be the patron of a sublime work of Buddhist art.
The columns of Cave 10 were overpainted with dark-skinned Buddhas and a Buddha wearing a Gandharan robe derived from the Greeks of Alexander the Great.
Almost every square inch of wall and ceiling space is typically painted. The Buddha figures in Cave 17 are still brilliant even today, while a fresco of attacking elephants dynamically marches across the wall.
Unfortunately, when we reached Cave 19, perhaps the most profusely ornamented portico in Ajanta we found that it had been given over to construction scaffolding. Like most projects undertaken by the Archaeological Survey of India the construction began and then was later abandoned. Yet despite the frustration, the interior of the Chaitya with the Buddha displaying the Abhaya mudra was divine!
When the wandering Chinese monk Xuanzang visited Ajanta in the mid seventh century the monasteries were thriving to such an extent that he called it “a paradise on earth”. But by the tenth century Buddhism in India had entered a decline from which it never recovered.
At the far end of the line of caves is Cave 26, a large Chaityagriha that was intended to “endure for as long as the moon and sun continue”. One of the last caves to be excavated Cave 26 bears the final inscription found at Ajanta.
This magnificent rock-cut stupa bears a Buddha sitting on a lion throne and displaying the Dharmachakra Mudrā – that is, ‘turning the wheel of dharma’. There are 18 panels on the base and 18 above that. Above the Buddha’s head rises a three tiered torana and above that Apsaras gracefully float on the dome of the dagoba
All in all it is easy to see how Xuanzang could regard Ajanta as a paradise. Cave 26 combines the sunny optimism of Hellenism with a clear-eyed appraisal that all life, no matter how fortunate, is suffering.
2. Ellora
The Ellora Caves lie some eighty kilometers from Ajanta, along the edge of the Western Ghats. Some scholars believe that when the temple building at Ajanta ceased the artisans simply moved en masse to the new site. However, hundreds of years elapsed between work at either of the two sites. Ellora, moreover, features cave temples dedicated to all the major religions in common in eighth century India: Hinduism, Buddhism, and the Jain. All of them are strung along a several mile long escarpment in a great jumble, so for convenience the Ellora Caves, like the caves at Ajanta, have been numbered by the Archaeological Survey of India from right to left.
That being said, the first thing you encounter after getting off the bus is the largest monumental excavation in the world: the great Kailasa – Cave 16.
The Kailasa represents Mt. Kailash, the abode of Shiva, located thousands of miles north of the Western Ghats. But in all actuality, to a Hindu believer, the abode of Shiva resides in our mind while Kailash represents the support for our mind, the body. To bring these two incompatibles together the artists of Krishna I of the Rashtrakuta Dynasty crafted some of the boldest and finest sculptures in all of India. Sadly, the Archaeological Survey of India has only provided ONE light for all 34 temples, and that one is a simple trouble- light that you drag along on an extension cord through the shrine room of Kailasa!
The sanctum contains a large Shivalinga, a symbol of Shiva’s formless body. From the Linga peace, divine consciousness, bliss and divine energy (shakti) pour forth. One needs to meditate on this.
Most of the sculptures at the Kailasa have been significantly degraded over the 1300 years since inception. Yet the embellishments on the writhing figures seem positively rococo; despite it’s age, Vishnu can still be seen holding a mace and a discus in his two upper hands.
We descended a staircase past an elaborate scene from the Mahabharata. The gigantic monolith of the Kailasa rises from its base like the actual Mt. Kailash from the Tibetan Plateau.
And like the American Indian belief that the world is supported on the back of a gigantic turtle, the imaginary Mt. Kailash of Ellora is supported on the back of life-size stone elephants.
One is advised to meditate on Kailasa not as a gigantic basaltic monolith but as a vast celestial palace replete with bridges, gate and arches. At its center resides Shiva, the cosmic being or self, dancing the cosmic dance of creation and death. Around him gather the various deities of the Hindu pantheon, disporting in entirely human activities of pleasure, anger or pain.
But then how can one explain the first sculpture one encounters upon entering the Kailasa, one that seemingly must be the most important considering pride of place. Plainly it’s Ma Durga the mother of all, cupping her breasts. But what is that below her, what is she sitting on, LIPS???
Eventually we left the Kailasa behind and randomly turned to the left, towards caves 1-15. There is much discussion concerning the chronology of these caves. Most, of them, like cave 15 were originally excavated as Buddhist temples and then were converted to Hindu shrines with the addition of Hindu iconography. Cave 15 is obviously a Vihara in the buddhist style but once inside the story of Vishnu predominates.
Identifying statues became even more difficult as we moved deeper into the Buddhist caves. There were no lights or illumination, and for the first time Vajrayana imagery appears. It is believed that Cave 12 was excavated between 600-730CE, by which time the tantric beliefs of the Diamond Vehicle, or Vajrayana, had become fully developed in Southern India.
The Vajrayana posits that all phenomena are pure from the very beginning: it’s merely the adventitious stains of lust, anger and ignorance that prevents us from seeing ourselves as the Tathagata, “the one who knows and sees reality as-it-is.”
These Tara statues appear very early in the Vajrayana canon, yet their easy grace and fluidity is outstanding. Called the “Swift Savioress” Tara sits in a posture which allows her to quickly jump to her feet to rescue all beings. Generally there are 21 Taras; red ones, green ones, white ones, all with various implements and activities. Green Tara overcomes obstacles. White Tara increases longevity.
Tara is oftentimes called the “mother of the Buddhas,” for undistracted meditation upon Tara will lead one to buddhahood. Cave 12, also called the Tin Thai, was the last Buddhist temple excavated at Ellora.
Not far from Cave 12 is the wonderful Cave 10, a Chaitya or worship hall called the Visvakarma Cave. Locally this temple is called the ‘Carpenters Cave’, for supposedly the ceiling of the Apse resembles wooden beams. What it most resembles however is Cave 19 and 26 at Ajanta. The time periods match up; it is likely that some of the stone masons from Ajanta made their way to Ellora to ply their trade. In the center of the worship hall is the imposing 16 foot basaltic Buddha in the Vyakhyana, or teaching mudra.
The delightful but small Cave 6 lies up a steep flight of stairs to the left of Cave 10. Cave 6 is the earliest Buddhist cave excavated at Ellora and sadly part of its facade has fallen away since it was completed in mid 600 CE. Cave 6 makes a convenient benchmark for examining the development of the female figure in Buddhist art. Compared to the sleek and naturalistic Tara statues in Cave 11, the Tara figures of Cave 6, created a mere 100 years before, appear antiquated and clunky.
Tara initially appears dressed in the garb of Padmapani, succoring from wars and untimely death.
Across the hallway from the Tara dressed as Padmapani is another Tara, appearing as Swaraswati, the goddess of learning. The peacock indicates her association with the arts.
On the other side of the magnificent Kailasa are more Hindu temples, dated from the Kalachuri Dynasty. It must have been wonderful to have been a siddhi in those day, when one could examine both Buddhism and Hinduism in their pure form, and then have the pleasure to imbibe freely.
Cave 21, also known as the Rameshwar Temple is chock full of fine sculptures of female divinities.
Cave 21 is notable for the interdependence of masculine and feminine energies. The Shakti cult, the worship of the divine feminine in its many peaceful and wrathful forms, has long been an underground staple in Hindu religion, but it is rare to see it so openly presented
There is a bit of a walk from Cave 28 to Cave 29. First one passes a small sculptural group of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in the portico of Cave 28. Then one descends perilous steps beside a pond, the “val Ganga”, and under “the brow of Shiva” – a cliff that projects a waterfall over the walkway and into the rocks beside the pond. Evidently the time to visit Ellora is in the monsoon, when the waterfall is raging. When we visited it was barely a trickle, although still delightful.
Cave 29, the Dhumar Lena, was the first cave to be excavated at Ellora. It bears a strong resemblance to the Shiva temple on Elephanta Island in Mumbai Harbor. Both of these caves had easy access to the trade routes that brought visitors and money. That being said, the interior of Cave 29 is positively enormous, with the roof being supported by 29 massive pillars.
Like Elephanta, the central sanctum is designed to be circumambulated. But when we tried that we discovered the darkened area behind the core of the shrine had become a bat colony over time, and we hurriedly ran back into the light with bats racing overhead!
Each of the enormous dvarapalas holds a flower in his right hand, the female attendant holds a flower in her left. The rock cut linga can be seen through the door to the shrine.
Although larger than life, the sculptures in Cave 29 have been called “corpulent, stumpy, with disproportionate limbs”. I am not an art critic, but the figures do seem a little odd.
We walked out of Cave 29 and were overcome with exhaustion. We had walked miles, shot hundreds of photographs, and we just couldn’t go on. We hadn’t even viewed the Jain Caves. But we had to walk back to the road, through the “Val Ganga”, and then figure out how to get a bus back to Aurangabad. Rest and dinner were hours away. So it was best to get started now…