DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0302
280
CHAPTER VIII.
THE AJANTA CAVE TEMPLES.
Ajanta, as is well known, is situated at the head of one of the
passages or ghats that lead down from the Indhyadri hills, dividing
the table-land of the Dekhan from Khandesh, in the valley of the
Tnpti. Four miles W.N.W. of this town are the caves to which it
gives name. Most other groups of Buddhist caves are excavated
on the scarps of hills, with extensive views from their verandahs;
those of Ajanta are buried in a wild, lonely glen, with no vista but
the rocky scarp on the opposite side. They are approached from
Fardapur, a small town at the foot of the ghat, and about three and
a half miles north-east from them. They are excavated in the face
of an almost perpendicular scarp of rock, about 250 feet high,
sweeping round in a curve of fully a semicircle, and forming the
north or outer side of a wild secluded ravine, down which comes a
small stream. Above the caves the valley terminates abruptly m
a waterfall of seren leaps, known as the sat Tcund, the lower of
which may be from 70 to 80 feet high, and the others 100 feet
more. The caves extend about 600 yards from east to west round
the concave wall of amygdaloid trap that hems in the stream on
its north or left side, and vary in elevation from about 35 to 100
feet above the bed of the torrent, the lowest being about a third
of the arc from the east end.
The whole of the caves have been numbered like houses in a street.
commencing from the east or outer end, and terminating at the inner
extremity by the caves furthest up the ravine. This enumeration, i
will be understood, is wholly without reference to either the age o.
purpose of the caves, but wholly for convenience of description-
The oldest are the lowest down in the rock, and practically near
centre, being numbers VIII. to XIII., from which group ther
radiate right and left, to No. I. on the one hand, XXIX. on t
other.
From the difficulty of access to them, the Ajanta caves were but
little visited until within the last forty years. The first Europe"1
CHAPTER VIII.
THE AJANTA CAVE TEMPLES.
Ajanta, as is well known, is situated at the head of one of the
passages or ghats that lead down from the Indhyadri hills, dividing
the table-land of the Dekhan from Khandesh, in the valley of the
Tnpti. Four miles W.N.W. of this town are the caves to which it
gives name. Most other groups of Buddhist caves are excavated
on the scarps of hills, with extensive views from their verandahs;
those of Ajanta are buried in a wild, lonely glen, with no vista but
the rocky scarp on the opposite side. They are approached from
Fardapur, a small town at the foot of the ghat, and about three and
a half miles north-east from them. They are excavated in the face
of an almost perpendicular scarp of rock, about 250 feet high,
sweeping round in a curve of fully a semicircle, and forming the
north or outer side of a wild secluded ravine, down which comes a
small stream. Above the caves the valley terminates abruptly m
a waterfall of seren leaps, known as the sat Tcund, the lower of
which may be from 70 to 80 feet high, and the others 100 feet
more. The caves extend about 600 yards from east to west round
the concave wall of amygdaloid trap that hems in the stream on
its north or left side, and vary in elevation from about 35 to 100
feet above the bed of the torrent, the lowest being about a third
of the arc from the east end.
The whole of the caves have been numbered like houses in a street.
commencing from the east or outer end, and terminating at the inner
extremity by the caves furthest up the ravine. This enumeration, i
will be understood, is wholly without reference to either the age o.
purpose of the caves, but wholly for convenience of description-
The oldest are the lowest down in the rock, and practically near
centre, being numbers VIII. to XIII., from which group ther
radiate right and left, to No. I. on the one hand, XXIX. on t
other.
From the difficulty of access to them, the Ajanta caves were but
little visited until within the last forty years. The first Europe"1