Ajanta & Ellora Tourism, Maharashtra India
Ajanta & Ellora Tourism, Tourist places in Ajanta & Ellora, Sightseeing, Ajanta & Ellora Travel Guide, Holiday Packages, weekend getaways, places near Ajanta & Ellora, reviews, map and trips
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Ajanta & Ellora Fast Facts
- State: Maharashtra
- District: Aurangabad
- Famous for/as: UNESCO World Heritage Sites
- Language: Hindi, English, Marathi
- Best Season: All Year
- Weather: 21C to 32C.
- Clothing: Normal
- Local Transport:
- Pincode:
- STDCode: 022
Ajanta & Ellora, India Overview
The Ajanta Caves in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, India are about 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments which date from the 2nd century BCE to about 480 or 650 CE. The caves include paintings and sculptures described by the government Archaeological Survey of India as "the finest surviving examples of Indian art, particularly painting", which are masterpieces of Buddhist religious art, with figures of the Buddha and depictions of the Jataka tales. The caves were built in two phases starting around the 2nd century BCE, with the second group of caves built around 400–650 CE according to older accounts, or all in a brief period between 460 to 480 according to the recent proposals of Walter M. Spink. The site is a protected monument in the care of the Archaeological Survey of India, and since 1983, the Ajanta Caves have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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Must See Places in Ajanta & Ellora, India
Ajanta & Ellora, India History
Like other ancient Buddhist monasteries, Ajanta was a kind of college monastery, with a large emphasis on teaching, and divided into several different colleges for living and for some of the education, under a central direction. The layout of the site reflects this organizational structure, with most of the caves only connected via the exterior. The 7th-century travelling scholar Xuanzang informs us that Dinnaga, the celebrated Buddhist philosopher and controversialist, author of well-known books on logic, lived there in the 5th century. In its prime the settlement must have accommodated several hundred teachers and pupils. Many monks who had finished their first training may have used Ajanta as a base to return to during the monsoon season from an itinerant lifestyle.