Raezer David - India Revealed: The Caves of Ajanta, Ellora, and Elephanta, Mumbai (Travel Guide)

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Built by Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain monks as mountain retreats, Indias magnificent rock-cut sanctuaries, monasteries, and temples offer travelers an unrivaled cultural experience, transporting them back to the formative stage of art and architecture for Indias indigenous religions.

This Approach Guide serves as an ideal companion for travelers seeking a deeper understanding of this fantastic landscape, profiling Indias three premier rock-cut religious sites: Ajanta (Buddhist), Elephanta (Hindu), and Ellora (a mixture of Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain).

For each location, we first offer an overview , introducing travelers to the trademark features of its paintings, reliefs, and architecture. We devote special attention to the stylistic features that distinguish one site from the next.

We then offer detailed profiles of the most impressive and representative caves at Ajanta, Elephanta, and Ellora, walking step-by-step through their distinctive artistic and architectural highlights. The overall goal of these featured cave profiles is to provide travelers with what is most important, a framework for understanding each cave and what makes it special .

And along the way, this guide provides our personal tips at each location for getting the most from your experience.

This Approach Guide contains:

• Detailed profiles of 18 featured caves, hand-picked as the best examples of art and architecture in Ajanta, Elephanta, and Ellora.
• Over 130 high-resolution images photos, floorplans, and illustrations with color highlights that make visual identification of key features easier.
• High-level maps of each site to ease navigation and plan your itinerary.

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Our readers are our greatest inspiration. Email us at to let us know about your experience with Approach Guides many of our recent updates have been inspired by customers like you. We personally respond to every email.

We hope that this cultural travel guidebook offers you fresh insights into Indias rock-cut art and architecture and sets you on a path to making your own discoveries.

Have a great trip!

David and Jennifer Raezer

Founders, Approach Guides

The Premier Sites for Indian Rock-Cut Architecture

This Approach Guide explores the three premier sites for rock-cut architecture in India: Ajanta, Elephanta, and Ellora. In doing so, it provides insight into the development of the Buddhist and Hindu rock-cut architectural traditions (see Fig. 1 ), from their origins at Ajanta in the 2nd century BCE through to their end at Ellora in the 9th century.

Fig. 1 . Timeline of excavation activity for Indias rock-cut architecture.

Types of Stone Architecture

There are two types of stone architecture:

• Rock cut . The focus of this guidebook, rock-cut architecture is made by carving into natural rock. Usually hewn into the sides of mountain ridges, rock-cut structures are made by excavating rock until the desired forms are achieved.
• Stone built . Stone-built architecture, on the other hand, involves assembling cut stone pieces to form a whole.

Buddhism as Driving Force

Buddhism gets the ball rolling

The first stone architecture in India was rock cut and executed by Buddhist monks; prior to these structures, all architecture had been made of wood. The most impressive examples were rock-cut religious sanctuaries, excavated directly out of the basalt mountains lining the western edge of the Deccan Plateau , the elevated, v-shaped landmass that comprises most of the Indian peninsula. The caves at Ajanta as well as those at nearby Bedsa, Bhaja, Karla, Kondane, Nashik, and Pitalkhora were part of this initial wave of excavations .

Inspiration for Indias rock-cut architecture

• Early Buddhist architecture was likely indirectly inspired by that of the Egyptians . The Egyptians were probably the first civilization in the world to construct stone architecture; they began constructing stone-built pyramids in the 27th century BCE (Djosers Step Pyramid in Saqqara) and excavating rock-cut tombs in the 16th century BCE (Valley of the Kings in Luxor).
• At the same time, similar stone-built pyramids, called ziggurats , were being built not too far away in Mesopotamia (modern day Iran and Iraq); the earliest probably date from the late part of Sumerias Early Dynastic period (2900-2350 BCE). The ziggurat pyramid design, however, was never transformed from stepped to smooth edged, as was the case in Egypt.
• Egyptian and Mesopotamian forms and building practices were borrowed by the Persians, who embraced rock-cut architecture . In fact, the royal tombs of Darius (522 BCE to 486 BCE) and the rest of the Old Persian (Achaemenid) Empire were rock cut; they are located just outside of the ancient city of Persepolis in modern-day Iran.

Most likely drawing on Persian precedent, Indias earliest stone architects commenced building rock-cut architecture in the 3rd-2nd centuries BCE . These architects adapted Persian forms infusing them with local design preferences derived from their existing wood-based architecture and introducing entirely new features to suit their unique religious practices to create rock-cut caves with an entirely new aesthetic.

Why were the Buddhists the first to build in stone?

It appears that the Buddhists just happened to have the support of rulers and rich merchants during the critical period during which Persian rock-cut architectural practices began to trickle into the subcontinent.

Keep in mind, although the Buddhist faith was founded in India in the 6th century BCE, it did not gain widespread adoption until it received imperial sponsorship by the powerful Mauryan Emperor, Ashoka, who converted to Buddhism and ruled most of the India subcontinent from 269-232 BCE. The faith garnered subsequent momentum as a rising merchant class were attracted to Buddhism given the absence of Hinduisms rigid caste restrictions that would have otherwise restrained their rise in social stature.