Accurate, Ancient, Artistic Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings to Buddha

Summary: The Ajanta cave wall paintings are accurate, ancient artistic aids, as are the earliest oral and written accounts, to Buddha's teachings.

panorama of Ajanta Caves; Maharashtra, west-central India; March 17, 2007: Freakyyash, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Ambling through the Ajanta Caves or accurately assembling images of Ajanta cave wall paintings accesses for Buddhism's adherents, admirers and analysts ancient artwork from within 300 to 1,100 years of Buddha's lifetime.

The Ajanta Caves at 96.56-mile (60-kilometer), 120.7-mile (75-kilometer) and 160.93-plus-mile (100-plus-kilometer) distances from Jalgaon, Bhusawal and Aurangabad in Maharashtra, central-west India, bear 1,500- to 2,100-plus-year-old artworks. They conserve near-correct characterizations of Siddhartha Gautama (624 BCE?-544 BCE?), albeit incorrectly dark-eyed instead of blue the color of flax, as blue-black-haired, golden-skinned, supple-limbed, tall and trim-bodied. They depict few of such 32 wisdom-prompted physical displays as top-of-the-head bump; third "eye"; shoulder-brushing ear lobes; jutting heels; rounded ankles; long, same-size, thin, webbed toes.

Ajanta cave wall paintings and their equivalents in exactly photographed or reproduced art elaborate early evidence of Buddhism's expression as Hinayana lesser and Mahayana greater vehicles.

Ajanta cave wall paintings from the second through first centuries BCE and fourth through sixth centuries BCE follow Buddha (from Sanskrit बुद्ध, "awakened") folklorically and symbolically.

Caves 9 and 10 gather into eye-level, horizontal scroll-like, linear generations the earliest Ajanta cave wall paintings in the oldest prayer halls (chaitya, from Sanskrit चैत्य). They herded Ajanta cave monks and, as financial supporters, Vaishya (from Sanskrit वैश्य, "man who settles the soil") caste merchants, through meditative retreats during rainy seasons. Buddha initiated dry-season outdoor begging for his Sangha (from Sanskrit संघ, "multitude") monastic community and instituted rainy-season meditating in caves or open countrysides or under trees.

Buddha ultimately juggled outdoor begging with indoor-outdoor  meditating in the Isipatana deer park, the Jetavana Monastery and the 60-house Bamboo Grove of Benares, Savatthi and Rajagriha.

The earlier, Hinayana (from Sanskrit हीनयान, "lesser vehicle") Buddhism kindled the begging, instructive, meditative practices by Buddha's Sangha monastic community and among the Ajanta cave monks.

Historical geography locates the Ajanta cave wall paintings central-westward of Buddha's birthplace and death-place in Nepal and seven-year enlightenment search and 45-year ministry in northern India. What motivated manifesting Buddha's most accurate, most ancient portraits at 875.39- to 1,012.4-mile (1,408.8- to 1,629.3-kilometer) distances from his Kapilavastu birthplace, Uruwela enlightenment and Lumbini death-place? The Ajanta cave wall paintings, noted April 28, 1819, by 28th Cavalry Captain John K. Smith for the Madras Presidency, nestle within a near-perpendicular cliff face.

The eastward-westward organized, 1,968.5-foot- (600-meter-) long Ajanta Caves occur beneath a seven-leap waterfall and above a semi-circular, wild glen that occasions horseshoe-bending of the Waghora River.

The Satavahana Empire (first century BCE-second century CE) capital at Paithan, 80 miles (128.75 kilometers) from Ajanta, promoted Buddhist cave temple excavation- and Western trade-friendly policies.

Sangha Councils quoted Buddha that "The Law which I have explained and laid down for you all, let that, after I am gone, be your teacher." The second and the fourth Sangha Councils in 246 BCE and 80 BCE refined orally transmissible, and released first-ever written, disciplines, discourses and teachings of Buddha. The Ajanta cave wall paintings suggest memory aids to the Sangha Council's Tipitaka (from Sanskrit त्रिपिटक, "three baskets") of Abhidhamma teachings, Sutta discourses and Vinaya discipline.

The Ajanta cave wall paintings transmit the earliest paintings, between the earliest oral and written transmissions, of Buddhist teachings and theoretically turn up among first-of-the-year tours.

depiction of Buddha in Cave 10 of Ajanta Caves; Maharashtra, west-central India; March 8, 2017: Photo Dharma from Sadao, Thailand, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

panorama of Ajanta Caves; Maharashtra, west-central India; March 17, 2007: Freakyyash, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ajanta_viewpoint.jpg

depiction of Buddha in Cave 10 of Ajanta Caves; Maharashtra, west-central India; March 8, 2017: Photo Dharma from Sadao, Thailand, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:089_Cave_10,_Buddha_Drawing_on_Column_(33896473480).jpg

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