Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings Ailing at World Heritage Centre Site

Summary: Environment and people affect the Ajanta cave wall paintings, World Heritage Centre site artistically archiving Buddha's appearance and Buddhism's appeal.

map of Ajanta Caves, located on horseshoe bend of Waghora River; Maharashtra, west-central India: nevil zaveri (thank U for 15M views:), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

Environmental events, fragile finances and tourist traffic affect Ajanta cave wall paintings at a World Heritage Centre site that acts as an ancient, artistic, authentic account of Buddha's appearance and Buddhism's appeal.

The Buddhist Ajanta Caves and the Brahmanical Buddhist and Jainist Ellora caves 60 miles (96.56 kilometers) southward became a World Heritage Centre site Dec. 9, 1983. The Ajanta cave wall paintings conserve two construction and completion periods, from the second through first centuries B.C. and from the fourth through sixth centuries A.D. The World Heritage Centre division on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) website details deteriorating Ajanta cave wall paintings between 1983 and 2003.

Sixteen publications enumerate erosional effects of animals, approach roads, artificial illumination, crumbling rocks, painting barricades, pedestrian footbridges, public facilities, rainfall leakages, stepped pathways, vandalism and viewpoints.

An ancient monastic community that finally figured 200 artisans, merchants and monks founded the Ajanta Caves after following the Waghora (from Sanskrit व्याघ्र, vyāghrá, "tiger") River.

The Sangha (from Sanskrit संघ, "multitude") monastics got up the near-perpendicular face of the riverside cliff above the horseshoe-bending Waghora by ground-out steps and grouped ladders. Modern approach, pedestrian and stepped pathways herded 450,000 tourists into and out of the 196.85-foot- (600-meter-) long, 1,500- to 2,100-year-old caves 1 through 30 in 2018. Installation of a drinking water center, guide and porter facilities, a post office and public amenities increases geologic instability from loose rocks and 30 landslide-susceptible spots.

The World Heritage Centre site reviews judge the artistic integrity and sustainability of the Ajanta cave wall paintings in jeopardy without replicated caves and restricted access.

Use between the second century B.C. and sixth century A.D., disuse since the seventh century and reuse since the late 20th century kindle irreversible, large-scale deterioration.

The climber-, shrub- and tree-rich Sahyadri hill forests around the Ajanta Caves lodge almondette, Anjan, asthma-plant, axlewood, babul and khair acacia, bel quince and ber buckthorn. The Ajanta teak-dominated woods maintain Bidi leaf, golden rain, Indian frankincense, Indian gooseberry, Indian kino, Indian sandalwood, lendi fan palm, mallow-leaved crossberry and marking nut trees. They net axis deer, black-naped hares, blue peafowl, boar, chinkara gazelles, false-vampire and Heath's bats, golden jackals, gray langurs, grey junglefowl, three-striped palm squirrels and tigers.

The crushable volcanic trap rock occupied by the Ajanta cave wall paintings occasions loosened ceilings, façades and pillars that oblige Sahyadri hill forest bats and invertebrates.

Bat excrement presents offensive odors, proliferates with invertebrate corpses on Ajanta cave wall paintings and prompts destabilizing construction of barricades, doors and lights and extermination schedules.

Grid entryways and grid windows and sun-screen curtains and interior illumination, polyvinyl acetate treatments and wall barricades respectively qualify as exterior and interior environmental stress controls. The World Heritage Periodic Reporting Exercise from 2003 reveals 100-visitor averages, beyond 40-visitor maximums, per individual cave tour counter-productively reaping invertebrate-attractive fungal growth and bat-attractive invertebrates. A study for the Archaeological Survey of India from 2011 suggests the construction-, garden-, rainfall-, traffic-, tree root-worn surrounding Sahyadri hills' susceptibility to Ajanta Caves-destructive landslides.

Tempests, traffic and turmoil threaten Ajanta cave wall paintings ailing at a World Heritage Centre site that perhaps tolerates less tenuously off-site replicas and on-site restrictions.

aerial view of part of the Sat Kund (Seven Pools) Waterfalls, source of the Ajanta Caves' horseshoe-bending Waghora River; Sept. 5, 2012: Shaikh Munir, CC BY SA 3.0, 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:

map of Ajanta Caves, located on horseshoe bend of Waghora River; Maharashtra, west-central India: nevil zaveri (thank U for 15M views:), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/nevilzaveri/8392708642/

aerial view of part of the Sat Kund (Seven Pools) Waterfalls, source of the Ajanta Caves' horseshoe-bending Waghora River; Sept. 5, 2012: Shaikh Munir, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ajanta_caves_8.JPG

For further information:

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