200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings: Ajanta Cave 15A/30

Summary: The 200th anniversary year of the Ajanta cave wall paintings in Maharashtra, India, applies not at all to Ajanta cave 15A/30, accessed only in 1956.

view of narrow entrance to Ajanta Cave 15A/30 to right of Cave 16's elephant; Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, west-central India; Sept. 5, 2016: Anupamg, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Ajanta cave wall paintings and Ajanta cave painted, sculpted ceilings and pillars in Maharashtra state, India, are at their most elusive and enigmatic in their 200th anniversary year in Ajanta cave 15A/30.

The 1,300- to 2,300-year-old Ajanta cave wall paintings and Ajanta cave painted, sculpted ceilings and pillars belong to two building times and to three building types. Buddhist artisans and monks constructed dormitories and prayer halls from the third through first centuries B.C. and from the fourth through sixth, seventh or eighth centuries. They developed the third building type, the combined monastery and prayer hall, during the second, 200- to 400-year-long construction phase into near-perpendicular cliffs of volcanic rock.

Ajanta cave 15A/30 expresses in its enumeration physical location between Ajanta caves 15 and 16, not discovery date 138 years after the first known European access.

The 2,000- to 2,300-year-old, 12.01-foot- (3.66-meter-) long, 23.01-foot- (3.66-meter-) long Ajanta cave 15A/30 furnishes a vihara (monastery, from Sanskrit विहार, "walking [hall]") from the first building phase.

Three Ajanta cave 15A/30 cells each get garland- and lotus-sculpted threshold lintels atop cell doorways, stone side pillars and two stone beds with ground-out head rests. Its stupa (from Sanskrit स्तूप, "[memorial] dome") honors the sixth-century stone-honed cremation shrine to enlightened Prince Siddhartha Gautama (624?-544 B.C.?) as Buddha (from Sanskrit बुद्ध, "awakened"). It includes two inscriptions in an unknown script and involves a square interior that is thereby unlike rectangular vihara caves whose inscriptions implement a known script.

Nobody in the 200th anniversary year of Ajanta cave wall paintings journeys halfway around the 1,968.5-foot- (600-meter-) long loop of Ajanta caves for Ajanta cave 15A/30.

The Archaeological Survey of India keeps closed Ajanta cave 15A/30 and open Ajanta cave 16, combination chaitya (from Sanskrit चैत्य, "funeral mound, pedestal, pile") and vihara.

The Sahyadri Hills landslide in 1956 loaded the Ajanta cave 16 footpath with debris whose removal led to the first 20th-century looks at Ajanta cave 15A/30. Ramesh Shankar Gupte and B. D. Mahajan, co-authors of the 1962-released publication Ajanta, Ellora and Aurangabad Caves, mention Ajanta cave 15A/30 as undetectable for 1,500 years. They note veranda views from Ajanta cave 15A/30 of the Waghora (from Sanskrit व्याघ्र, vyāghrá, "tiger") River bend ravine nudging out those from Ajanta cave 16.

Fifth-century artisans organized large carvings that obstructed access to Ajanta cave 15A/30 until 53 years before the 200th anniversary year of the Ajanta cave wall paintings.

Hinayana (from Sanskrit हीनयान, "lesser vehicle") Buddhists produced Ajanta cave 15A/30 as perhaps the most ancient of the Ajanta cave monasteries for artisans, merchants and monks.

Bhalluka and Tapussu, Vaishya (from Sanskrit क्षत्रिय, "[agriculturist and trader] who settles the soil") caste members, queued up as the enlightened 35-year-old Prince Siddhartha's first converts. The Brahmin (from Sanskrit ब्राह्मण, "knower of God") ascetics Assaji, Bhaddiya, Kondanna, Mahanama and Vappa realized responsibilities as first Sangha (from Sanskrit संघ, "multitude") community teachers. Sudra (from Sanskrit शूद्र, "servant") caste artisanship sheltered the Kshatriya (from Sanskrit क्षत्रिय, "protector of gentle people") prince at Bamboo Grove, Banyon Monastery and Jetavana Monastery.

Only traffic-triggered landslides trouble Ajanta cave 15A/30, off-limits transmitter of undeciphered scripts and oldest Ajanta vihara, in the 200th anniversary year of Ajanta cave wall paintings.

view of Ajanta Cave 16's elephant-flanked entrance, with narrow entrance to Ajanta Cave 15A/30 visible to right of right elephant; Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, west-central India; Oct. 28, 2017: Anupamg, CC BY SA 4.0, 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:

view of narrow entrance to Ajanta Cave 15A/30 to right of Cave 16's elephant; Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, west-central India; Sept. 5, 2016: Anupamg, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ajanta_Caves_74.jpg

view of Ajanta Cave 16's elephant-flanked entrance, with narrow entrance to Ajanta Cave 15A/30 visible to right of right elephant; Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, west-central India; Oct. 28, 2017: Anupamg, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ajanta_Cave_16_Outside_view.jpg

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