200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings: Ajanta Cave 18

Summary: Ajanta cave 18 acts as a cistern chamber passage to Ajanta caves 17 and 19 in the 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings.

Ajanta Cave 18; Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, west-central India; Wikimedia Commons page created Saturday, Oct. 28, 2017, by Anupamg via UploadWizard as detail of original image for Wikimedia Commons page created Monday, Sep. 5, 2016, via UploadWizard: Anupamg, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Ajanta cave 18 appears, historically and in the present 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings, as a cistern chamber passage to Ajanta caves 17 and 19 in Maharashtra, India.

Ajanta cave 18 belongs among the Ajanta Caves from the second building phase of the 1,968.5-foot- (600-meter-) long, 1,300- to 2,300-year-old, 30-cavern complex in north-central Maharashtra. The 2,000- to 2,300-year-old caves from the first construction phase, between the third and first centuries B.C., can be classified as dormitory cells or prayer halls. The 1,300- to 1,600-year-old caves from the second excavation era, between the fifth and sixth, seventh or eighth centuries, defer to more diverse, more uncompleted designs.

Itinerant artisans and monks excavated Ajanta cave 18 as a four-cavern elaboration with neighboring Ajanta caves 17, 19 and 20 during the Vakataka imperial dynasty (250?-500?).

Walter M. Spink, art historian emeritus since 2000 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, furnishes two 20-year dates for finishing central-west India's Ajanta Caves.

Professor Spink gauges the years 90 to 70 B.C., during the Satavahana imperial dynasty between the third and first centuries B.C., as generating most first-phase excavations. He herds most second-phase excavations into the years 460 to 480, during the emperorships of Harishena (died 477?) and the first of two unnamed filial successors. He identifies Emperor Harishena, his prime minister Vaharadeva and his subking Upendragupta, whose territories included Ajanta, as initial sponsors of the first of 25 second-interval excavations.

Upendragupta juggled sponsorship of Ajanta caves 17 through 20 until his removal by rulers of the Asmaka Kingdom in 471 jeopardized the Ajanta cave 18 excavations.

Academic and non-academic audiences in the 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings know of Ajanta cave 18 as Ajanta cave 19's lesser neighbor.

Ajanta cave 19 looks like a larger, later, lusher Ajanta cave 9, one of Ajanta's two earliest chaitya (from Sanskrit चैत्य, "funeral mound, pedestal, pile") caves. The easterly neighbors of Ajanta cave 18, the 16th and the 17th caves from the eastern, upper entrance to the Ajanta Caves, manifest painted, sculpted magnificence. Ajanta caves 1, 16 and 19, under the respective patronage of Harishena, Vaharadeva and Upendragupta, still nurture world-famous Ajanta cave wall paintings on their 200th anniversary.

Professor Spink offers Asmaka opposition as obstructing excavating, painting and sculpting operations since 462 on Ajanta caves 17 through 20 in 468 and again in 472.

Sometimes geological flaws in the horizontal layers of volcanic basalt rock proved problematic, as in excavations contemporaneous with Ajanta cave 18 at caves 4 and 5.

Cave numbers queue up physical location from the upper entrance to Ajanta Caves, not construction initiation or termination dates or European discovery date April 28, 1819. The Asmaka kings revolted against Emperor Harishena's second filial successor in 500, after 25 years of realizing cave excavations other than that of Ajanta cave 18. Ajanta cave 18 serves as 11.09- by 38.26-foot (3.38- by 11.66-meter) sculpted space that stored monsoonal waters from scarp channels and that supports two octagonal pillars.

Ajanta cave 18 tenders tourists on the 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings a brain-teaser about excavation plans, monsoonal waters and political intrigue.

Ajanta Cave 18, with neighbor, Cave 17 (right); Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, west-central India; Wikimedia Commons page created Thursday, Oct. 26, 2017, by Akshatha Inamdar as detail of original image dated Tuesday, July 29, 2014, 11:54: Akshatha Inamdar, CC BY SA 4.0 International, 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:

Ajanta Cave 18; Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, west-central India; Wikimedia Commons page created Saturday, Oct. 28, 2017, by Anupamg via UploadWizard as detail of original image for Wikimedia Commons page created Monday, Sep. 5, 2016, via UploadWizard (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ajanta_Caves_04.jpg): Anupamg, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ajanta_Cave_18_outside_view.jpg

Ajanta Cave 18, with neighbor, Cave 17 (right); Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, west-central India; Wikimedia Commons page created Thursday, Oct. 26, 2017, by Akshatha Inamdar as detail of original image dated Tuesday, July 29, 2014, 11:54 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ajanta_caves_Maharashtra_292.jpg): Akshatha Inamdar, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ajanta_Cave_18_exterior.jpg

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