Earth and Space News: Ajanta Cave 6: 200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings

Summary: Ajanta cave 6 accustoms audiences in the 200th anniversary year of Ajanta cave wall paintings in central-west India to a monastery, pantry and repository.

view from upper level of Ajanta Cave 6, a two-storied vihara cave, with an unfinished lower level; Ajanta Cave, Maharashtra, west-central India; Monday, Oct. 20, 2014, 09:05: Pebble101, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Ajanta cave 6 addresses ancient availabilities of aesthetic monasteries, pantries and repositories in the 200th anniversary year of European access to Ajanta cave wall paintings in north-central Maharashtra state in central-west India.

Itinerant artisans and monks began Ajanta cave 6 and Ajanta cave 11 during the second building phase, between the fifth and sixth, seventh or eighth centuries. They constructed lower-level cisterns between Ajanta caves 16 and 17 even as they created Ajanta cave 18 as cistern cave between Ajanta caves 17 and 19. They designed diminutive storage recesses in other monastery caverns even as they developed Ajanta cave 6 and Ajanta cave 11 as dominant donation and supplies storehouses.

Ajanta cave 6 enters the 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings as a more elaborated monastery, pantry and storehouse than Ajanta cave 11.

Donations, foods, grains and supplies flowed from Ajanta cave 6 and Ajanta cave 11 floor vaults to all permanent and transient occupants of the Ajanta caves.

Itinerant artisans and monks perhaps grounded the 55.28- to 26.48-foot (16.85- to 8.07-meter), two-level Ajanta cave 6 out of volcanic basalt rock between 460 and 480. The 1,600-year-old vihara (from Sanskrit विहार, "walking [hall]") monastery cave's lower level has a pillared hall and a sanctum sanctorum (from same-spelled Latin, "holy of holies"). The upper level of Ajanta cave 6 includes a hall that invited seasonal and year-round inhabitants to dormitory and subsidiary cells and to a sanctum sanctorum.

Twenty-first-century tourists, like fifth-century devotees, journey from the upper east entrance to the sixth cavern in the 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings.

Ajanta cave 6 keeps an eastern volcanic basalt rock wall in common with Ajanta monastery cave 5 and a western wall with Ajanta monastery cave 7.

The painted, sculpted surfaces of Ajanta cave 6 laud Sakyan Crown Prince Siddhartha (624?-544 B.C.?, from Sanskrit गौतम, "successful") for looking for enlightenment 550 successive times. They manifest some of his 549 reincarnations, as bodhisattva (from Sanskrit बोधि, "perfect knowledge" and सत्त्व, "essence"), mentioned in jataka (from Sanskrit जातक, "born under") tales. They note his 550th reincarnation as the filial heir of Sakyan King Suddhodana and Koliyan Queen Mahamaya in ancient north India's or ancient southern Nepal's Kapilavastu.

Painted, sculpted Ajanta cave 6 surfaces offer the 200th anniversary year of Ajanta cave wall paintings Gautama Buddha (from Sanskrit गौतम, "dark-dispelled light" and बुद्ध, "awakened").

Ajanta cave 6 places a sculpted Buddha preaching turning wheels of truth through right understanding, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration at both shrines.

Painted, sculpted Ajanta cave 6 queues up 35-year-old Siddhartha's 28-day quest that quickened self-enlightenment despite chief evil spirit Mara's bad daughters, bad news and bad weather. They relate Delight, Discontent and Thirst rejecting their father and Siddhartha remarking neither cousin Devadatta's royal usurpation nor raining arrows, charcoal, hillocks, javelins, rocks and swords. They show the twin miracle at Sravasti, where enlightened Prince Siddhartha, as 42-year-old Gautama Buddha, summoned fire, light and water and strode about in the air.

Painted, sculpted Ajanta cave 6 touted meal plans, stone-carved, stone-pillowed beds and supplies 1,600 years before the 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings.

Ajanta Cave 6 sculpture of Buddha with (above) apsaras, female spirits of clouds and water, and (below) deer; Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, west-central India; Tuesday, July 29, 2014, 12:33: 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:

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Earth and Space News

Friday, August 9, 2019

Ajanta Cave 6: 200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings

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