Earth and Space News: 200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings: Ajanta Cave 7

Summary: Ajanta cave 7 affords the 200th anniversary year of Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures in north-central India a one-stop monastery and shrine.

Ajanta cave 7 attracts attention in the 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures in north-central India as a less ancient and more accessible of the Ajanta Caves.

Ajanta cave 7 belongs to the second-phase building of the 1,968.5-foot- (600-meter-) long Ajanta Caves, between the fifth and the sixth, seventh or eighth centuries C.E. It counts as seventh of eight vihara (from Sanskrit विहार, "walking [hall]") monastery caves between the east upper complex entrance and the two oldest Ajanta caverns. Basalt volcanic rock walls divide it from 1,300- to 1,600-year-old Ajanta cave 6 on the east and 2,000- to 2,300-year-old Ajanta cave 8 on the west.

Perhaps Ajanta cave 7 enlightened Buddhist laity and monastics 1,500 years before the 200th anniversary year of Ajanta cave wall paintings European-accessed since April 28, 1819.

Ajanta caves 8, 12, 13 and 15A/30, as the earliest vihara monastery caverns, furnished resident and seasonal laity and monastics with assembly halls and dormitory cells.

Perhaps resident and seasonal laity and monastics from first-phase vihara caverns gathered in first-phase, 2,000- to 2,300-year-old chaitya (from Sanskrit चैत्य, "funereal mound, pedestal, pile") caves. Perhaps they headed there with Sangha (from Sanskrit संघ, "multitude") laity and monastics lodged in nearby Ajanta cave 7 and Ajanta caves 11, 14 and 15. Ajanta cave 7, unlike Ajanta first-phase vihara caves of the third through first centuries B.C.E., imitates the chaitya prayer hall's stupa (from Sanskrit स्तूप, "[memorial, relic-holding] dome").

Perhaps Ajanta cave 7 laity and monastics journeyed as far as their sanctum sanctorum (from Latin sanctum sanctōrum, from Hebrew קֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים, "holy of holies") shrine.

All chaitya and less ancient vihara caves keep their respective stupa and sanctum sanctorum shrines in the 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings.

Ajanta cave 7 lodges within its 51.02-foot- (15.55-meter-) long, 102.53-foot- (31.25-meter-) wide living space one oblong, open hall; one sanctum sanctorum; two porticos; and eight cells. It maintains heavy octagonal support pillars within its two small porticos (from Latin porticus, "[colonnaded] porch"); sculpture within its shrine; and stone-carved beds within its dormitories. It nets as shrine sculpture Sakyan Crown Prince Siddhartha Gautama (624?-544 B.C.E.?, from Sanskrit सिद्धार्थ, "successful" and गोतम, "light [dispels] darkness") in his first post-trance discourse.

Ajanta cave 7 offers the 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures Gautama Buddha (from Sanskrit बुद्ध, "awakened"), enlightened 35-year-old about life's suffering "vale of tears."

Ajanta cave 7 precedes Gautama Buddha preaching the Noble Eightfold Path's proper understanding, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration with Siddhartha Gautama's seven-day trance.

Ajanta cave 7 qualifies the seven-headed cobra Nagamuchalinda (from Sanskrit नाग, "serpent" and मुचलिन्द, mango-pine [Barringtonia acutangula) as the sunshade for enlightenment-questing, entranced 35-year-old Siddhartha Gautama. It reveals after his Neranjara River area trance and his Isipatana deer park sermon in the Magadha kingdom 42-year-old Gautama Buddha's miracles at Sāvatthī, in the Kosala kingdom. It shows Gautama Buddha simultaneously supplying air, fire and water from his lower and upper body in the Rapti (from Sanskrit ऐरावत, "ocean-produced") western riverbank area.

Ajanta cave 7 tenders tourists in the 200th anniversary year of Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures one-stop monastery, shrine and story hour under one roof.

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

"vihara cave no. 7," drawn in stone by English artist and watercolorist Thomas Colman Dibdin (Oct. 22, 1810-Dec. 26, 1893) from sketch by Scottish architectural historian James Ferguson (Jan. 22, 1808-Jan. 9, 1886); James Ferguson, Illustrations of the Rock-Cut Temples of India (1845), Plate VIII: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:*Plate_8*_==_Ajunta--Vihara_Cave,_No._7.jpg;
via franpritchett.com (Professor Emerita Frances W. Pritchett, Columbia University) @ https://franpritchett.com/00routesdata/bce_099_000/ajanta/fergusson/plate08.jpg;
CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 Unported, via Royal Academy of Arts @ https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/book/illustrations-of-the-rock-cut-temples-of-india-selected-from-the-best;
CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 Unported, via Royal Academy of Arts @ https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/ajunta-vihara-cave-no-7(image URL)

ca. 1850 pen-and-ink and wash drawing of ground plan for Ajanta Cave 7, drawn by Major Robert Gill (Sep. 26, 1804-April 10, 1879); Wikimedia Commons page created Sunday, Oct. 29, 2017, by Ms Sarah Welch via UploadWizard: Ms Sarah Welch, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plan_of_Ajanta_Cave_7_and_Cave_9,_1850_sketch.jpg

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Earth and Space News

Friday, September 6, 2019

200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings: Ajanta Cave 7

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