Ajanta Cave 23: 200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings

Summary: The 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures in India allies Ajanta cave 23 with Hindu mythological animals.

entrance to unfinished Ajanta Cave 23, with naga ("serpent") doorkeepers: Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, central-west India; Friday, March 10, 2017, 05:38: Photo Dharma (Anandajoti Bhikkhu [Anandajoti]) from Sadao, Thailand, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

Ajanta cave 23, like Ajanta cave 21, affords the 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures in central-west India ancient accomplishments in functional, ornamental columns, doors and pilasters.

Itinerant artisans and monks built six vihara (from Sanskrit विहार, "walking [hall]") monastery caves between chaitya (memorial monument, from Sanskrit चैत्य) prayer halls 19 and 26. They constructed Ajanta cave 23 and monasteries 20 through 22, 24 and 25 during second-phase excavations between the fifth and sixth, seventh or eighth centuries C.E. Walter M. Spink, Emeritus Professor of Art History at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor since 2001, designates second-phase dates between 460 and 480 C.E.

The Spink estimates for first-phase events between 90 and 70 B.C.E. and for second-phase excavations explain equivalent architecture and art in Ajanta caves 21 and 23.

Ajanta cave 21 and Ajanta cave 23 function as respectively finished and unfinished monastery caverns that feature similar floor plans and functional furnishings with ornamental flourishes.

Ajanta cave 23 gets one antechamber, one astylar (from Greek ἀ-, "without" and στῦλος, "column") hall and one shrine, pillared porches and verandas, and side cells. The 92.91- by 73.88-foot (28.32- by 22.52-meter) Ajanta cave 23, like the 93.70- by 91.96-foot (28.6- by 28.03-meter) Ajanta cave 21, harbors sculpted Hindu mythological animals. Perhaps Buddhist prime minister Varahadeva influenced Hindu Vakataka dynasty emperor Harishena's inclusion of Ajanta (from Sanskrit अजित, "invincible") Caves among government-impelled devotional, instructional and meditational initiatives.

Ajanta cave 21 and Ajanta cave 23 juggle naga (from Sanskrit नाग, "serpent") doorkeepers in the 200th anniversary year of Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures.

Hindu mythology knows of naga minor gods as keen keepers of the best gems of the heavenly, middle and lower worlds and of the Patala netherworld.

Naga minor gods, whose bejeweled hoods to five to seven heads light up the dark Patala, look sometimes like serpent-tailed men and sometimes like nymph-bodied females. More ancient mention of Siddhartha Gautama's (from Sanskrit सिद्धार्थ, "successful" and गोतम, "light [dispels] darkness") enlightening seven-day meditation makes the bodhi tree (Ficus religiosa) his sunshade. Hindu mythology under Vakataka emperorship over the Ajanta subkingdom names a multi-headed, multi-hooded naga sunshade for Siddhartha Gautama's metamorphosis into Gautama Buddha (from Sanskrit बुद्ध, "awakened").

Ajanta cave 23 offers the 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures the three worlds' best naga dvarapala (from Sanskrit द्वारपाला, "gatekeeper").

Itinerant artisans and monks in Maharashtra state 1,300 to 1,600 years ago placed Buddhist- and Hindu-pertinent pillar-top ornamentations in Ajanta cave 21 and Ajanta cave 23.

A figure quashing an open-jawed monster fish qualifies as a quintessential Hindu mythological animal among pillar-top ornamentation of the Ajanta cave 23 assembly hall's front pilaster. Makara (from Sanskrit मकर, "water-monster"), vehicle of sea god Varuna (from Sanskrit वरुण, "water"), resists the right-wall pilaster's (from Latin pila, "pillar" and -aster, "partial") dwarf. Deer-, elephant-, stag-headed, fish-, peacock-, seal-, snake-tailed Makara show up, sometimes with mouthfuls of dwarfs, among painted, sculpted Hindu mythological animals for traditional Hindu architectural entrances.

Ajanta cave 23, like Ajanta cave 21, tenders the 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures Buddhist themes and Hindu mythological animals.

Ajanta Cave 23 side chapel; Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, central-west India; Friday, March 10, 2017, 05:39: Photo Dharma (Anandajoti Bhikkhu [Anandajoti]) from Sadao, Thailand, CC BY 2.0 Generic, 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:

entrance to unfinished Ajanta Cave 23, an unfinished vihara (monastery) with naga ("serpent") doorkeepers: Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, central-west India; Friday, March 10, 2017, 05:38: Photo Dharma (Anandajoti Bhikkhu [Anandajoti]) from Sadao, Thailand, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:061_Cave_23,_Entrance_(34219138562).jpg; Anandajoti Bhikkhu (Anandajoti), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/anandajoti/34219138562/

Ajanta Cave 23 side chapel; Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, central-west India; Friday, March 10, 2017, 05:39: Photo Dharma (Anandajoti Bhikkhu [Anandajoti]) from Sadao, Thailand, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:072_Cave_23,_Side_Chapel_(34246585661).jpg; Anandajoti Bhikkhu (Anandajoti), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/anandajoti/34246585661/

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