Ajanta Cave 4: 200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings

Summary: Ampleness, flaws and sculptures are attractions of Ajanta cave 4 in the 200th anniversary year of Ajanta cave wall paintings in central-west India.

sculpture in veranda of Ajanta Cave 4; Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, central-west India; photograph by Major Robert Gill (Sept. 26, 1804-April 10, 1875) in J. Fergusson and R. Gill, The Rock-Cut Temples of India (1864), page 41: Public Domain, via WikiSource

Ajanta cave 4 attracts attention in the 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings in Maharashtra state, central-west India, as an ample monastery cave with feminine aspects and geological flaws.

Ajanta cave 4, as fourth excavation from the upper east end of the Ajanta Caves, boasts the biggest vihara (from Sanskrit विहार, "walking [hall]") monastery cavern. The near-square, 115.09-foot- (35.08-meter-) long, 90.72-foot- (27.65-meter-) wide cavern constructed from the top downward, outward and sideward conserves a 10,441-square foot (970-square-meter), 1,300- to 1,600-year-old configuration. Itinerant artisans and monks developed Ajanta cave 4 as one of the designated dormitory caverns for seasonal artisans and merchants and for seasonal and year-round monks.

Ajanta cave 4 exhibits in the 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings compromised ceilings, painted fragments, some sculptures and unfinished cells.

One hall, one sanctum sanctorum (from Latin sanctum sanctōrum and Hebrew קֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים, "holy of holies"), one veranda and two cells fit into Ajanta cave 4.

On-site guides, online information and published research sometimes give the ground plan of Ajanta cave 4 as one courtyard, one hall, one veranda and two cells. The pen-and-ink and wash drawing by Captain Robert Gill (Sept. 26, 1804-April 10, 1879) around 1850 has the seven-room arrangement that Ajanta cave 4 still harbors. Some interpret an enclosed, pillarless courtyard as a pillarless veranda, a pillared veranda as a pillared hall and a pillarless hall as a pillarless sanctum sanctorum.

The 200th anniversary of Ajanta cave wall paintings juggles the Ajanta cave 4 antechamber off a hall or sanctum and cells off a hall or veranda.

Ajanta cave 4 keeps no stupa (from Sanskrit स्तूप, "[memorial] dome") in its astylar (from Greek ἁ-, "without" and στῦλος, "pillar") hall or pillarless sanctum sanctorum.

The hypostylar (from Greek υπο-, "under" and στῦλος, "pillar") hall or pillared veranda locates eight pillars with bracket capitals atop octagonal shafts lodged on moulded bases. An east-side cistern mirrors a west-side cistern in Ajanta cave 4, whose geological flaws and lava flows mar its high ceiling and motivated sixth-century ceiling collapses. Walter M. Spink, University of Michigan Emeritus Professor of Art History in Ann Arbor since 2002, notes wealthy devotee Mathura as sponsoring initial excavations in 463.

The 200th anniversary year of Ajanta cave wall paintings still observes the sponsored door-frame sculpture Buddha (from Sanskrit बुद्ध, "awakened") as reliever of eight great perils.

Ajanta cave 4 preserves the sculpted Buddha preaching the turning wheel of truth about non-extravagant, non-self-mortifying right understanding, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration.

The rear wall queues up the sculpted Buddha as compassionate bodhisattva (from Sanskrit बोधिसत्त्व, "enlightened existence") Avalokiteshvara (from Sanskrit अवलोकितेश्वर, "lord [who] gazes downward [with compassion]"). The rough realization of Ajanta cave 4 results from the fifth-century political rivalry between the Asmaka kingdom and the Vākātaka empire over the latter's Ajanta subkingdom. Stubborn struggles with geological flaws and lava flows suggest second-phase stone-cutting less skillful in Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures than first-phrase, 2,000- to 2,300-year-old artisanry.

The 200th anniversary year of European access teams Ajanta cave 4 with Ajanta caves 2, 5, 17 and 24 as respectively feminine-figured, flawed, multi-cisterned and spacious.

hall door of unfinished Ajanta Cave 4; illustrated by Scottish archaeologist James Burgess (Aug. 14, 1832-Oct. 3, 1916) in J. Fergusson and J. Burgess, The Cave Temples of India (1880), Plate XLVII: via Internet Archive

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

sculpture in verandah of Ajanta Cave 4; Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, central-west India; photograph by Major Robert Gill (Sept. 26, 1804-April 10, 1875) in J. Fergusson and R. Gill, The Rock-Cut Temples of India (1864), page 41: Public Domain, via WikiSource @ https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Rock-cut_Temples_of_India/The_Caves_of_Ajunta/Sculpture_in_Verandah_of_Cave_No._4—Ajunta;
Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sculpture_in_Verandah_of_Cave_No._4—Ajunta.jpg;
Not in copyright, via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/rockcuttemplesof00ferg/page/n190/mode/1up

hall door of unfinished Ajanta Cave 4; illustrated by Scottish archaeologist James Burgess (Aug. 14, 1832-Oct. 3, 1916), photo lith by English chromolithography inventor William Griggs (Oct. 4, 1832-Dec. 7, 1911); J. Fergusson and J. Burgess, The Cave Temples of India (1880), Plate XLVII: via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/cavetemplesofind00ferguoft/page/n656

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