Ajanta Cave 5: 200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings

Summary: Geological flaws and sculpted doors are attributes of Ajanta cave 5 in the 200th anniversary year of Ajanta cave wall paintings in central-west India.

entrance of Ajanta Cave 5, an unfinished cave; Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, central-west India; Wednesday, March 8, 2017, 01:41: Photo Dharma from Sadao, Thailand (Anandajoti Bhikkhu), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

Ajanta cave 5 appeals to academic and non-academic audiences in the 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings in north-central Maharashtra, central-west India, as an abandoned cavern with geological flaws.

Geologic flaws in horizontal layers of the volcanic basalt rock of the Waghora (from Sanskrit व्याघ्र, "tiger") River bend glen cliffs barred building Ajanta cave 5. They challenged second-phase construction 1,300 to 1,600 years ago of Ajanta cave 5 and eastern neighbor, Ajanta cave 4, without compromising western neighbor, Ajanta cave 6. They deceptively and superficially date Ajanta cave 5, whose numerical designation defers to fifth dwelling from the upper east end and does not denote fifth-earliest excavation.

Ajanta cave 5 enters the 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures as a vihara (from Sanskrit विहार, "walking [hall]") monastery cavern.

Finished vihara monastery caves from the first-phase third through first centuries B.C. and the second-phase fifth through sixth, seventh or eighth centuries furnished stone-pillowed, stone-carved beds.

The 30-cavern, 1,968.5-foot- (600-meter-) long, 1,300- to 2,300-year-old Ajanta Caves groups vihara monastery caves amid chaitya (from Sanskrit चैत्य, "funeral mound, pedestal, pile") prayer hall caverns. Live-in monks and seasonal artisans, merchants and monks honed devotional, instructive walking meditations along the chaitya caves' pradakshina (from Sanskrit प्रदक्षिण, "to the right turning") aisles. Their itineraries included first-phase Ajanta chaitya caves 9 and 10 and second-phase chaitya caves 19 and 26 and never involved incomplete, second-phase Ajanta chaitya cave 29.

The flawed geology of the Sahyadri (from Sanskrit सह्याद्रि, "benevolent") Hills still jeopardizes Ajanta cave 5 in the 200th anniversary year of Ajanta cave wall paintings.

The 33.86-foot- (10.32-meter-) long and 55.12-foot- (16.8-meter-) wide Ajanta cave 5 keeps low architectural, painted, sculpted profiles between larger, painted, sculpted Ajanta caves 4 and 6.

Walter M. Spink, University of Michigan Emeritus Professor of Art History in Ann Arbor since 2001, links Ajanta cave 5 and its neighbor chronologically and geologically. Political rivalry between Asmaka kings and Vākātaka emperors over Ajanta subkings perhaps meant Asmaka itinerant artisanry in 475 inconsistent with Vākātaka itinerant artisanry 10 years earlier. Construction styles and stone-cut inscriptions necessitate Professor Spink's noting woodworking influences on first-phase artisanship between 90 and 70 B.C. and stone-cutting inexperience between 460 and 480.

Ajanta cave 5 offers the 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures an opulently carved door frame not overshadowed by its neighbors.

Ajanta cave 4 and Ajanta cave 5 respectively possess sculpted gandharva (from Sanskrit गन्धर्व, "bard") celestial nymphs and sculpted apsara (from Sanskrit अप्सरस्, "flowing water") nymphs.

Hindu mythological nymphs quest the sensual pleasures that Gautama Buddha (from Sanskrit गोतम, "darkness-dispelled light" and बुद्ध, "awakened) quotes as quickening life's suffering "vale of tears." Sculpted apsara nymphs from Rama's dancing, singing retinue ride the antelope-legged, deer-headed Hindu mythological monster fish Makara (from Sanskrit मकर, "sea monster") in Ajanta cave 5. Makara and Rama (from Sanskrit राम, "dark, pleasing") respectively serve as vehicle for ocean overlord Varuna (from Sanskrit वरुण, "ocean, water") and as god of love.

The 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings teams Ajanta cave 5 with Ajanta cave 4 for carved doorways, geological flaws and sculpted nymphs.

interior of Ajanta Cave 5, an unfinished cave; Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, central-west India; Wednesday, March 8, 2017, 01:41: Photo Dharma from Sadao, Thailand (Anandajoti Bhikkhu), 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 of Ajanta Cave 5, an unfinished cave; Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, central-west India; Wednesday, March 8, 2017, 01:41: Photo Dharma from Sadao, Thailand (Anandajoti Bhikkhu), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:068_Cave_5,_Entrance_(34123199412).jpg;
Anandajoti Bhikkhu (anandajoti), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/anandajoti/34123199412/

interior of Ajanta Cave 5, an unfinished cave; Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, central-west India; Wednesday, March 8, 2017, 01:41: Photo Dharma from Sadao, Thailand (Anandajoti Bhikkhu), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:069_Cave_5,_Unfinished_Excavation_(34123189482).jpg;
Anandajoti Bhikkhu (anandajoti), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/anandajoti/34123189482/

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