chaityas of ajanta caves
Posted by rocksea on 23 Mar 2011
Chaityas are buddhist prayer halls that house a stupa. The word chaitya has its roots in sanskrit chita ~ meaning a pyre or a pile of ashes. The ancient rock-cut buddhist caves of Ajanta were built during the 2nd century BC ~ 6th century AD. All these caves and sculptures are carved out of the rocky hills of Ajanta. They start carving from top of the hill and reach the bottom, and hence do not make use of scaffolds for support.
In the next four chaitya images, you can see how buddhism evolved during the period, from the early hinayana style to the mahayana style of buddhism. Out of the 30 caves of ajanta, 9, 10, 19, 26 and 29 are chaitya grihas and the remaining caves are viharas, carved out of a horse-shoe shaped rock-cliff valley.
Ajanta Cave 10. Thought to be the oldest chaitya hall at Ajanta (2nd century BC). During the early hinayana period, stupa is the centrepiece and no idols are revered.
Ajanta Cave 9.
During the late mahayana period, chaitya has the buddha as the centrepiece, and idol worship is more prevelant. This is one of the most significant differences between these two periods, were relic worship was replaced by iconography.
Ajanta Cave 19. In the chaitya below, the buddha is seen with the stupa, probably refering to a transition from the hinayana to the mahayana style of buddhism.
Ajanta Cave 26. Chaitya Hall with Buddha seated with his feet down.
Location of some of the ancient rock-cut buddhist caves in Maharashtra:
For comparison, the chaityas from Bedsa and Karla are given below.
Chaitya at Bedsa. Simple chaitya hall with few decorations representing the initial style of architecture pertaining to Hinayana period.
Chaitya at Karle. Gigantic hall with high vaulted roof, with a lot of sculpture work on the pillars and the entrance, though the stupa is plain as in hinayana style.
stupa: a dome-shaped structure, containing buddhist relics, used as a place of worship.
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26 Comments »
I would like to appreciate your efforts for documenting and sharing such wonderful and historical remains.
shukriya, birdy.
Though I have a short journey from home I never visited this place. Your pictures are for real good.
Thanks for sharing them.
I remember you mentioning your place long back. Is it near nagpur or nasik?
So majestic!
Glad to know it’s become a World Heritage Site.
Lovely photos.
Thanks
Ajanta have been inscribed as a World Heritage site since 1983.
Breathtaking pictures! The architectural marvels of those days are so amazing!
Thanks for sharing.
Yes it is amazing that they carried out such dedicated and aesthetic architecture and sculpture work more than 2000 years before!
Something else to visit in the future, hope not so far!
I heard about these caves but I have not visited yet.
india has lots of wonders like these
will be putting up more pics and info.
much like we enjoyed italy when we were there!
Nice pics of ajanta caves, check out its history http://indiabackpacker.blogspot.com/2008/11/ajanta-abandonedbut-its-legacy.html
thanx..but wanted 2 kno the uses of chaityas and stupas for my history project!! please help!!!
! ! nice pics anyway!
Thank you for your excellent presentation on this most interesting subject. If there were surviving undiscovered Indian Buddhist architectual structures from early CE would
not stupas made from rock be toward the top of the list.
But what if such a stupa was located in a place that ancient
Buddhists were not known to have traveled and therefore
no was there knows what they’re looking at and no one who
recognizes ancient Buddhist art has seen it. What then?
We know this is possible because one of the most ancient
stupas in the world was discovered within the last two hundred years at Sopara near Mumbai.
On the basis of your research I am quite certain that you could identify such a stupa as soon as you saw a picture.
I believe I have located such a site. Are you willing to take
a look at it? Its huge and its done in the hinayans style
according to all the strict design standards required although somewhat deteriorated. Let me know if you’re interested.
Hendon
Dear Hendon,
Thank you for enlightening me with your information and findings. Please send me the images if you have any. What is the location?
Regards,
Roxy
Thank you for your reply. For the very best view of this site please google “along highway 191 in southern utah church rock”. Please take a look at this and let me know your
thoughts. If you look to the upper right of the arched entrance there appears to be a possible large carved figure
on the rock. In my opinion if this was in India the identification of this rock formation would be immediate.
[...] Chaityas of Ajanta Caves 2) Great Stupa, Sanchi 3) Stupa (Wikipedia) 4) What are Stupas ? [...]
Lest you think that Church/Stupa Rock is unique in it’s
appearance as being ancient India Buddhist in origin in
Utah USA I submit the following for your review. Mexican
Hat Rock http://www.fotosearch.com/UNZ385/u12877031/
is also in Southern Utah. In my opinion anyone who is
familiar with ancient India Buddhism and/or ancient India
stupa construction would recognize a Buddhist parasol when
they saw it affixed to the top of a stupa in this way. This
rock formation is not unique. All over this part of the American southwest there are numerous huge rocks balanced
on the top of much smaller rocks in similar situations. Is this
natural erosion as is being taught or is this the work of devotees of ancient religions from India creating the parasol
(one of the eight sacred symbols of Buddhism) for future generations to see. For a view of a Stone Henge type rock
formation on the top of another South Utah hill.
http://miriamswell.wordpress.com/2011/03/21/island-in-the-sky-moab-to-canyonlans/
Dear Hendon,
Went through all the images you have linked to. The similarities are striking. However, I am not sure if they are buddhist stupas as the wonders of geology are as marvelous and numerous that I won’t discard the possibility of them being carved out by the forces of nature. Geology of the rock hills also “appear” different for me to assume that they are buddhist stupas.
Roxy
Roxy, Thank you so much for taking the time to review this
material. I was hoping for a positive endorsement but that wasn’t realistic given the implications of this discovery if
proven to be true. Nothing short of an extensive examination
on the ground of the site itself will prove this out one way or the other. I am encouraged by so many recent discoveries
of ancient Buddhist treasures in India including the one at
Deorkothar ax recently as 1982. My concern is that in North
America some of the treasuries may have already been looted. I say this on the basis that on two separate occasions
I have gone into antique stores in the western United States and seen very old Tibetan style Buddhist artifacts available for sale at what I believe are incredibly inexpensive prices. An
example would be two originally white right spiraling conch shells fully decorated with metal and semi precious stones
available for under $150 US each. Obviously whoever brought
them in did not know what they had. And how did they get
to North America in the first place? That’s the question.
I believe the answer to this puzzle may be solved in the study
of the use of the parasol (chhatra) in stupa construction and
Buddhist art through the centuries. It seems to me that the
Parasol was much more widely used in ancient times. In
more recent times the parasol has not been as promoted as
it was in the early days of Buddhism. The reason I am pointing this out is because of rock features such as Mexican
Hat Rock, Utah and the hundreds of balancing rock formations
throughout the American west. These balancing rocks may be
much more than balancing rocks and may be in some cases
Parasols crafted by ancient Buddhists. Google: “Silver and
Rock Crystal Stupa Complex in Mandala Format”
Roxy, What is the approximate height and width of the entrance into the Buddhist rock caves? Are they all
the same or approximately the same size entrance? I
don’t need the exact measurements unless they are all
the exact same size. If all you have is a guessamation
please let me know what it is. Thanks
Hendon
Hendon, the cave entrances usually have varied sizes. Some are open, without specific doorways. Some of them have doorways to enter the chaityas or the viharas, like 2 meters in height and 1 meter in width? If you take the whole cluster of caves, they are generally kept open and do not have a common entrance as such.
If I remember right, most of the chaityas in this article have such standard doorways though the chaitya at bhaja (image not here yet) doesn’t have a doorway, but an open facade.
Roxy, Thank you for getting back to me with the answer to my question. I am impressed with the uniformity that the
ancients used in carving out these structures of worship. A
topic I am working on now is the sophisticated temple water tank systems that accompanied each of the stupas and I assume the rock craved cave chaityas as well. The average
modern man has No Idea how advanced water retrieval, water storage and irrigation systems were in India and China
before and after the reign of King Ashoka. This information is available on the internet. For a stunning example of this
early massive hydrology technology google: “Dujiangyan
Irrigation System” built in the 3rd century by Li Bing and his
son and still well functioning today in China.
Roxy, I’ve become immune to people accusing me of “chasing clouds”. It comes with the territory.
Many claim they just can’t see what I’m seeing in
North America. However, I think I may have located
my second image of King Ashoka. The first one can
be accessed by googling “The Akkadian King”. When
I first located that geoglyph at Longs Peak Colorado
I thought it was Sargon or his grandson because of the
headband and the braided beard. However, there is no
reason to believe that Sargon or the Akkadians had any
influences in the Americas. However, I’ve recently found
out that King Ashoka also had a braided beard and there
is evidence to support his influence here given the report
of Hwui Shan’s Buddhist expedition in 458 AD. Here is
the link to the new image located in Arches Natl Park Utah.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/15197746@N03/3424222571/
How can this be a natural rock formation?
Its one thing to make claims about ancient Indian Buddhist and Hindu monks travelling far about the ancient world and
possibly to the Americas but where is the evidence?
How about two for starters?: 1) Google: “church stupa rock
utah” or http://www.paroramio.com/photo/26072187
A) Starting from the top the harmika sits proudly on the crest of this formation because the yasti and the chattras (parasols) have long ago deteriorated and blown away.
B) The white plaster that at one time covered this entire monument only remains today at the top of the initial hemisphere.
C) The saffron bottom border thats so important to many Buddhist temples such as Phra That Na Dun, Thailand is almost as bold as it always was going back 1500 +/- years.
D) The one carved arched entrance is significant because during this period (Gupta) stupas only had one entrance eventhough previously they had three entrances.
2) How about geoglyphs in N. America with both a Hindu as
well as a Buddhist emblem.
http://flickeflu.com/image/5220272640
I believe the geoglyph on the left is The Three Jewels of Buddhism and the geoglyph on the right is the Hindu Nataraja (Shiva) dancing in a circle of flame. How did they
get to the Americas? Thats a great question. Its one thing
to have fringe historians theorize on this but how do you discount the findings of Hindus and friends of Hindus over
hundreds of years? http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Pacific.htm
And lastly how do you account for the Native American use
of the ancient Hindu Seven Step Wedding Ceremony walked
clockwise around the sacred flame as their own historical tradition.
For the image of Church Stupa Rock Utah: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/26072187