The following was sent to me at cdmilam@hotmail.com:
HappyDocent13@gmail.com sent you a video: "Isn't
It Amazing!?! The Ajanta Caves in the Aurangabad District of
Maharashtra, India"
Open the link below to view a video. There is an ad that comes first:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9l5FTaQvsk&feature=em-share_video_user
Story:
Over hundreds of years thirty one monuments are hewn from the rock face!
2200 years ago work began in Maharashtra, India.
Then,
some speculate around the year 1000 AD, they fell into disuse. Dense
jungle grew around them, hiding the caves from human eyes.
The
Ajanta caves lay undisturbed for hundreds of years. Then, in April 1819,
during the time of the British, Raj, an officer with the unassuming
name of John Smith, rediscovered a doorway to one of the temples. He had
been hunting tigers - something many would disapprove of today.
One
can only imagine what went through Smith's head when he made his find.
Such a rediscovery did not remain secret for long. Soon, European and
Indian tourists were thronging to the site - after extensive tidying up.
After all, the caves had been home to bat, birds and larger animals for
hundreds of years.
The Ajanta Caves had been returned to the world of the living.
The
nearest human habitation is Ajinṭhā, a tiny village a few miles away
from the caves. The sanctuaries, which are known as chaytia-girhas date
from the second century before Christ.
They were used primarily
as prayer halls and are similar to an extent to the contemporary Roman
designs of arch and column. However, these sanctuaries were carved from
the immense rock face of the caves, with chisels and, indeed, bare
hands.
The first caves were hewn from the bare rock at the time
of the Sātavāhana Empire which started around 230BC. The Sātavāhanas
brought peace to India after several foreign invasions and the decline
of the previous, Mauryan Empire.
Although there is widespread
debate about the time at which the second period of building took place,
most now agree that it was probably during the reign of Harishena, from
460AD and over a period of around twenty years. This architectural
flowering saw the creation of twenty temples which were used as
monasteries.
There are paintings everywhere -- literally. Every
surface apart from the floor is festooned with narrative paintings. Time
has taken a serious toll on these marvelous works with many parts
simply just fragments of what they were when first created. The stories
are almost wholly devoted to Jātakas -- tales of Buddha's previous
lives. These 547 poems were painstakingly and lovingly painted on to the
walls by devotees.
They were created using an ancient method.
The surface was chiselled so it was rough and could hold plaster which
was then spread across the surface. Then the master painter would, while
the plaster was still wet, commence his work. The colors soaked in to
the plaster and so became a part of the surface. Although this meant
that it would not peel off as easily, perhaps not even the painters
foresaw the temples persevering for over two thousand years.
No
one knows for sure when and why the caves were abandoned -- whether it
was a gradual desertion of some event of political and social magnitude
took place which precipitated the neglect and final vacation of the
site.
Yet for hundreds of years the place remained forsaken, to be rediscovered that fateful day in 1819 by John Smith.
In all that time, no one knew anything about its exist.
Isn't that amazing?
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