Site Name: Ajanta
Date: 462-480 CE
Subject: General view
CENTER FOR ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY
Cave 8 long served as the site’s engine room. It was initially attributed to the Early Buddhist phase but it is quite possibly the earliest excavated Mahayana vihara in India, for its location and plan suggest that it was undertaken at the very start of Ajanta’s new Vakataka phase around 466 CE. The identity of the patron can be ascertained. The shrine was probably an addendum that had to be cut in a corrupted level of rock and perhaps a loose image would have used as a replacement for a rock-carved Buddha. The cave was carefully plastered and painted, but little evidence of the decoration survives.
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