Cave 7 started prior to 466 CE and was sponsored by an unidentified patron. It was intended to be one of the grandest excavations at the site, when it was begun at the start of the Vakataka renaissance. However, because of many problems, it ended up as little more than a large porch opening onto a modest shrine with the residence cells being located expediently, where space allowed. The facade carvings on this cave may possibly be the earliest figural sculptures at the site. Of special interest is the motif of stupa under an umbrella and protected by a naga in the center of the porch. The stupa instead of a Buddha image used as a central figure is significant as it reminds us these shrines were probably being conceived for stupas and not Buddhas.

Cave 7’s intended interior hall were to be astylar, shrineless and without porch cells and would have housed thirty monks however it was never started. The five medallions at the center of the five forward ceiling areas were never carved even when the whole cave was being hurriedly finished before the Period of Disruption they were abruptly covered over with plastered ceiling.

Cave 7’s shrine and shrine antechamber are filled with varied Buddha images. The shrine has a seated image of Buddha with an elliptical halo caved on the back wall and has its right hand in abhaya (“do not fear”) mudra. The image is different from other Buddha images that show the dharmacakra (wheel-turning) gesture probably because the dharmacakra convention had not been fixed. There are also six standing Buddhas in varada-mudra or “Buddhas of the Past”, carved on the walls. The pedestals below them and the door-jambs and lintels are also decorated with Buddha images. The walls of the shrine’s antechamber are carved with the Miracle of Sravasti. The early shrine doorway and the shrine were remodeled in the late 470s. The ceiling was also painted with rolling sea animals and floral creepers inhabited by frolicking dwarfs but over time it has been damaged.

References:

• Debala Mitra, Ajanta, 1964.
• Walter Spink, Ajanta: A Brief History and Guide, 1990.
• Walter Spink, Volume 18/5 Ajanta: History and Development: Cave By Cave, 2007.