Ajanta & Ellora: The Cave Art That Predates the Renaissance by a Millennium

Lost for 1,000 years: the rediscovery of Ajanta

In April 1819, a British officer named John Smith was tiger-hunting in the Sahyadri hills when he spotted a horseshoe-shaped cliff across a ravine. Cut into the rock were 30 cave entrances, overgrown with jungle and sealed by centuries of silt. What Smith had stumbled onto was Ajanta: a monastery complex carved between the 2nd century BCE and the 5th century CE, abandoned after the decline of the Vakataka dynasty and forgotten for over a millennium. The paintings inside — tempera on dry plaster — depict the Jataka tales (past lives of the Buddha) with a psychological realism and colour sophistication that Western art would not achieve until the Italian Renaissance, 1,000 years later.

Cave 1’s Bodhisattva Padmapani (lotus-holder) is considered one of the masterpieces of world art. Cave 2’s ceiling paintings are so detailed that Japanese conservators spent 12 years restoring a single panel. Cave 26 contains a 7-metre reclining Buddha entering parinirvana — the sculptor carved tears on the faces of the attending monks. UNESCO listed Ajanta in 1983.

Ellora: three faiths, one cliff

Ellora, 100 km from Ajanta, is a different kind of wonder. Its 34 caves span three religions — 12 Buddhist (caves 1–12), 17 Hindu (caves 13–29) and 5 Jain (caves 30–34) — carved side by side between the 6th and 11th centuries CE. The fact that artisans of three competing faiths worked within earshot of each other for 500 years is, by itself, a monument to something India still does better than most civilisations: coexist.

Kailasa Temple: carved from the sky down

Cave 16 at Ellora — the Kailasa Temple — is the largest monolithic rock excavation in the world. Commissioned by Rashtrakuta king Krishna I in the 8th century, it was carved top-down: workers started at the cliff-top and excavated 200,000 tonnes of rock downward over an estimated 18 years, leaving behind a free-standing temple modelled on Mount Kailash, Shiva’s abode. It has pillars, galleries, a bridge, life-sized elephants, a 30-metre tower — and every inch of it was carved from a single rock. There are no joints. There is no mortar. There is no explanation that quite covers it.

Practical tips and connections

• Ajanta is closed on Mondays; Ellora is closed on Tuesdays. Plan your visit across two days to see both.
• Hire an ASI-approved guide at the entrance — ₹1,500–₹2,000 for 3 hours. The iconography is too layered to read alone.
• Aurangabad (the base city) is a 1-hour flight from Mumbai or a 6-hour train.
• Combine with Hampi (overnight train to Hospet) and Sanchi (8 hours) for an ancient-India art trail.
• For the southern continuation of rock-cut architecture, visit Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu.

Reading the caves into India’s larger story

Ajanta and Ellora are the visual equivalent of what Varanasi is to sound and what Hampi is to architecture — proof that India’s creative peak was not a single moment but a rolling wave that moved across centuries, faiths and geographies. Browse all Heritage destinations to follow the wave.