The Ajanta caves

In a bend of the Waghora river in the Deccan, monks had been cutting assembly halls and cells into the horseshoe of rock since the second century BCE. In the second half of the fifth century, under the kings of the Vakataka house, the work resumes on a grand scale: some twenty new caves appear, with columns, stupas and statues hewn straight out of the mountain. Walls and ceilings are covered with paintings — scenes of the Buddha's former births, kings, musicians, animals, crowds of courtiers. Later the monastery is abandoned, the jungle hides the entrance, and the caves are found again only in 1819, by English officers out hunting.