Ajanta, Maharashtra, India
Wednesday, December 25, 1996
We woke up early in the festive spirit, it being Christmas day. Our daughter was delighted to get the gifts of chocolates and cake delivered by Santa at night! After having an early breakfast we checked out. We reached the bus stand and then boarded a bus to
Ajanta caves. The roads are excellent so the drive is a pleasant one. We passed by the small towns like Phulbri, Sillod and Golegaon through the sunflower and sugarcane fields before reaching the destination. At Ajanta village we had to change one more time. We took a shared taxi to the last leg at the entrance of the caves which is about 12 km further. The total distance of
Ajanta caves from
Aurangabad is 106 km. Hungry as we were; we had sandwiches and guava fruit and purchased the tickets for entry to the caves. There are additional charges for 'lighting' at caves 1, 2 and 16 which have some of the best preserved frescoes and paintings of the Buddhist era. These depict the life of Buddha from early childhood in form of Jaitaka tales narrated in a lucid manner
. Some of the painting have a 3-D effect as when one move from left to right it gives an appearance that Buddha (Padampani) is looking at you! Likewise there are four deer which appear to have a common head. Also, with the change in light effect the paintings appear to be smiling, meditative and angry. The caves are constructed as viharas (dormitories).There is also a prayer hall where recitation of one monk at one end can be heard at the farthest end with clarity, demonstrating the effective acoustic effects. There is a galore of wonders at these treasure troves where hundreds of tourists flock each day. We came across a Chinese who visits this place every year and could converse in Hindi.. All the caves are designed in a ‘horse shoe’ shape where the sun light reaches all caves equally. It is an enriching experience to see the exquisite paintings . By the time we finished going around it was almost 4 PM. Our return journey took more than 3 hours as there was a minor snag on the return bus journey. Around 7 PM we reached
Aurangabad and enjoyed some hot snacks and reached our room. We offered the prayers and had a very nice hot dinner of vegetable, dal and retired for the day.
