Ajanta

The security guard at my hospital, a nurse, a ward boy, two doctors and a friend of a friend had all offered on separate occasions to take me to the Ajanta caves. Even people I barely knew or met for the first time would say “Wait till Wednesday, I have a day off, we can go together”. I wasn’t sure whether it was because they were being super kind or I was extra charming, but I wanted to go on my own. So I did.

The Ajanta caves were built between around 200 BC and 450AD by many successive generations of Buddhist monks under the patronage of both Buddhist and Hindu kings. Around 450AD the caves began to fall into disrepair and were slowly forgotten. For 1300 years they remained lost, the jungle slowly grew over them until they were eventually completely submerged under forest, mud and water. In 1819 a British hunter, hot on the trail of a tiger, stumbled across the very top of Cave Ten. He carved his name on its wall and began to slowly unveil the work of a lost civilization.

When I think of how he must have felt I am reminded of Leonardo da Vinci. In the early 1500’s he noticed that the fossils of sea creatures could be found where there was definitely no sea; on mountains, and far inland. Conventional wisdom held that the creatures must have somehow made their way there or that they were brought there. Maybe they were put there by god in order to test our faith in him (This, by the way, is the argument that the intelligent design museum in Kentucky gives for the existence of dinosaur fossils). However, none of these explanations satisfied him. So he pondered. Maybe at different stages in history, sea levels were at different levels. Maybe they rise and fell, and each time they did they delineated the beginning of a new age. Maybe the civilization of man prospered in each age but was wiped out every time sea levels rose. Could it be that in a previous age someone had made this exact same discovery and reached the same conclusion? That we are part of an infinite cycle? A wheel of time?

Unfortunately, even though it would be way cool, none of this is true; but Leonardo or the guy that discovered the caves didn’t know that. When he stumbled across cave ten he was looking into a lost age. The immense scale and beauty of the caves far surpassed anything the British had constructed at the time, so how could such an opulent and prosperous civilization die, and on top of that how could it be forgotten?

When I visited there was some restoration work in progress but unfortunately since their rediscovery they have lost much of their original luster. Ajanta is famous not for its rock carvings, which are themselves impressive, but rather for its mural paintings which cover the walls and columns of every cave. They reflect the culture of the day and the dreams of the monks that painted them. When trying to understand the paintings I thought it was amazing how little has changed in 2500 years. We still wear the same style of thongs in India, we still drink alcohol, we still marvel at the beauty of women, some of us still believe in an afterlife, and we still every day are confronted by the problem or whether to take the difficult but good path or the easy expedient one.

After about 4 hours of looking at them on my own I decided to hire a guide for about 100 rupees and I asked him back to back questions for about 3 hours. We were disturbed only by the pesky sunset which forced me to head back home. I’m glad I went but I can’t help but feel that it conflicted somehow with my goal to not be a tourist.

I’ve been taking the state transport bus everywhere but on the way home it was crowded Indian style. Three to a seat with people sitting on top of each other everywhere except for on the driver. I had an urge to take out my camera and take a photo. Nowhere had I ever seen a bus that full, especially a long distance one (I had to stand for 100 km= 3hours). But I suppressed the urge. I didn’t want everyone to think that I was an outsider. I was by that stage growing tired of the looks and stares associated with that label. I can only imagine how the white guy sitting near the front must have felt.