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| When the artists were working in the caves, they would use mirrors to light the interior, but we had no such advantages. The outer sections were quite bright while the inner recesses were pretty dark. Some of the funny coloring is because the flashlights we used were LED and bluish in color while our guide's was incadescent and more yellow in color. |
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| Above is an early cave from about 200BC that is in the Hinayana tradition in that it is very simple with no decorations. Of course there is plaster and paintings, but those were added later when Mahayana was more popular. We meditated together for a few minutes and then circumambulated the stupa. We weren't allowed to chant as singing was not permitted. |
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| There was also one particular column which had the name and year of the English soldier who found the Ajanta Caves inscribed on one of the paintings, but no one knows for sure whether he did the inscription of someone else did it later. We also visited a residential cave with monks rooms carved in the stone (with the interior shown above). It doesn't look very comfortable. I also wondered about what they did for light to study and copy texts. Possibly they used mirrors then as well. |
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This page was last updated on March 25, 2012.
