Upon approach, the Ajanta Caves, on the outside, are structures cut into a mountainside in a semi-circular pattern. One is intrigued and looks forward to going inside. The first thought upon entering even a few caves were, “why is this not a big deal in the global history curriculum”?  After entering a plethora of different caves, I thought, “why isn’t this one of the wonders of the world”!!?  The answer I determined was that historians choose to focus on  subjects based on their own discretion, not necessarily all that is great and amazing in its own right, thus the term “His-story.” What gets told depends on who has the forum to tell the story. Though both are Unesco World Heritage sites, the Ajanta and the Ellora caves should be amongst the architectural wonders of the world. What glorius a testament to Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism. What a privilege to have been able to visit and for this I will forever remain grateful to the U.S. State Department/IREX program; Teachers for Global Classroom and our host, Mr. Rajesh Patil, educator at Sarawastha College Preparatory school in Paras, India.

Our visit to the Ellora and Ajanta Caves was, I suppose, the most fascinating place I have ever visited. I was overwhelmed. 4000 year old carvings of Buddha in my hands. Many original paintings at Ajanta are still intact. Ajanta  actually has one question on the global history regents test in NY, so now I have seen it for myself and it is not just a place on paper…

Two entire cities chiseled into the side of mountains….

Ellora is made up of a Buddhist Temple, a Jain Temple, and a Hindu Temple. The fact that they all exist in one shared space is a show of great respect and tolerance for diverse religions. Of course I liked the Jain Temple because they had the most elephants…:).  The waterfall only falls during the monsoon season, so we picked a perfect time to visit. This was the most popular picture taking site. You can also see the other caves in the background. I took a lot of videos here versus pictures as it was so awesome.  The Ellora caves also sets the background on my home page. I am so sorry to say that the big elephants were more damaged than the picture on my home page would indicate. I hope the Indian government steps up its preservation efforts. There is a lot of water to compete with, but where there is a will-there is a way.

Ellora Caves

 

 

 

The Ajanta Caves date back to 100 B.C. and feature 29 caves carved into a mountain.  All of the caves depict Buddhist artistry, and there were so many that we actually had a contest to see who can get the closest to the amount of Buddhas chiseled into the caves (we never did get a number-gotta look that up).  We visited a large majority of the caves. Most have small temples inside along with sculpture and paintings. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  My all time favorite is located in Cave #26, commonly referred to as the “Sleeping Buddha”

a temple in one of the caves

a few temples feature on this pedestal type symbol

The most simplistic statues that I fell in love with are the elephants at Ellora (the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. in me) and the sleeping Buddha at Ajanta!!!! I just have to throw that in for posterity. I felt like a child seeing something exciting, jumping up and down clapping.