jaskinie: Ajanta Caves

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

The Ajanta Caves are 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments dating from the second century BCE to about 480 CE in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state in India. Ajanta Caves are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Universally regarded as masterpieces of Buddhist religious art, the caves include paintings and rock-cut sculptures, described as among the finest surviving examples of ancient Indian art, particularly expressive paintings that present emotions through gesture, pose and form. The caves were built in two phases, the first starting around the second century BCE and the second occurring from 400 to 650 CE, according to older accounts, or in a brief period of 460–480 CE according to later…

Evidence: 43 • authority: 72

The Mogao Caves, also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, form a system of 500 temples 25 km (16 mi) southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu province, China. The caves may also be known as the Dunhuang Caves; however, this term is also used as a collective term to include other Buddhist cave sites in and around the Dunhuang area, such as the Western Thousand Buddha Caves, Eastern Thousand Buddha Caves, Yulin Caves, and Five Temple Caves. The caves contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art spanning a period of 1,000 years. The first caves were dug out in 366 CE as pla…

Evidence: 24 • authority: 72

The Trirashmi Caves, or Nashik Caves or Pandavleni is a holy Buddhist and Jain site located about 8 km south of the centre of Nashik (or Nasik), Maharashtra, India. Most of the caves are viharas except for Cave 18 which is a chaitya of the 1st century BCE. The style of some of the elaborate pillars or columns, for example in caves 3 and 10, is an important example of the development of the form. Cave 11 is a Jain cave dedicated to Lord Vrishabhanath (Rishabhanatha), the first Tirthankara of Jainism. Some scholars suggest that the name Pandavleni is derived from the Pandavas, characters in the Mahabharata epic, as some caves contain inscriptions related to early Brahmin or Hindu beliefs. Oth…