The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c17.59

c17.59

Ajantâ is a microcosm of ancient and medieval Indian history, but Indian historians would divide it into three epochs instead of four. The first was the sâttvic cycle; the age of quiet meditation, beginning with the time of the Saint Asoka, whose peaceful edicts proclaimed the Blessed One's message of peace and love throughout the land of Bharata-varsha. Then some pious members of the Sangha carved out of this digit of the moon—Siva’s crest—the middle section (Pl. XL) facing north, the region of the moonlit sky, and taught the Buddha’s doctrines with the simple austere ritual of the Hînayâna school.