Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v3.c13.14

v3.c13.14

The other caves where inscriptions are found incised are Caves XVI, XVII, XX, XXVII, and XXVII. We know from a fragmentary inscription in Cave XVI that this cave was excavated by order of Varāhadeva, minister of the Vākāṭaka king Hariṣeṇa. Varāhadeva dedicated this cave dwelling, ‘adorned with windows, doors, rows of beautiful pictures, ledges, statues of celestial nymphs, and the like, and supported by beautiful pillars, and with a temple of Buddha inside’,¹ to the Buddhist Saṃgha in remembrance of his father Hastibhoja and his mother, whose name is not mentioned in the record. Varāhadeva was a devout Buddhist and was responsible also for the excavation of the Ghaṭotkacha cave eleven miles to the west of Ajanta, as is known from an inscription on the left end of the back wall of that cave. Both the records of Varāhadeva are undated, but, as Professor Mirashi has shown, Hariṣeṇa, the last known ruler of the Vatsagulma branch of the Vākāṭakas, should be assigned a period between A.D. 475-500,² and therefore the excavation of Cave XVI must have been completed about the end of the fifth century A.D., to which period Fergusson and Burgess also assign this cave from the style of architecture. There is also no doubt that Cave XVII must be placed in the same period, as a fragmentary inscription on the side wall of the veranda in this cave mentions the same Vākāṭaka ruler Hariṣeṇa as the ruling prince in line 21. According to this record this cave seems to have been dedicated by Achitya, the minister of a feudatory of the Vākāṭakas. Unfortunately the name of the feudatory ruler is not preserved, though the names of his ancestors and also of his younger brother are given in the record. The donor is stated to have built this gem of a temple of solid stone containing inside a *chaitya* of the Buddha (*niveśitāntar-munirāja-chaityam=ekāśmakam maṇḍaparatnam=etat*). He also built a large reservoir³ and, on the other side of it, towards the west, a *gandhakuṭī* (vv. 24-7). Burgess points out that there is no *gandhakuṭī* immediately to the west, though there are sculptures of the Buddha on the lower parts of the walls of the court.⁴