Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v4.c16.62

v4.c16.62

The cave has several inscriptions, one of which is incised in the back wall of the veranda, over the doorway on the right side. This inscription records the excavation of the *chaitya* by a *bhikshu*, Buddhabhadra by name. He was an intimate friend of Bhavvirāja, the minister of the king of Aśmaka. The name of the king is not mentioned, but Dr. B. Ch. Chhabra, who has studied this inscription (Appendix, pp. 114-18), is of opinion that ‘Ravisāmba’s elder brother’, who dedicated the *vihāra*-Cave XVII at Ajanta, dedicated this cave (XXVI) as well, or else it was dedicated by Ravisāmba’s son, or successor, who was the king of Aśmaka at the time of the excavation of the *chaitya*. As Ravisāmba was a contemporary of the Vākāṭaka king Hariṣeṇa (*c.* A.D. 475-500), the date of the excavation of Cave XXVI, even if it be assigned to Ravisāmba’s son, cannot be later than the first quarter of the sixth century A.D.