The Early Development of the Cave 26-Complex at Ajanta

Abstract

Ajanta's Cave 26-complex seems to hold a special position in the history of Indian rock-cut architecture for many reasons. It was the largest and most elaborate caityagṛha-complex in its time. It transformed Ajanta from just another saṅghārāma of Buddhist India to a catalytic force that engineered the rejuvenation of Indian rock-cut architecture in general and the renaissance of Ajanta in particular. Contrary to the long cherished and still officially held view that it was a late Vākāṭaka phase caityagṛha, fresh facts are presented here that support Walter M. Spink's proposition that in terms of chronology it was only the second excavation of the Vākāṭaka period after Cave 8. It was the first caityagṛha to be built after a gap of two and a half centuries, but it had a rare arrangement of four flanking wings. In due course, further adjuncts were added in the form of large leṇas (Caves 21, 23, and 24) – all probably patronised by a single monk named Buddhabhadra. The donor's taste is visible in the introduction of many unique features, some unprecedented, that heralded the era of individualism in Buddhist art and architecture. It dispels the notion that all saṅghārāmas were the handiwork of the saṅgha and that individuals had no role to play in the construction of edifices. The study documents some fresh evidence, and interprets this together with other known data, shedding a new light, in a new context, on the development of the site in general, and the caityagṛha-complex in particular. In the process, some caves that were largely neglected by existing scholarly studies have also been fruitfully analysed. Since artistic, iconographic, and architectural descriptions have long governed the core of Ajanta studies, an attempt is made here to look at the circumstances and factors that initiated and shaped specific initiatives, the practical problems which were encountered at specific stages of excavations, and the solutions which were implemented. In the end, two individuals are brought into focus, Dharmadatta and Bhadrabandhu, who were thanked by the donor in his inscription for ‘seeing to the execution of the work’ on his behalf. They must have been the architects (sthapatis or sutradhāras who masterminded the grandest rock-cut project known until then. The value of their accomplishment is properly realised when we come to know about the trying circumstances under which they performed. They may be considered the first known Master Architects of Indian art.