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CHAITYA HALL @ AJANTA CAVES

Chaityas are buddhist prayer halls that house a stupa. The word chaitya has its roots in sanskrit . The ancient rock-cut buddhist caves of Ajanta were built dur...
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Chaityas are buddhist prayer halls that house a stupa. The word chaitya has its roots in sanskrit . The ancient rock-cut buddhist caves of Ajanta were built during the 2nd century BC to 6th century AD. All these caves and sculptures are carved out of the rocky hills of Ajanta. They start carving from top of the hill and reach the bottom, and hence do not make use of scaffolds for support.

In the next four chaitya images, you can see how buddhism evolved during the period, from the early hinayana style to the mahayana style of buddhism. Out of the 30 caves of ajanta, 9, 10, 19, 26 and 29 are chaitya grihas and the remaining caves are viharas, carved out of a horse-shoe shaped rock-cliff valley.

Ajanta Cave 10. Thought to be the oldest chaitya hall at Ajanta (2nd century BC). During the early hinayana period, stupa is the centrepiece and no idols are revered.
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