Ajanta's painted Buddhist caves

Buddhist monks cut some 30 caves into a horseshoe bend of the Waghora gorge at Ajanta, first in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC and again under the Vakataka king Harishena in the later 5th century AD. Their murals of the Buddha's past lives are the finest surviving ancient Indian painting. Abandoned and overgrown, the caves were rediscovered by British officers in 1819.