Ajanta:Year by Year is planned as a biography of this remarkable site, starting with the earliest caves, dating from some two thousand years, to its startling renaissance in the brief period between approximately 462 and 480. Concentrating on the excavations of the later period, during the reign of the Vakataka emperor Harisena, it attempts to show how, after a surprising gap of some three hundred years, Ajanta’s proud and pious courtly patrons and its increasingly committed workmen created not only the greatest but the latest monument of India’s Golden Age. Nearly three hundred illustrations, in color and black and white, reveal the exuberant flowering of Ajanta and related Vakataka monuments, as well as the manner of their sudden demise.

Annotation. Volume Two begins with the contentious, yet challenging, views of Hans Bakker and Richard Cohen, both of whom are involved with an overview of Ajanta's development. This is explored further in shorter essays by Karl Khandalavala, Arvind Jamkhedkar, and Brahmanand Deshpande. At the same time, the author presents a detailed analysis of the form and development of Cave 26, as a model upon which his other arguments are built.

This book offers a new scholarly exploration of the rock-cut Ajanta Caves located in the modern-day Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, India, their sculpture and paintings. The book meticulously traces the rise, transformation, and legacy of these architectural marvels from the late third century BC to around AD 480.

History Book