Word Heritage Site, one of India’s premier ones at that. IF you happen to be in Mumbai, and haven’t seen Ajanta yet, you have been whiling your life away. Yes, that is a caustic statement to make, but it really does hold true. Oh, BTW, the true spelling of the place should be Ajintha (the ’th’ is hard as in ’Thames’) because that is how the locals pronounce it.
I could choose to write about Ajanta and Ellora together, but will avoid that because the two places, I blv deserve individual mention as they really are tremendous works of art.
Ajanta remained in obscurity over about a millennium before Maj John Smith (a name cant get more common than that, right?) discovered cave #15, while he lost his way and ventured into this cave while following a panther on a hunt. Everyone knows the story, and Maj Smith has done a graffiti job of his name on the wall so that people remember him too. Perhaps that is where we Indians learned to disfigure our own monuments (Rajes 20-3-1986, Sunil loves Reshma, Rajesh 21-12-1998 etc). Let me not go into the history of the caves, since you can find that in all types of guide books and history books. What I do want to share are some tips and tricks for the place, a few must sees etc.
Getting There
It is more than 100 km from Aurangabad’s outskirts and thus will sort of take you a day trip to cover the place unless you spend like 2 minutes a cave. So keep a day free just for Ajanta. If you happen to visit this place during or just after monsoons, the greenery around will make things pleasant. There is another reason, which I shall talk about shortly.
There are regular state transport buses which do the trip from Aurangabad, or you can take a car. The regular public transport is stopped these days about 3km before the caves and you got to buy a Rs 10 ticket for a ride in an airconditioned green coloured Maharashtra Tourism bus, which will take you to the last motorable point for the caves. From this place, you will have to take some steps to the caves. The steps are a bit uneven, but you will get there eventually even if you are not in great shape.
The Caves
The very famous frescoes that you see everywhere are in caves 1 & 2. Besides this, caves 9, 10, 16, 17, 24, 26 are the best ones. The licensed guides that you can choose to hire here will show you only these caves. However, there are all of 26 open caves which you can visit, and we did. You should actually sweet talk cave attendants from ASI into telling you about the caves, and you can choose to pay them like Rs 10 for smaller caves, Rs 20 for the larger ones and they will be happy. You will end up paying relatively less and get to know much more.
When you buy tickets to enter the caves, you will have also to buy a light pass. Some of these caves have been illuminated using optic fibre stuff, which does produce a light, but not heat...so as not to damage the frescoes.
Besides the paintings on the walls, which are quite incredible as they are, there also is some spellbinding stuff on the roofs. In the caves, where the colors are still in good shape, if you look up, you would notice that there is a shamiana pattern on the ceiling painted in black and white. The effect painted is as if the shamiana were fluttering a bit because of the wind and thus looks wavy.
In some of the caves, you will find the ceiling to be like that of a cathedral, and stone carved to give an impression of wooden beams supporting the room. Incredible again.
Pain points
1. ASI. Yes, they are supposed to be the conservators of the places. However, they try their best to make the place tourist unfriendly. They will holler, they will fight, they will not cooperate about anything. They will do everything to ruin the day for you.
2. Sudden surge of tourists. There are school picnics organised, and there are bus loads which arrive here.
3. Souvenir sellers, beggars though both types are not allowed inside the complex.
Do’s and Don’ts
1. Carry water with you. There is lot of walking around this place and you will get dehydrated otherwise.
2. When you get off the bus, please do go use the rest rooms since there are none inside the Ajanta complex.
3. If you plan to take a camera, do remember that you can’t use a flash. You can choose to get permission to carry a tripod, but ASI will not permit you to take a tripod inside the caves. So, carry fast film (ISO 400) or push your film to higher speeds. Even if you are using a ISO 400 film, you will need to carry a 2.8 lens if not a 1.4. Your ordinary zooms will not cut it at all, since the caves are dark, the lighting (wherever you find that) is very un-uniform.
4. There are lots of tourists here, so you will have to be patient and perhaps walk a cave ahead of the masses to be able to see the stuff peacefully.
5. While coming back, step down from cave 16, down to the river level and walk across the bridge and take a right, a bit of climb involved but you can get to see a roaring waterfall during the monsoons and a bit after that. Here is you reason to visit the place during rains or a bit after.
6. If you are not visiting during winters, and want to rent a car to this place, ensure that it is an airconditioned vehicle. This place can get very hot.
Places to Stay
There is an MTDC place at Faradpur, but its better to stay at Aurangabad which is better connected and will provide you better choices to stay.