<< Our Photo Pages >> Aurangabad Caves - Ancient Temple in India
Submitted by motist on Saturday, 29 May 2010 Page Views: 8410
Multi-periodSite Name: Aurangabad CavesCountry: India
NOTE: This site is 125.41 km away from the location you searched for.
Type: Ancient Temple
Nearest Town: Aurangabad
Latitude: 19.917267N Longitude: 75.311567E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Ancient Temple in India. Aurangabad is located in a valley watered by the river Dudhna between the Sihyachal and Satara range of hills. The ancient name of Aurangabad is Khirki which means a ‘window’ or ‘entrance’. The Aurangabad caves are located on a hill running roughly east to west, nearly 2 km behind Bibi-ka-Maqbara. In all twelve Buddhist Caves are found here which fall into three separate groups depending on its location.
The first group consists of caves 1 to 5, the second 6 to 9 and third 10 to 12. The caves are datable from circa 2nd – 3rd century AD to 7th century AD. The first and the second groups are separated by nearly 500 metres from each other, with the former at the western side while the latter is on the eastern side of the same hill. The third group is further east of the second group.
At Aurangabad, due to its proximity to the ancient trade route and close to Pratishthana (modern Paithan), the capital of Satavahanas, patronage to religious activities can be understood, even though this is not corroborated by inscriptional evidences. Here the earliest excavations (Caves 1 & 3) probably date to 2nd – 3rd century A.D. Cave 3 is in the form of a chaitya griha of the Hinayana order, albeit preserved very badly due to the nature of the rock formation. The heterogeneous rock formation here has prevented very large scale excavations. The excavators have taken much care to avoid portions where the lose rock formations were present. Cave 1 is an unfinished vihara, the ceiling of verandah has fallen down. Cave 2 is also a vihara with a shrine of Buddha at the rear.
Read more at the ASI -Archaeological Survey of India
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