![]() The beauty of the facade is marred by the collapse of the pillared verandah. At each end of the verandah is a pillared chamber, the right one leading to two cells, and the left one to one cell. An inscription engraved on the back wall of the verandah over the right side-door records the gift of the temple of Sugata (Buddha) by the monk Buddhabhadra, a friend of Bhavviraja, who was a minister of the king of Asmaka. The palaeography suggests a date between AD 450 and 525 for the inscription. In front of the verandah is a courtyard having a complex of a subsidiary chapel with cells on either side. The one on the right, having a cell, a pillared verandah and a landing approached by a few steps, is mostly destroyed. The left wall of this landing contains two carved panels representing the litany to Avalokitesvara. The continuation of the same wall on the verandah has a standing figure of Buddha in the abhaya-mudra. The chapel has on its left wall an image of Buddha in teaching attitude. To the left of the image is a stone bed with a raised pillow on one side. There is a cistern attached to this chaitya-griha beyond the courtyard. The latter had originally a front screen with an opening for the door approached by a flight of steps. The shrine has an image of Buddha in teaching attitude on its back wall. Of the cells around the hall, only four on the right half, one of them having a porch, have survived. The major part of the left half of the hall along with the roofs of the shrine and the antechamber has collapsed. The cave cannot properly be called an independent monastery, as it forms an adjunct to Ajanta Cave 26. The unfinished upper storey has suffered greatly by landslide. The landing and the verandah on the left side of the court of Ajanta Cave 26 leads to a small hall, which has a shrine and an antechamber facing the entrance-door. The antechamber advances into the hall. Its narrow front wall to the right of the pilaster is divided vertically into three compartments containing a naga-raja, Of the two remaining caves, the one beyond Ajanta Cave 27 is an unfinished monastery, of which only the pillared verandah was excavated. The other, a chaitya-griha in its first stage of excavation has been scooped out at the highest level, above the area between Ajanta Caves 20 and Ajanta cave 21. Both the caves are now almost inaccessible. |
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