Ajanta Cave 4

              Pc: trawell.in 

      Caves 4 are the largest Vihara at Ajanta. The decorated main entrance leads to a hall with twenty-eight pillars. To the right of the door is the carving of a Bodhisattva to whom devotees are praying for deliverance from the eight fears. The figures in niches and door jambs are full of good sculptural details. A man and women are seen flying from a mad elephant. A women leans against a trunk with a playful squirrel. A man lured by a temptress looks helpless and lost.

The hall has 28 pillars arranged in a square, which are similar to those in the verandah. On the three sides of the hall are hewn a number of cells, many of which can be seen at different stages of excavation. The hall has one main entrance and two side-doors with wide windows in between. Flying figures, guardians, images of Ganas and Buddha, maidens clutching trees and dwarfs with garlands adorn the central doorway. One can also find images of a man resisting temptation from a woman and a man and woman running away from a mad elephant.

The sanctuary houses a colossal image of the Buddha in preaching pose flanked by bodhisattvas and celestial nymphs hovering above. In front of the Buddha image is a congregation of devotees, including monks. The door-jambs and lintel are decorated with figures of Buddha. The walls of the antechamber are adorned with paintings of six huge standing Buddha, two of them unfinished, with the right hands in the abhaya-mudra and the left holding the hem of the garment. The cave was once painted, traces of which can be noticed. The ceiling of the hall preserves a unique geological feature of a lava flow.