Why, in those ancient times, did monks and architects, artists and masons dedicate their lives to carving monuments to their religions from stone?
Written records are rare. One of the earliest testimonies to Ajanta, for example, is based on hearsay: the 7th century Chinese traveller Hiuen-Tsang mentions a `monastery in a deep defile', without actually having seen it.
It is speculated that the monks of the Deccan may have realised what could be done with rock because of Emperor Ashoka's attempts at excavating the Barabar and Nagarjuni Hills in Bihar.
The Ajanta caves offer a clue as to why they thought it should be done. An inscription in Cave 26 says that it is good to 'set up monuments on mountains that will endure as long as the moon and the sun continue, for a man will exist to enjoy paradise as long as his memory is green on earth'.
Perhaps, also, it was fortunate that they stumbled upon hillsides amenable to carving when the steadily expanding monastic orders needed shelter during the monsoon months.
Another factor, however, was needed to give the excavations a thrust —patronage. There are hundreds of rock-cut excavations in Maharashtra, extremely elaborate and completed with seemingly superhuman effort. Where did the wealth that allowed this effort come from?
Merchants were probably the most readily available source of funds. At Ajanta, Cave 12 is attributed to a trader from Thana named Ghanamadada; and Cave 2 bears an inscription that reads: `Why should not a temple be raised by those possessing wealth and desirous of mundane happiness as also of liberation, for happiness of the world as also for their own final emancipation?'
Commercial centres like Sopara, then the biggest port on the Arabian Sea, or Paithan, which exported perfume to countries like Egypt, generated great wealth for their inhabitants, many of whom chose to donate some of their profit to their religion.
Paithan is also thought to have been the capital of the Satavahanas. It is speculated that this dynasty ruled the Deccan for about 300 years, contributing greatly to the region's political stability and creating an environment in which trade, art and religion could be freely practised.
Many of the early excavations in the Deccan were begun under the Satavahanas. Some of the caves at Nasik are engraved with references to the dynasty. These and the early Ajanta caves (8, 9, 10, 12, 13 and 15A), those at Bhaja, Pitalkhora and Karle are dated to between 200 BC and 200 AD, which are approximately the dates of Satavahana dominance in the Deccan.
Increasingly, the connection between trade and excavations became very intimate. In fact, because archaeologists knew of an ancient trade route from the port of Chaul (about 15 kms from Alibag, and later a Portuguese settlement) to the state's interior, they were convinced there must be caves nearby too. And, indeed, they did find some caves of the Hinayana period near the town.
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