There are about 1200 cave temples in India,they are considered to be India’s greatest contribution to the world of art.These caves are not natural caves but are dug out of the solid rock and are man made.Rock cut architecture and sculpture are more appropriate descriptions.Living in a cave is natural to the Indian psyche as Hindu yogis and rishis who wished to live in solitude,as also Budhist and Jain monks,all chose caves on hills and mountain dwellings.Where none exsited,the next step was to dig caves out of the mountain-side.Cave temples are found in various parts of India but are predominantly in the western ghats,the mountain ranges of the western peninsula,where the rock texture is most suitable.The earliest existing cave temples are Buddhist.The method was to dig into the hillside with a pick,working top downwards and front backwards,thereby avoiding scaffolding and leaving blocks of stone which were then sculpted,using only hammer and chisel.Sculpture became part of the architecture and motives of the sculpture were usually religious in nature, though there were non-religious themes such as figures of animals,birds,loving couples,court scenes etc.
These phase was from 3rd century B.C.Starting from the caves initiated by Emperor Ashoka at Bihar in the 3rd century B.C.,the main caves of the earliest phase are the Buddhist caves of Karla,Bhaja,Kanheri and Nasik in Maharashtra and Udaigiri and Khandigir Jain caves in Orissa.In the second period,the Buddha statue became integral to cave temples and the best known of these caves are at Ajanta,Ellora and Aurangabad.In the third period,this type of architecture was mainly confined to Hindu and Jain caves are seen at Elephanta near Mumbai,at Ellora and at Mamallapuram,near Chennai.Early Indian architecture was never sectarian,and cave temples of similar types could be Buddhist,Hindu or Jain.In the earliest phase, when Hinayana Buddhism (or the Lesser Vehicle) was practiced,the architecture was wooden based, sometimes exact copies of early wooden structures. The chaitya (chapel or Buddhist prayer hall) was huge with an apsidal curve at one end in which a plain stupa was placed. The vaulted roof was an imitation of a wooden structure with a curved roof resting on wood-like beams.The monasteries were simple living rooms often with stone benches for the monks. During this period, the figure of Buddha was never shown as the Buddha had decreed that after his death, neither the gods,not the men shall see him,as he did not wish to be defied. The Buddha was therefore represented in sculpture and paintings by symbols such as the Bodhi tree (under which he attained enlightenment),the deer park (site at Sarnath where he gave his first set in motion),a throne, his footsteps,or an elephant (symbolic of his mother’s dream of a white elephant entering her womb).The sculpture and paintings covered simple stories from the life of the Buddha.Later during the period of Mahayana Buddhism (or the Great Vehicle),the artisans had learnt to work with stone, although the vaulted roof and the hall of chaitya continued to be wood based in design.
The monasteries however became more elaborate and there were figures of the Buddha often placed at one end making the vihara a prayer hall as well as a monastry.In the chaityas of the later period,a figure of Buddha was placed infront of the stupa.The carvings and paintings ( as at Ajanta), included not only stories of the Buddha,but also the stories of Bodhisatvas (or future Buddhas),Jataka tales (Buddhist stories) and the stories of Buddha’s miracles.By this time, worship of the image of the Buddha had become a part of Buddhist worship.The sculpture and paintings of Ajanta were responsible for a great artistic revival all over the Buddhist world,reaching as far as China and Japan.The Ajanta caves are unique in that the paintings in them give a wonderful picture of life going back to 2200 years of king and commoner,of religious life and life the life and teachings of the Buddha,of animals and birds and all living things.The high-water mark was reached in the 8th century Hindu temple of Kailasa at Ellora,a monolithic mountain temple of massive dimensions, considered the most remarkable example of cave temple architecture. Its appearance is of a massive structural temple built inside a cave. Highly developed also were the Jain temples at Ellora with their exquisite sculptures.The rock-cut architecture of South India can be seen in the monuments of the Pallava dynasty at Mamallapuram. These consist of two forms of structures,mandapas and rathas.The mandapa was an excavation inside a hill or rock with a hall and cells with sculptured panels and carved pillars.The ratha (or the stone chariot) was a monolithic structure imitating wooden and stone structural temples.these rathas greatly influenced the art of Java(Indonesia) and South-east Asia.
