Located about 107 km from Aurangabad, the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ajanta Caves are a famous cluster of 32 Buddhist caves. The rock-hewn caves at Ajanta are either chaityas (shrine), chapels or prayer halls, or viharas (monasteries) or residential cells.

Caves 9 and 10 are chaityas, which contain the earliest known remnants of paintings in India. Caves 19, 26 and 29 are chaityas of the Mahayana period and all the other caves are viharas. Ajanta displays the Gandhara and Mathura schools of art from the Kushana period; the Sarnath school of art from the Gupta period; and the Amaravati school of art from the late Satavahana and Ikshvaku periods. 

Ellora, considered the finest examples of rock-cut architecture, comprises  Hindu, Buddhist and Jain caves that were chiselled between the 4th and the 9th century. Of the 34 caves, 12 are Buddhist, 17 Hindu and 5 Jain, and date back to the Rashtrakuta dynasty, about 1,500 years ago. They were declared a World Heritage Site in 1983, and are now maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

Buddhist Caves