The Bagh Caves are a group of nine rock-cut monuments, situated among the southern slopes of the

Vindhyas The Vindhya Range (also known as Vindhyachal) () is a complex, discontinuous chain of mountain ridges, hill ranges, highlands and plateau escarpments in west-central India. Technically, the Vindhyas do not form a single mountain range in the ...

Bagh Bagh ( fa, باغ, link=no, meaning "garden") may refer to: Places India * Bagh Caves in Madhya Pradesh, India * Bagh, Dhar, a town in Madhya Pradesh, India Iran * Bagh, Ardabil, a village in Ardabil Province * Bagh, Larestan, a village ...

town of Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh state in central

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. These monuments are located at a distance of 97 km from

Dhar Dhar is a city located in Dhar district of the Malwa region in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. The city is the administrative headquarters of the Dhar district. Before Indian independence from Great Britain, it was the capital of the Dh ...

town. These are renowned for

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spanis ...

paintings by master painters of ancient India. The use of the word "cave" is a bit of a misnomer, since these are not natural, but instead examples of

Indian rock-cut architecture Indian rock-cut architecture is more various and found in greater abundance in that country than any other form of rock-cut architecture around the world. Rock-cut architecture is the practice of creating a structure by carving it out of solid n ...

. The Bagh caves, like those at Ajanta, were excavated by master craftsmen on perpendicular sandstone rock face of a hill on the far bank of a seasonal stream, the Baghani.

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

in inspiration, of the nine caves, only five have survived. All of them are ' viharas' or resting places of monks

monasteries A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

having quadrangular plan. A small chamber, usually at the back, forms the '

chaitya A chaitya, chaitya hall, chaitya-griha, (Sanskrit:''Caitya''; Pāli: ''Cetiya'') refers to a shrine, sanctuary, temple or prayer hall in Indian religions. The term is most common in Buddhism, where it refers to a space with a stupa and a rounded ...

', the prayer hall. Most significant of these five extant caves is the Cave 4, commonly known as the ''Rang Mahal'' (Palace of Colors). The Bagh Caves were quarried in the 5th-6th century AD, in the very late stages of Buddhism in India, and long after most of the Indian Buddhist Caves had been built, many of them since the 2nd or 1st centuries BCE. They are believed to have been built during the 5th-7th century.

Archaeological Survey of India The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is an Indian government agency that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural historical monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexand ...

has restored the place over 17 years.

The Paintings

The paintings on the wall and ceilings of the ''Vihara''s of Bagh, the fragments of which are still visible in Cave 3 and Cave 4 (remnants seen also in Caves 2, 5 and 7), were executed in tempera. Cave 2 is the best preserved cave, also known as "Pandava Cave" These paintings are materialistic rather than spiritualistic. Characteristics of paintings are like those of

Ajanta Caves The Ajanta Caves are approximately thirty rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments dating from the second century BCE to about 480 CE in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state in India. The caves include paintings and rock-cut sculptures de ...

. The ground prepared was a reddish-brown gritty and thick mud plaster, laid out on the walls and ceilings. Over the plaster, lime-priming was done, on which these paintings were executed. Some of the most beautiful paintings were on the walls of the portico of Cave 4. To prevent further loss of the values of Indian classical art, most paintings were carefully removed in 1982 and today can be seen in Archaeological Museum of Gwalior. File:Bagh Caves statues.jpg, Mural statues. File:PAINTING IN BAGH CAVE 2 Bodhisattva.jpg, Painting of a Bodhisattva in Bagh Cave 2. File:Bagh Cave 4 Details of Painting-1.jpg, Bagh Cave 4 Details of painting. File:BAGH Bodhisttva-1.jpg, Bagh Caves, Painting of a Bodhisattva.

Date

A copperplate inscription of Maharaja Subandhu, recording his donation for the repair of the ''vihara'' was found at the site of Cave 2. Though, the date of the Bagh inscription is missing, his Badwani copperplate inscription is dated in the year (Gupta era) 167 (487). So the repair of Cave 2 took place in the late 5th century.Verma, Archana (2007). ''Cultural and Visual Flux at Early Historical Bagh in Central India'', Oxford: Archaeopress, , p.19 File:Bagh Caves overview.jpg, Caves overview. File:Bagh Caves entrance.jpg, Entrance. File:Bagh Caves pillars.jpg, Pillars. File:Bagh Caves front.jpg, Front of the caves. File:Bagh Caves monumental statue.jpg, Monumental statues. File:Bagh Caves sign.jpg, ASI notice.

The Paintings

Date

See also

Notes

Further reading