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Maharashtra today is not a state remembered for its
Buddhism but rather and for its international and industrial capital,
Mumbai. However, for a thousand years, the present day state of
Maharashtra provided a home for Buddhism in India
The Buddha had come from
the North in what is now Nepal and spent much of his active life in
Bihar to the East. Nevertheless, after his death, Buddhism spread
across to different parts of India and, for about 1,000 years, the
Western Ghats of Maharashtra were to provide support for this
religion. Often this was in more remote areas which the monks and
occasionally, nuns, found more favourable for their contemplative
lifestyles. One of the most impressive monuments from these times
can be found not far from Lonavla near the Bombay-Pune road. Known
as the Karla Caves, one can see here a cathedral sized temple carved
out of the rock face. Inside there is sculptured work, most notably
in the form of a giant sized Buddha.
Maharashtra has produced
great Buddhist masters such as Saraha although at that time in the
2nd century BC, there was no Maharashtra as such for it
did not come into existence until recent times. Saraha lived in an
ancient princely state called Vidarbha near to present day Pune. His
father was a Brahmin in the court of King Mahapala. Saraha refused
the proffered hand of the King’s daughter preferring to study
with a Buddhist master Sri Kirti. Eventually, he found love with the
daughter of an arrowsmith and, although she was from a lover, he saw
her as a wise woman (dakini) and thus she became his consort.
Saraha’s words are still remembered among Buddhists through such
texts as The Royal Song of Saraha – “Though there
may be many rivers, They are one in the sea. Though there may be
many lives One Truth will conquer all.” It seems likely that
the Buddhists in this area took over from Shaivites finding some of
their places of meditation to be of value. This is apparent in the
proximity of the Ellora caves to the jyotirlinga (symbol of
Shiva) of Grishneshwar, some thirty kilometres from Aurangabad. The
jyotirlinga is a natural protuberance of rock, one of 12 to be
found in India. The Buddhists settled in the nearby caves. They
contributed a great deal to the interiors of some of these caves,
excavating the area to a considerable extent, chiseling out entire
temples from the volcanically formed stone. Nowadays, it is the
caves at the southern end of the rocky escarpment that are remembered
as being Buddhist, and they bear the unmistakable marks of Buddhist
art and architecture much of which can be seen today particularly in
Tibetan Buddhist monasteries. This work would have taken many years
to complete and it seems likely that artisans worked alongside the
monks who would have been more concerned wikth their devotions. Much
of this would have involved chanting, particularly the Sutra of
Buddha Shakyamuni, which would have had an extremely powerful effect
on the monks involved as such sounds echo wonderfully in the caves.
One can try the effect onself by standing in the middle of one of
these caves and intoning a manta (chant) such as Om Mani Padma Hum
which is a well known Sanskrit mantra that these monks are
likely to have used. As one continues to repeat such a sound, the
mantra will reverberate and start to give the place a life of
its own; one may feel almost massaged by the sound and this is what
made the temple caves such an effective place of worship. With an
entire assembly of monks, the reverberating sound would have drowned
that of individual monks, helping them to realize the truth of
anatta, no-self. Inside some of these cave temples (vihara),
there are long low level seats that stretch from the door to the
statue of Buddha at the far end. These statues of Buddha vary in
size and more particularly inform for each cave temple has its own
character or aspect of the Buddha’s nature that it wishes to
convey. The long stone seats, however, share a common purpose of
providing place for the monks to meditate. They would have sat side
by side in rows facing inwards.
Such temples bear the
signs of being form the Mahayana tradition that is of a wider outlook
than the Hinayana that lays more importance on the original
instructions of Buddha Shakyamuni. There are also Hinayana caves
where there is a circular construction known as a Chaitya
which stands at the eastern end of the cave-temple opposite the
entrance monks not only sat in front of these but were also able to
slowly walk around them while intoning sacred sounds. It is
certainly true to say that the artistic development of the caves did
not exactly coincide with their occupation by the monks. This
historical fact is more clearly demonstrated by the cave temples one
hundred kilometres further north at Ajanta to which the Buddhist monk
Buddhabhadra has written some praise referring to them as “a
memorial in the mountains that will endure as long as the sun and
moon continue.” The remoteness of these caves is what prevented
them from being destroyed as they lay unused for a thousand years and
undiscovered by the general populace who these days visit in droves.
It was not until 1819 that a British tiger hunting party happened to
notice an ornamented cave entrance from a nearby hilltop. The Nizam
of Hyderabad was notified and formal excavations were begun.
Restoration was also conducted although at first this proved
unsuccessful until a couple of Italian brothers arrived on the scene.
The caves are situated in a horsehoe shaped escarpment of rock that
lies on a bend of the upper reaches of the Waghora river. While the
excavations of Ellora are largely sculptural, although evidence of
painting can be found, those at Ajanta reveal good examples of an
early Buddhist form of painting that is still similarly practised
today by monks elsewhere. The paintings depict the Jatakamala,
the past lives of Buddha, in a developed form. The way of painting
was to coat the walls in a layer of clay, cow dung and rice husks to
the depth of about one and a half centimetres. Upon this a layer of
lime was applied resulting in a smooth surface. Colours came from
local material such as yellow earth, red ochre and green rock.
Brushes were used to fill in the picture until the desired effect was
reached while a further technique was applied of toning down the
highlights and shading with darker lines.
The influx of artisans
was largely the result of patronage by individual donors encouraged
by King Harisena. When he died suddenly in 477 much of the artistic
work in progress was to grind to a halt. It seems as though the
activity of practicing Buddhists was already largely over for the
Chinese pilgrim Fa Hien had reported in about 400 C.E. that although
pilgrims came to the site, the local people did not practice in
accord with the Law of Buddha. Had there been a spiritual
renaissance in the intervening half century? It seems unlikely.
Rather those in power had seen to try and restore the Buddhist faith
through their influence and support of artisans. Looking at the
artistic remains of Ajanta, Ellora and Karla, all Buddhist sites in
present day Maharashtra, one is truck by their artistic excellence
and glowing evidence of endeavour. Yet one may also wonder as to who
were the people who worshipped in these shrines and whose voices
echoed melodiously in the caves. They may not be the ones directly
responsible for the creations we now see yet it is largely thanks to
their prayers that these sites are what they are today.
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