The
Ajanta Caves in
Aurangabad district of
Maharashtra state of
India are about 30
rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments which date from the 2nd century
BCE to about 480 or 650 CE. The caves include paintings and sculptures described by the government
Archaeological Survey of India as "the finest surviving examples of Indian art, particularly painting", which are masterpieces of
Buddhist religious art, with figures of the Buddha and depictions of the
Jataka tales. The caves were built in two phases starting around the 2nd century BCE, with the second group of caves built around 400–650
CE according to older accounts, or all in a brief period of 460 to 480 according to the recent proposals of Walter M. Spink. The site is a protected monument in the care of the Archaeological Survey of India, and since
1983, the Ajanta Caves have been a
UNESCO World Heritage Site.