The Ajanta Caves (Ajiṇṭhā leni; Marathi: अजिंठा लेणी) in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, 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.

The caves are located in the Indian state of Maharashtra, near Jalgaon and just outside the village of Ajinṭhā 20°31′56″N 75°44′44″E), about 59 kilometres from Jalgaon railway station on the Delhi – Mumbai line and Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbai line of the Central Railway zone, and 104 kilometres from the city of Aurangabad. They are 100 kilometres from the Ellora Caves, which contain Hindu and Jain temples as well as Buddhist caves, the last dating from a period similar to Ajanta. The Ajanta caves are cut into the side of a cliff that is on the south side of a U-shaped gorge on the small river Waghur, and although they are now along and above a modern pathway running across the cliff they were originally reached by individual stairs or ladders from the side of the river 35 to 110 feet below.

The area was previously heavily forested, and after the site ceased to be used the caves were covered by jungle until accidentally rediscovered in 1819 by a British officer on a hunting party. They are Buddhist monastic buildings, apparently representing a number of distinct "monasteries" or colleges. The caves are numbered 1 to 28 according to their place along the path, beginning at the entrance. Several are unfinished and some barely begun and others are small shrines, included in the traditional numbering as e.g. "9A"; "Cave 15A" was still hidden under rubble when the numbering was done. Further round the gorge are a number of waterfalls, which when the river is high are audible from outside the caves.

The caves form the largest corpus of early Indian wall-painting; other survivals from the area of modern India are very few, though they are related to 5th-century paintings at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka. The elaborate architectural carving in many caves is also very rare, and the style of the many figure sculptures is highly local, found only at a few nearby contemporary sites, although the Ajanta tradition can be related to the later Hindu Ellora Caves and other sites.

HISTORY

Like the other ancient Buddhist monasteries, Ajanta had a large emphasis on teaching, and was divided into several different caves for living, education and worship, under a central direction. Monks were probably assigned to specific caves for living. The layout reflects this organizational structure, with most of the caves only connected through the exterior. The 7th-century travelling Chinese scholar Xuanzang informs us that Dignaga, a celebrated Buddhist philosopher and controversialist, author of well-known books on logic, lived at Ajanta in the 5th century. In its prime the settlement would have accommodated several hundred teachers and pupils. Many monks who had finished their first training may have returned to Ajanta during the monsoon season from an itinerant lifestyle.

The caves are generally agreed to have been made in two distinct periods, separated by several centuries.

CAVES OF THE FIRST (SATAVAHANA) PERIOD

The earliest group of caves consists of caves 9, 10, 12, 13 and 15A. According to Walter Spink, they were made during the period 100 BCE to 100 CE, probably under the patronage of the Satavahana dynasty (230 BCE – c. 220 CE) who ruled the region. Other datings prefer the period 300 BCE to 100 BCE, though the grouping of the earlier caves is generally agreed. More early caves may have vanished through later excavations. Of these, caves 9 and 10 are stupa halls of chaitya-griha form, and caves 12, 13, and 15A are vihāras (see the architecture section below for descriptions of these types). The first phase is still often called the Hinayāna phase, as it originated when, using traditional terminology, the Hinayāna or Lesser Vehicle tradition of Buddhism was dominant, when the Buddha was revered symbolically. However the use of the term Hinayana for this period of Buddhism is now deprecated by historians; equally the caves of the second period are now mostly dated too early to be properly called Mahayana, and do not yet show the full expanded cast of supernatural beings characteristic of that phase of Buddhist art. The first Satavahana period caves lacked figurative sculpture, emphasizing the stupa instead, and in the caves of the second period the overwhelming majority of images represent the Buddha alone, or narrative scenes of his lives.

Spink believes that some time after the Satavahana period caves were made the site was abandoned for a considerable period until the mid-5th century, probably because the region had turned mainly Hindu

CAVES OF THE LATER OR VAKATAKA PERIOD

The second phase began in the 5th century. For a long time it was thought that the later caves were made over a long period from the 4th to the 7th centuries CE, but in recent decades a series of studies by the leading expert on the caves, Walter M. Spink, have argued that most of the work took place over the very brief period from 460 to 480 CE, during the reign of Emperor Harishena of the Vakataka dynasty. This view has been criticized by some scholars, but is now broadly accepted by most authors of general books on Indian art, for example Huntington and Harle.

The second phase is still often called the Mahāyāna or Greater Vehicle phase, but scholars now tend to avoid this nomenclature because of the problems that have surfaced regarding our understanding of Mahāyāna.

Some 20 cave temples were simultaneously created, for the most part viharas with a sanctuary at the back. The most elaborate caves were produced in this period, which included some "modernization" of earlier caves. Spink claims that it is possible to establish dating for this period with a very high level of precision; a fuller account of his chronology is given below. Although debate continues, Spink's ideas are increasingly widely accepted, at least in their broad conclusions. The Archaeological Survey of India website still presents the traditional dating: "The second phase of paintings started around 5th – 6th centuries A.D. and continued for the next two centuries". Caves of the second period are 1–8, 11, 14–29, some possibly extensions of earlier caves. Caves 19, 26, and 29 are chaitya-grihas, the rest viharas.

According to Spink, the Ajanta Caves appear to have been abandoned by wealthy patrons shortly after the fall of Harishena, in about 480 CE. They were then gradually abandoned and forgotten. During the intervening centuries, the jungle grew back and the caves were hidden, unvisited and undisturbed, although the local population were aware of at least some of them.

REDISCOVERY

On 28 April 1819, a British officer for the Madras Presidency, John Smith, of the 28th Cavalry, while hunting tiger, accidentally discovered the entrance to Cave No. 10 deep within the tangled undergrowth. There were local people already using the caves for prayers with a small fire, when he arrived. Exploring that first cave, long since a home to nothing more than birds and bats and a lair for other larger animals, Captain Smith vandalized the wall by scratching his name and the date, April 1819. Since he stood on a five-foot high pile of rubble collected over the years, the inscription is well above the eye-level gaze of an adult today. A paper on the caves by William Erskine was read to the Bombay Literary Society in 1822. Within a few decades, the caves became famous for their exotic setting, impressive architecture, and above all their exceptional, all but unique paintings. A number of large projects to copy the paintings were made in the century after rediscovery, covered below. In 1848 the Royal Asiatic Society established the "Bombay Cave Temple Commission" to clear, tidy and record the most important rock-cut sites in the Bombay Presidency, with John Wilson, as president. In 1861 this became the nucleus of the new Archaeological Survey of India. Until the Nizam of Hyderabad built the modern path between the caves, among other efforts to make the site easy to visit, a trip to Ajanta was a considerable adventure, and contemporary accounts dwell with relish on the dangers from falls off narrow ledges, animals and the Bhil people, who were armed with bows and arrows and had a fearsome reputation.

Today, fairly easily combined with Ellora in a single trip, the caves are the most popular tourist destination in Mahrashtra, and are often crowded at holiday times, increasing the threat to the caves, especially the paintings. In 2012, the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation announced plans to add to the ASI visitor centre at the entrance complete replicas of caves 1, 2, 16 & 17 to reduce crowding in the originals, and enable visitors to receive a better visual idea of the paintings, which are dimly-lit and hard to read in the caves. Figures for the year to March 2010 showed a total of 390,000 visitors to the site, divided into 362,000 domestic and 27,000 foreign. The trends over the previous few years show a considerable growth in domestic visitors, but a decline in foreign ones; the year to 2010 was the first in which foreign visitors to Ellora exceeded those to Ajanta.

PAINTINGS

Mural paintings survive from both the earlier and later groups of caves. Several fragments of murals preserved from the earlier caves (Caves 9 and 11) are effectively unique survivals of court-led painting in India from this period, and "show that by Sātavāhana times, if not earlier, the Indian painter had mastered an easy and fluent naturalistic style, dealing with large groups of people in a manner comparable to the reliefs of the Sāñcī toraņa crossbars".

Four of the later caves have large and relatively well-preserved mural paintings which "have come to represent Indian mural painting to the non-specialist", and fall into two stylistic groups, with the most famous in Caves 16 and 17, and apparently later paintings in Caves 1 and 2. The latter group were thought to be a century or more later than the others, but the revised chronology proposed by Spink would place them much closer to the earlier group, perhaps contemporary with it in a more progressive style, or one reflecting a team from a different region. The paintings are in "dry fresco", painted on top of a dry plaster surface rather than into wet plaster.

All the paintings appear to be the work of painters at least as used to decorating palaces as temples, and show a familiarity with and interest in details of the life of a wealthy court. We know from literary sources that painting was widely practised and appreciated in the courts of the Gupta period. Unlike much Indian painting, compositions are not laid out in horizontal compartments like a frieze, but show large scenes spreading in all directions from a single figure or group at the centre. The ceilings are also painted with sophisticated and elaborate decorative motifs, many derived from sculpture. The paintings in cave 1, which according to Spink was commissioned by Harisena himself, concentrate on those Jataka tales which show previous lives of the Buddha as a king, rather than as an animal or human commoner, and so show settings from contemporary palace life.

In general the later caves seem to have been painted on finished areas as excavating work continued elsewhere in the cave, as shown in caves 2 and 16 in particular. According to Spink's account of the chronology of the caves, the abandonment of work in 478 after a brief busy period accounts for the absence of painting in caves such as 4 and 17, the later being plastered in preparation for paintings that were never done.

COPIES

The paintings have deteriorated significantly since they were rediscovered, and a number of 19th-century copies and drawings are important for a complete understanding of the works. However, the earliest projects to copy the paintings were plagued by bad fortune. In 1846, Major Robert Gill, an Army officer from Madras presidency and a painter, was appointed by the Royal Asiatic Society to replicate the frescoes on the cave walls to exhibit these paintings in England. Gill worked on his painting at the site from 1844 to 1863 (though he continued to be based there until his death in 1875, writing books and photographing) and made 27 copies of large sections of murals, but all but four were destroyed in a fire at the Crystal Palace in London in 1866, where they were on display.

Another attempt was made in 1872 when the Bombay Presidency commissioned John Griffiths, then principal of the Bombay School of Art, to work with his students to make new copies, again for shipping to England. They worked on this for thirteen years and some 300 canvases were produced, many of which were displayed at the Imperial Institute on Exhibition Road in London, one of the forerunners of the Victoria and Albert Museum. But in 1885 another fire destroyed over a hundred paintings that were in storage. The V&A still has 166 paintings surviving from both sets, though none have been on permanent display since 1955. The largest are some 3 × 6 metres. A conservation project was undertaken on about half of them in 2006, also involving the University of Northumbria. Griffith and his students had unfortunately painted many of the paintings with "cheap varnish" in order to make them easier to see, which has added to the deterioration of the originals, as has, according to Spink and others, recent cleaning by the ASI.

A further set of copies were made between 1909 and 1911 by Christiana Herringham (Lady Herringham) and a group of students from the Calcutta School of Art that included the future Indian Modernist painter Nandalal Bose. The copies were published in full colour as the first publication of London's fledgling India Society. More than the earlier copies, these aimed to fill in holes and damage to recreate the original condition rather than record the state of the paintings as she was seeing them. According to one writer, unlike the paintings created by her predecessors Griffiths and Gill, whose copies were influenced by British Victorian styles of painting, those of the Herringham expedition preferred an 'Indian Renascence' aesthetic of the type pioneered by Abanindranath Tagore.

Early photographic surveys were made by Robert Gill, who learnt to use a camera from about 1856, and whose photos, including some using stereoscopy, were used in books by him and Fergusson (many are available online from the British Library), then Victor Goloubew in 1911 and E.L. Vassey, who took the photos in the four volume study of the caves by Ghulam Yazdani (published 1930–1955).

ARCHITECTURE

The monasteries mostly consist of vihara halls for prayer and living, which are typically rectangular with small square dormitory cells cut into the walls, and by the second period a shrine or sanctuary at the rear centred on a large statue of the Buddha, also carved from the living rock. This change reflects the movement from Hinayana to Mahāyāna Buddhism. The other type of main hall is the narrower and higher chaitya hall with a stupa as the focus at the far end, and a narrow aisle around the walls, behind a range of pillars placed close together. Other plainer rooms were for sleeping and other activities. Some of the caves have elaborate carved entrances, some with large windows over the door to admit light. There is often a colonnaded porch or verandah, with another space inside the doors running the width of the cave.

The central square space of the interior of the viharas is defined by square columns forming a more or less square open area. Outside this are long rectangular aisles on each side, forming a kind of cloister. Along the side and rear walls are a number of small cells entered by a narrow doorway; these are roughly square, and have small niches on their back walls. Originally they had wooden doors. The centre of the rear wall has a larger shrine-room behind, containing a large Buddha statue. The viharas of the earlier period are much simpler, and lack shrines. Spink in fact places the change to a design with a shrine to the middle of the second period, with many caves being adapted to add a shrine in mid-excavation, or after the original phase.

The plan of Cave 1 shows one of the largest viharas, but is fairly typical of the later group. Many others, such as Cave 16, lack the vestibule to the shrine, which leads straight off the main hall. Cave 6 is two viharas, one above the other, connected by internal stairs, with sanctuaries on both levels.

The four completed chaitya halls are caves 9 and 10 from the early period, and caves 19 and 26 from the later period of construction. All follow the typical form found elsewhere, with high ceilings and a central "nave" leading to the stupa, which is near the back, but allows walking behind it, as walking around stupas was (and remains) a common element of Buddhist worship (pradakshina). The later two have high ribbed roofs, which reflect timber forms, and the earlier two are thought to have used actual timber ribs, which have now perished. The two later halls have a rather unusual arrangement (also found in Cave 10 at Ellora) where the stupa is fronted by a large relief sculpture of the Buddha, standing in Cave 19 and seated in Cave 26. Cave 29 is a late and very incomplete chaitya hall.

The form of columns in the work of the first period is very plain and un-embellished, with both chaitya halls using simple octagonal columns, which were painted with figures. In the second period columns were far more varied and inventive, often changing profile over their height, and with elaborate carved capitals, often spreading wide. Many columns are carved over all their surface, some fluted and others carved with decoration all over, as in cave 1.

The flood basalt rock of the cliff, part of the Deccan Traps formed by successive volcanic eruptions at the end of the Cretaceous, is layered horizontally, and somewhat variable in quality, so the excavators had to amend their plans in places, and in places there have been collapses in the intervening centuries, as with the lost portico to cave 1. Excavation began by cutting a narrow tunnel at roof level, which was expanded downwards and outwards; the half-built vihara cave 24 shows the method. Spink believes that for the first caves of the second period the excavators had to relearn skills and techniques that had been lost in the centuries since the first period, which were then transmitted to be used at later rock-cut sites in the region, such as Ellora, and the Elephanta, Bagh, Badami and Aurangabad Caves.

The caves from the first period seem to have been paid for by a number of different patrons, with several inscriptions recording the donation of particular portions of a single cave, but according to Spink the later caves were each commissioned as a complete unit by a single patron from the local rulers or their court elites. After the death of Harisena smaller donors got their chance to add small "shrinelets" between the caves or add statues to existing caves, and some two hundred of these "intrusive" additions were made in sculpture, with a further number of intrusive paintings, up to three hundred in cave 10 alone.

A grand gateway to the site, at the apex of the gorge's horsehoe between caves 15 and 16, was approached from the river, and is decorated with elephants on either side and a nāga, or protective snake deity.

ICONOGRAPHY OF THE CAVES

In the pre-Christian era, the Buddha was represented symbolically, in the form of the stupa. Thus, halls were made with stupas to venerate the Buddha. In later periods the images of the Buddha started to be made in coins, relic caskets, relief or loose sculptural forms, etc. However, it took a while for the human representation of the Buddha to appear in Buddhist art. One of the earliest evidences of the Buddha's human representations are found at Buddhist archaeological sites, such as Goli, Nagarjunakonda, and Amaravati. The monasteries of those sites were built in less durable media, such as wood, brick, and stone. As far as the genre of rock-cut architecture is concerned it took many centuries for the Buddha image to be depicted. Nobody knows for sure at which rock-cut cave site the first image of the Buddha was depicted. Current research indicates that Buddha images in a portable form, made of wood or stone, were introduced, for the first time, at Kanheri, to be followed soon at Ajanta Cave 8 (Dhavalikar, Jadhav, Spink, Singh). While the Kanheri example dates to 4th or 5th century CE, the Ajanta example has been dated to c. 462–478 CE (Spink). None of the rock-cut monasteries prior to these dates, and other than these examples, show any Buddha image although hundreds of rock-cut caves were made throughout India during the first few centuries CE. And, in those caves, it is the stupa that is the object of veneration, not the image. Images of the Buddha are not found in Buddhist sailagrhas (rock-cut complexes) until the times of the Kanheri (4th–5th century CE) and Ajanta examples (c. 462–478 CE).

The caves of the second period, now all dated to the 5th century, were typically described as "Mahayana", but do not show the features associated with later Mahayana Buddhism. Although the beginnings of Mahāyāna teachings go back to the 1st century there is little art and archaeological evidence to suggest that it became a mainstream cult for several centuries. In Mahayana it is not Gautama Buddha but the Bodhisattva who is important, including "deity" Bodhisattva like Manjushri and Tara, as well as aspects of the Buddha such as Aksobhya, and Amitabha. Except for a few Bodhisattva, these are not depicted at Ajanta, where the Buddha remains the dominant figure. Even the Bodhisattva images of Ajanta are never central objects of worship, but are always shown as attendants of the Buddha in the shrine. If a Bodhisattva is shown in isolation, as in the Astabhaya scenes, these were done in the very last years of activities at Ajanta, and are mostly 'intrusive' in nature, meaning that they were not planned by the original patrons, and were added by new donors after the original patrons had suddenly abandoned the region in the wake of Emperor Harisena's death.

The contrast between iconic and aniconic representations, that is, the stupa on one hand and the image of the Buddha on the other, is now being seen as a construct of the modern scholar rather than a reality of the past. The second phase of Ajanta shows that the stupa and image coincided together. If the entire corpus of the art of Ajanta including sculpture, iconography, architecture, epigraphy, and painting are analysed afresh it will become clear that there was no duality between the symbolic and human forms of the Buddha, as far as the 5th-century phase of Ajanta is concerned. That is why most current scholars tend to avoid the terms 'Hinayana' and 'Mahayana' in the context of Ajanta. They now prefer to call the second phase by the ruling dynasty, as the Vākāţaka phase.

CAVES

CAVE 1

Cave 1 was built on the eastern end of the horse-shoe shaped scarp, and is now the first cave the visitor encounters. This would when first made have been a less prominent position, right at the end of the row. According to Spink, it is one of the latest caves to have been excavated, when the best sites had been taken, and was never fully inaugurated for worship by the dedication of the Buddha image in the central shrine. This is shown by the absence of sooty deposits from butter lamps on the base of the shrine image, and the lack of damage to the paintings that would have been happened if the garland-hooks around the shrine had been in use for any period of time. Although there is no epigraphic evidence, Spink believes that the Vākāţaka Emperor Harishena was the benefactor of the work, and this is reflected in the emphasis on imagery of royalty in the cave, with those Jakata tales being selected that tell of those previous lives of the Buddha in which he was royal.

The cliff has a more steep slope here than at other caves, so to achieve a tall grand facade it was necessary to cut far back into the slope, giving a large courtyard in front of the facade. There was originally a columned portico in front of the present facade, which can be seen "half-intact in the 1880s" in pictures of the site, but this fell down completely and the remains, despite containing fine carving, were carelessly thrown down the slope into the river, from where they have been lost, presumably carried away in monsoon torrents.

This cave has one of the most elaborate carved façades, with relief sculptures on entablature and ridges, and most surfaces embellished with decorative carving. There are scenes carved from the life of the Buddha as well as a number of decorative motifs. A two pillared portico, visible in the 19th-century photographs, has since perished. The cave has a front-court with cells fronted by pillared vestibules on either side. These have a high plinth level. The cave has a porch with simple cells on both ends. The absence of pillared vestibules on the ends suggest that the porch was not excavated in the latest phase of Ajanta when pillared vestibules had become a necessity and norm. Most areas of the porch were once covered with murals, of which many fragments remain, especially on the ceiling. There are three doorways: a central doorway and two side doorways. Two square windows were carved between the doorways to brighten the interiors.

Each wall of the hall inside is nearly 12 m long and 6.1 m high. Twelve pillars make a square colonnade inside supporting the ceiling, and creating spacious aisles along the walls. There is a shrine carved on the rear wall to house an impressive seated image of the Buddha, his hands being in the dharmachakrapravartana mudra. There are four cells on each of the left, rear, and the right walls, though due to rock fault there are none at the ends of the rear aisle. The walls are covered with paintings in a fair state of preservation, though the full scheme was never completed. The scenes depicted are mostly didactic, devotional, and ornamental, with scenes from the Jataka stories of the Buddha's former existences as a bodhisattva), the life of the Gautama Buddha, and those of his veneration. The two most famous individual painted images at Ajanta are the two over-life size figures of the protective bodhisattvas Padmapani and Vajrapani on either side of the entrance to the Buddha shrine on the wall of the rear aisle (see illustrations above). According to Spink, the original dating of the paintings to about 625 arose largely or entirely because James Fegusson, a 19th-century architectural historian, had decided that a scene showing an ambassador being received, with figures in Persian dress, represented a recorded embassy to Persia (from a Hindu monarch at that) around that date.

CAVE 2

Cave 2, adjacent to Cave 1, is known for the paintings that have been preserved on its walls, ceilings, and pillars. It looks similar to Cave 1 and is in a better state of preservation.

Cave 2 has a porch quite different from Cave one. Even the façade carvings seem to be different. The cave is supported by robust pillars, ornamented with designs. The front porch consists of cells supported by pillared vestibules on both ends. The cells on the previously "wasted areas" were needed to meet the greater housing requirements in later years. Porch-end cells became a trend in all later Vakataka excavations. The simple single cells on porch-ends were converted into CPVs or were planned to provide more room, symmetry, and beauty.

The paintings on the ceilings and walls of this porch have been widely published. They depict the Jataka tales that are stories of the Buddha's life in former existences as Bodhisattva. Just as the stories illustrated in cave 1 emphasize kingship, those in cave 2 show many "noble and powerful" women in prominent roles, leading to suggestions that the patron was an unknown woman. The porch's rear wall has a doorway in the center, which allows entrance to the hall. On either side of the door is a square-shaped window to brighten the interior.

The hall has four colonnades which are supporting the ceiling and surrounding a square in the center of the hall. Each arm or colonnade of the square is parallel to the respective walls of the hall, making an aisle in between. The colonnades have rock-beams above and below them. The capitals are carved and painted with various decorative themes that include ornamental, human, animal, vegetative, and semi-divine forms.

Paintings appear on almost every surface of the cave except for the floor. At various places the art work has become eroded due to decay and human interference. Therefore, many areas of the painted walls, ceilings, and pillars are fragmentary. The painted narratives of the Jataka tales are depicted only on the walls, which demanded the special attention of the devotee. They are didactic in nature, meant to inform the community about the Buddha's teachings and life through successive rebirths. Their placement on the walls required the devotee to walk through the aisles and 'read' the narratives depicted in various episodes. The narrative episodes are depicted one after another although not in a linear order. Their identification has been a core area of research since the site's rediscovery in 1819. Dieter Schlingloff's identifications have updated our knowledge on the subject.

CAVE 4

The Archeological Survey of India board outside the caves gives the following detail about cave 4: "This is the largest monastery planned on a grandiose scale but was never finished. An inscription on the pedestal of the buddha's image mentions that it was a gift from a person named Mathura and paleographically belongs to 6th century A.D. It consists of a verandah, a hypostylar hall, sanctum with an antechamber and a series of unfinished cells. The rear wall of the verandah contains the panel of Litany of Avalokiteśvara".

The sanctuary houses a colossal image of the Buddha in preaching pose flanked by bodhisattvas and celestial nymphs hovering above.

CAVES 9-10

Caves 9 and 10 are the two chaitya halls from the first period of construction, though both were also undergoing an uncompleted reworking at the end of the second period. Cave 10 was perhaps originally of the 1st century BCE, and cave 9 about a hundred years later. The small "shrinelets" called caves 9A to 9D and 10A also date from the second period, and were commissioned by individuals.

The paintings in cave 10 include some surviving from the early period, many from an incomplete programme of modernization in the second period, and a very large number of smaller late intrusive images, nearly all Buddhas and many with donor inscriptions from individuals. These mostly avoided over-painting the "official" programme and after the best positions were used up are tucked away in less prominent positions not yet painted; the total of these (including those now lost) was probably over 300, and the hands of many different artists are visible.

OTHER CAVES

Cave 3 is merely a start of an excavation; according to Spink it was begun right at the end of the final period of work and soon abandoned. Caves 5 and 6 are viharas, the latter on two floors, that were late works of which only the lower floor of cave 6 was ever finished. The upper floor of cave 6 has many private votive sculptures, and a shrine Buddha, but is otherwise unfinished. Cave 7 has a grand facade with two porticos but, perhaps because of faults in the rock, which posed problems in many caves, was never taken very deep into the cliff, and consists only of the two porticos and a shrine room with antechamber, with no central hall. Some cells were fitted in.

Cave 8 was long thought to date to the first period of construction, but Spink sees it as perhaps the earliest cave from the second period, its shrine an "afterthought". The statue may have been loose rather than carved from the living rock, as it has now vanished. The cave was painted, but only traces remain.

SPINK´S DETAILED CHRONOLOGY

Walter M. Spink has over recent decades developed a very precise and circumstantial chronology for the second period of work on the site, which unlike earlier scholars, he places entirely in the 5th century. This is based on evidence such as the inscriptions and artistic style, combined with the many uncompleted elements of the caves. He believes the earlier group of caves, which like other scholars he dates only approximately, to the period "between 100 BCE – 100 CE", were at some later point completely abandoned and remained so "for over three centuries", as the local population had turned mainly Hindu. This changed with the accession of the Emperor Harishena of the Vakataka Dynasty, who reigned from 460 to his death in 477. Harisena extended the Central Indian Vakataka Empire to include a stretch of the east coast of India; the Gupta Empire ruled northern India at the same period, and the Pallava dynasty much of the south.

According to Spink, Harisena encouraged a group of associates, including his prime minister Varahadeva and Upendragupta, the sub-king in whose territory Ajanta was, to dig out new caves, which were individually commissioned, some containing inscriptions recording the donation. This activity began in 462 but was mostly suspended in 468 because of threats from the neighbouring Asmaka kings. Work continued on only caves 1, Harisena's own commission, and 17–20, commissioned by Upendragupta. In 472 the situation was such that work was suspended completely, in a period that Spink calls "the Hiatus", which lasted until about 475, by which time the Asmakas had replaced Upendragupta as the local rulers.

Work was then resumed, but again disrupted by Harisena's death in 477, soon after which major excavation ceased, except at cave 26, which the Asmakas were sponsoring themselves. The Asmakas launched a revolt against Harisena's son, which brought about the end of the Vakataka Dynasty. In the years 478–480 major excavation by important patrons was replaced by a rash of "intrusions" – statues added to existing caves, and small shrines dotted about where there was space between them. These were commissioned by less powerful individuals, some monks, who had not previously been able to make additions to the large excavations of the rulers and courtiers. They were added to the facades, the return sides of the entrances, and to walls inside the caves. According to Spink, "After 480, not a single image was ever made again at the site", and as Hinduism again dominated the region, the site was again abandoned, this time for over a millennium.

Spink does not use "circa" in his dates, but says that "one should allow a margin of error of one year or perhaps even two in all cases".

IMPACT ON MODERN INDIAN PAINTINGS

The Ajanta paintings, or more likely the general style they come from, influenced painting in Tibet and Sri Lanka.

The rediscovery of ancient Indian paintings at Ajanta provided Indian artists examples from ancient India to follow. Nandlal Bose experimented with techniques to follow the ancient style which allowed him to develop his unique style. Abanindranath Tagore also used the Ajanta paintings for inspiration.

WIKIPEDIA

Located on SR 37 between Mcconnelsville and Crooksville Ohio.

Located: Rotary Museum, Wentworth NSW

Hedegården is a Danish farm from around year 1800. The farm is now located at the Hjerl Hede Open-Air Museum in Denmark.

Located in the City Centre just off North St, quite an unpleasant sight.

Gwanghwamun Square located in front of Gyeongbokgung Palace is a 20,000 m2 urban space dominated by two statues of important figures from Korean history; Admiral Yi Sun-Shin and Sejong the Great. In fact you can learn more about these two men if you venture underneath the square where there are free museums dedicated to each of these men, The King Sejong Story and The Story of Yi Sunshin, both featuring interactive exhibitions. Just a short distance from the centrally located Gwanghwamun Square you can find many other places worth seeing; Cheonggyecheon Stream, the fashionable neighbourhood Samcheong-dong, City Hall and Jongro.

Accessible from:

Gwanghwamun Station (Seoul Subway Line 5), Exit 2

located at Gravois and Morganford Rd

postmarked 1979

Located at 1647 Canton Road, Marietta Ga 30066. Aggressive Beginners Level Pole Dance Tricks 4 & 6 weeks Class Series.

Located near Jasper, Alabama.

Located at 811 Pacific Street, this lovely Classical Revival, former bank was built in 1920 using the designs of William Lightner and Charles B. Zalesky. The financial institution that constructed the edifice closed in the 1930s due to the Great Depression. The bank was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

Ladora, Iowa is a small town located in northwestern Iowa County southwest of Marengo.

Located in Oberhausen, Germany, Westfield Centro isn’t just a mall; it’s a massive urban centerpiece that rose from the literal ashes of the Ruhr area's industrial past. Built on the site of a former steelworks, it serves as the heart of the "Neue Mitte" (New Center) district. It holds the title of one of Europe’s largest shopping and leisure destinations, acting as a shiny, glass-and-steel testament to how a city can pivot from heavy industry to high-end retail therapy.

Inside, the mall is a sprawling, two-story labyrinth featuring over 250 international brands. You’ll find everything from the usual suspects like Apple, Zara, and H&M to specialized boutiques that make it a regional magnet for fashionistas and tech geeks alike. The layout is remarkably airy and bright for its scale, though you should definitely wear your most comfortable sneakers—hitting every wing of the mall is a legitimate cardio workout that your fitness tracker will definitely appreciate.

Beyond the retail therapy, the true soul of Centro is its outdoor Promenade. This waterfront stretch is lined with a diverse array of restaurants and bars, ranging from traditional German fare to international chains. It’s the go-to spot for a post-shopping "feierabend" drink. The mall also anchors a massive leisure complex that includes a Multiplex cinema, the Rudolf Weber-Arena, and the iconic Gasometer Oberhausen, a giant former gas tank that now hosts some of the most impressive art installations in Europe.

Now managed by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, the mall has leaned heavily into the "experience" era. It’s impeccably clean, hyper-modern, and features the Coca-Cola Oasis, one of the largest food courts in the country. While it can get a bit chaotic on Saturdays or during the peak of the Christmas market season, its ability to blend shopping, dining, and tourist attractions into one seamless (and weatherproof) package makes it the undisputed heavyweight champion of the German shopping scene.

Located at the Juvenile Courthouse in Sacramento, CA. This image was edited in Lightroom 5 for the color isolation effect. The vehicle had such a great impact in color it truely didn't need the effect.

Located on a small island (there are 8 islands named Eagle in Maine) in East Penobscot Bay.

The 25 foot tall rubblestone tower was built in 1838 and never needed to be replaced. The pyramidal wooden fog warning bell tower dates from the same time. A wooden keeper's house was added in 1857 and a fourth order Fresnel lens was installed in 1858. Automated in 1959 when the Fresnel lens was replaced with 300 mm modern optic which flashes white every 4 seconds. In 1963 the Coast Guard destroyed all the outbuildings on this site to prevent vandalism. During this operation they lost control of the 1000 pound fog warning bell which fell into the sea. However, a local lobsterman located the bell and was able to tow and retrieve same, which is now displayed at a local museum.

One of the problems at this lonely site is the overgrowth of trees obscuring the light.

Located at Midwest Transit Equipment in Marshall, MI

Located at Chichen Itza Mexico

Located in New York, this rendering of a Custom Milled Log Home gives you the feeling of rustic comfort and beauty. With a stone fireplace and stone accents, this Log Home Design offers just the right combination of building material to leave viewers breathless.

Pictures of this completed log home coming soon.

This and many more Log Home Designs can be viewed at PrecisionCraft Log & Timber Homes.

Located at mile 21.5 on the Denali Highway, the Tangle Lakes are the perfect place to take a break from a busy summer and drop a line! A series of long, narrow lakes provide a geographic divide between the Delta and Gulkana rivers, both designated National Wild and Scenic Rivers. The BLM Tangle Lakes Campground and the BLM Delta Wayside provide easy access points and boat launches to the lakes and the Delta River.

Photo courtesy of Carol Teitzel.

The Bureau of Land Management's recreation resources and visitor services support strong local economies and public land conservation. As we work to enhance recreational opportunities for the American family, we strive to remain a good neighbor. This means respecting how communities use the public lands, as well as including their voices in our management decisions.

This rustic Post and Beam Log Home features a back porch of stone as well as a proud stone fireplace. A perfect example of a Log Home Masterpiece.

Learn more about Post and Beam Homes at: www.precisioncraft.com/LogPostBeamHomes.html

Located in N. Myrtle Beach, SC

Located in the Smokey Mountains National Park Tennessee.

Located in Lavacolla, a town 16 km from Galicia's capital city, Santiago de Compostela

Located at 200 South University Street, this Romanesque Revival structure was built in 1896. George H. Miller was its architect, and in 1986 the edifice was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is one of the five so called Altgeld's castles, which were built in similar style on the campuses of five of Illinois' public institutions.

Illinois State University (ISU) is a public research university in Normal, Illinois. It was founded in 1857 as the Illinois State Normal University and is the oldest public university in Illinois. The university emphasizes teaching and is recognized as one of the top ten largest producers of teachers in the U.S. according to the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education.

Information from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_State_University

Bloomington is a small city of about 80,000 people located in central Illinois between Saint Louis and Chicago just northeast of Springfield. It is the county seat of McLean County, and along with its neighbor community of Normal, it serves as home to Illinois State University.

Located in front of the Sweet Grass County Courthouse in Big Timber, Montana

Perfect for brunch this nook is conveniently located next to the kitchen in this timber frame home.

Located here: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Angel/49/162/2096

Located in downtown Nashville, TN. Siren is used as a tornado siren and is tested at the first Saturday of every month at 12:00 PM CST.

Located on Old Church Street, taken on Saturday 15th February. The closure was due to the road being resurfaced

Located where the Pinto Fault allows groundwater to reach the surface, the Oasis of Mara sustains a dense gathering of life in the arid desert.

NPS/Brad Sutton

1956 Memorial, Budapest, Hungary

The memorial is located on the edge of Varosliget on the former "Parade" Avenue where the Communist regime organized its most important meetings or processions, like those on May 1 every year. The Processions Ave was separated from the Varosliget in the early 50ies. The Regnum Marianum church was demolished to complete the Avenue. The statue of Stalin was erected there, which was destroyed by the workers of Budapest in 1956.

The present monument is located halfway between the Timewheel and the former site of the church, on the spot of the statue of Stalin. It was designed by the "i-ypszilon

alkotócsoport" in 2004 and it was completed in 2006.

It's a polemic monument, because it has no flags, colors, coat of arms or other national symbols. Extreme right organizations often don't understand it and vandalize the monument with red paint. (They have a peculiar taste, they attack monuments of the Red Army, WW2 Memorials and the statue of Churchill.)

Lateral and front view of the monument.

Located in Zamalek (where I ventured in search of healthy food - found one salad bar), this building shows both Gothic and Mediterranean influence. I love those wooden blinds, but there's not much use for them where I live.

Full gallery: www.m1key.me/photography/egypt_2/

Badami formerly known as Vatapi, is a town and headquarters of a taluk by the same name, in the Bagalkot district of Karnataka, India. It was the regal capital of the Badami Chalukyas from 540 to 757 AD. It is famous for its rock cut structural temples. It is located in a ravine at the foot of a rugged, red sandstone outcrop that surrounds Agastya lake. Badami has been selected as one of the heritage cities for HRIDAY - Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana scheme of Government of India.

HISTORY

- Dravidian architecture - Badami Chalukyas

- Hindu temple architecture - Badami Chalukya architecture

- Political history of medieval Karnataka - Badami Chalukyas

- Architecture of Karnataka - Badami Chalukya architecture

- Chalukyas of Badami

PRE-HISTORIC

Badami is surrounded by many pre-historic places including Khyad area of Badami, Hiregudda, Sidlaphadi and Kutkankeri (Junjunpadi, Shigipadi and Anipadi), there we can see the rock shelters megalithic burial sites and paintings.

BADAMI CHALUKYAS AND OTHER DYNASTIES

MYTHOLOGY

The Puranic story says the wicked asura Vatapi was killed by sage Agastya (as per Agastya-Vatapi story), the area in which the incident happened so named as Vatapi. At Aihole there was a merchant guild known as Ayyavole Ainuravaru lived in the area have reformed. As per scholar Dr. D. P. Dikshit, the first Chalukya king was Jayasimha (a feudatory lord in the Kadamba dynasty), who in 500 AD established the Chalukya kingdom. His grandson Pulakeshin Ibuilt a fort at Vatapi.

BADAMI CHALUKYAS

It was founded in 540 AD by Pulakeshin I (535-566 AD), an early ruler of the Chalukyas. His sons Kirtivarma I (567-598 AD) and his brother Mangalesha (598-610 AD) constructed the cave temples.Kirtivarma I strengthened Vatapi and had three sons Pulakeshin II, Vishnuvardhana and Buddhavarasa, who at his death were minors, thus making them ineligible to rule, so Kirtivarma I's brother Mangalesha took the throne and tried to establish rule, only to be killed by Pulakeshin II who ruled between 610 A.D to 642 A.D. Vatapi was the capital of the Early Chalukyas, who ruled much of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Few parts of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh between the 6th and 8th centuries. The greatest among them was Pulakeshin II (610-642 AD) who defeated many kings including the Pallavas of Kanchipuram.

The rock-cut Badami Cave Temples were sculpted mostly between the 6th and 8th centuries. The four cave temples represent the secular nature of the rulers then, with tolerance and a religious following that inclines towards Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. cave 1 is devoted to Shiva, and Caves 2 and 3 are dedicated to Vishnu, whereas cave 4 displays reliefs of Jain Tirthankaras. Deep caverns with carved images of the various incarnations of Hindu gods are strewn across the area, under boulders and in the red sandstone. From an architectural and archaeological perspective, they provide critical evidence of the early styles and stages of the southern Indian architecture.

The Pallavas under the king Narasimhavarma I seized it in 642 AD & destroyed the vatapi. Pulakeshin II's son Vikramaditya I of Chalukyas drove back Pallavas in 654 AD and led a successful attack on Kanchipuram, the capital of Pallavas. Then Rashtrakutas came to power in Karnataka including Badami around 757 AD and the town lost its importance. Later it was ruled by the Hoysalas.

Then it passed on to Vijayanagara empire, The Adil Shahis, Mughal Empire, The Savanur Nawabs (They were vassals of Nizams and Marathas), The Maratha, Hyder Ali. The Britishers made it part of the Bombay Presidency.

INSCRIPTIONS

Badami has eighteen inscriptions, among them some inscriptions are important. The first Sanskrit inscription in old Kannada script, on a hillock dates back to 543 CE, from the period of Pulakeshin I (Vallabheswara), the second is the 578 CE cave inscription of Mangalesha in Kannada language and script and the third is the Kappe Arabhatta records, the earliest available Kannada poetry in tripadi (three line) metre. one inscription near the Bhuthanatha temple also has inscriptions dating back to the 12th century in Jain rock-cut temple dedicated to the Tirtankara Adinatha.

VATAPI GANAPATI

In the Carnatic music and Hamsadhwani raga the Vatapi Ganapatim Bhaje by the composer Muthuswami Dikshitar. The idol of Vatapi Ganapati brought from Badami by Pallavas, is now in the Uthrapathiswaraswamy Temple, near Thanjavur of Tamil Nadu.

In 7th century, Vatapi Ganapati idol was brought from Badami (Vatapi - Chalukya capital) by Pallava who defeated Chalukyas.

TOURISM

Landmarks in Badami include cave temples, gateways, forts, inscriptions and sculptures.

- A Buddhist cave in a natural setting that can be entered only by crawling on knees.

- The Bhuhtanatha temple, a small shrine, facing the lake, constructed in 5th century.

- Badami Fort situated on top of the hill.

- Many Shivalayas including the Malegatti Shivalaya with 7th century origins.

- The Dattatreya temple.

- The Mallikarjuna temple dating back to the 11th century, built on a star shaped plan.

- a Dargah, a dome of an Islamic place of worship on the south fort side.

- Vista points on top of the North Fort for the view of the ancient town below.

- Temple of Banashankari, a Kuladevata (family deity) for many families, is located near Badami.

- Archaeological museum, that has collection of sculptures from Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal.

BADAMI CAVE TEMPLES

The Badami cave temples are a complex of four cave temples located at Badami, a town in the Bagalkot district in the north part of Karnataka, India. They are considered an example of Indian rock-cut architecture, especially Badami Chalukya architecture initiated during the 6th century. Badami was previously known as Vataapi Badami, the capital of the early Chalukya dynasty, who ruled much of Karnataka from middle of the sixth until the middle of the eighth centuries. Badami is situated on the west bank of an artificial lake filled with greenish water dammed by an earthen wall faced with stone steps. Badami is surrounded in the north and south by forts built in later times from the ramparts that crown their summits.

The Badami cave temples represent some of the earliest known experimentation of Hindu temple prototypes for later temples in the Indian peninsula. Along with Aihole, states UNESCO, their pioneering designs transformed the Malaprabha river valley into a cradle of Temple Architecture, whose ideas defined the components of later Hindu Temples elsewhere. Caves 1 to 3 feature Hindu themes of Shiva and Vishnu, while Cave 4 features Jain icons. There is also a Buddhist Cave 5 which has been converted into a Hindu temple of Vishnu. Another cave identified in 2013 has a number of carvings of Vishnu and other Hindu deities, and water is seen gushing out through the cave all the time.

GEOGRAPHY

The Badami cave temples are located in the Badami town in the north central part of Karnataka, India. The temples are about 110 km northeast from Hubli-Dharwad, the second largest metropolitan area of the state. Malaprabha river is 4.8 km away. Badami, also referred to as Vatapi, Vatapipuri and Vatapinagari in historical texts, and the 6th-century capital of Chalukya dynasty, is at the exit point of the ravine between two steep mountain cliffs. Four cave temples have been excavated in the escarpment of the hill to the south-east of the town above the artificial lake called Agastya Lake created by an earthen dam faced with stone steps. To the west end of this cliff, at its lowest point, is the first cave temple dedicated to Shiva, followed by a cave north east to it dedicated to Vishnu but is at a much higher level. The largest is Cave 3, mostly a Vaishnava cave, is further to the east on the northern face of the hill. The first three caves are dedicated to Hindu gods and goddesses including Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The fourth cave, dedicated to Jainism, is a short distance away.

HISTORY OF CAVE TEMPLES

The cave temples, numbered 1 to 4 in the order of their creation, identified in the town of Badami, the capital city of the Chalukya kingdom (also known as Early Chalukyas) are dated from the late 6th century onwards. The exact dating is known only for cave 3 which is a Brahmanical temple dedicated to Vishnu. An inscription found here records the creation of the shrine by Mangalesha in Saka 500 (lunar calendar, spanning 578 to 579 CE). These inscriptions are in Kannada language, and have been the source for dating these rock cave temples to the 6th-century. The Badami caves complex are part of the UNESCO inscribed World Heritage Site under the title "Evolution of Temple Architecture – Aihole-Badami-Pattadakal" in the Malaprabha river valley which is considered a cradle of Temple Architecture, which formed the template for later Hindu temples in the region. The art work in Cave 1 and Cave 2 exhibit the northern Deccan style of 6th- and 7th-century, while those in Cave 3 show a simultaneous co-exhibition of two different ancient Indian artistic traditions – the northern Nagara and the southern Dravida styles. The Cave 3 also shows icons and reliefs in the Vesara style – a creative fusion of ideas from the two styles, as well as some of the earliest surviving historical examples of yantra-chakra motifs and colored fresco paintings in Karnataka. The first three caves feature sculpture of Hindu icons and legends focusing on Shiva and Vishnu, while Cave 4 features Jain icons and themes.

TEMPLE CAVES

The Badami cave temples are composed of mainly four caves, all carved out of the soft Badami sandstone on a hill cliff, dated to the late 6th to 7th centuries. The planning of four caves (1 to 4) is simple. The entrance is a verandah (mukha mandapa) with stone columns and brackets, a distinctive feature of these caves, leading to a columned mandapa – main hall (also maha mandapa) and then to the small square shrine (sanctum sanctorum, garbhaghrha) cut deep into the cave. The cave temples are linked by stepped path with intermediate terraces looking over the town and lake. Cave temples are labelled 1–4 in their ascending series even though this numbering does not necessarily reflect the sequence of excavation.

The cave temples are dated to 6th to 8th century, with an inscription dated to 579 CE. The inscriptions are in old Kannada script. The architecture includes structures built in Nagara style and Dravidian style which is the first and most persistent architectural idiom to be adopted by the early chalukyas There is also the fifth natural cave temple in Badami – a Buddhist temple, a natural cave, which can be entered kneeling on all fours.

CAVE 1

The cave is just about 18 m above the street level on the northwest part of the hill. Access is through series of steps which depict carvings of dwarfish ganas (with "bovine and equine heads") in different postures. The verandah with 21 m length with a width of 20 m in the interior, has four columns all sculpted with reliefs of the god Shiva in different dancing positions and different incarnations. The guardian dwarapalas at the entrance to the cave stand to a height of 1.879 m.

The cave portrays the Tandava-dancing Shiva, as Nataraja. The image, (1.5 m tall, has 18 arms, in a form that express the dance positions arranged in a geometric pattern, which Alice Boner states, is a time division symbolizing the cosmic wheel. Some of the arms hold objects while most express mudras (symbolic hand postures). The objects include drums, trident and axe. Some arms also have serpents coiled around them. Shiva has his son Ganesha and the bull Nandi by his side. Adjoining to the Nataraja, a wall depicts the goddess Durga, depicted slaying the buffalo-demon Mahishasura. Elsewhere, the two sons of Shiva, Ganesha and Kartikkeya, the god of war and family deity of the Chalukya dynasty are seen in one of the carved sculptures on the walls of the cave with Kartikkeya riding a peacock.

The cave also has carved sculptures of the goddesses Lakshmi and Parvati flanking Harihara, a 2.36 m high sculpture of a fused image that is half Shiva and half Vishnu. To the right, Ardhanarishvara, a composite androgynous form of Shiva and his consort Parvati, is sculpted towards the end of the walls. All the carved sculptures show ornaments worn by them, as well as borders with reliefs of various animals and birds. Lotus design is a common theme. On the ceiling are images of the Vidyadhara couples. Through a cleavage in the back side of the cave is a square sanctuary with more images carved.

Other prominent images in the cave are Nandi, the bull, in the sculptural form of Dharmadeva, the god of justice, Bhringi, a devotee of Shiva, a female decorated goddess holding a flat object in her left hand, which are all part of Ardhanarishvara described earlier. The roof in the cave has five carved panels with the central panel depicting the serpent Shesha. The head and bust are well formed and project boldly from the centre of the coil. In another compartment a bass-relief of 0.76 m diameter has carvings of a male and female; the male is Yaksha carrying a sword and the female is Apsara with a flying veil. The succeeding panel has carvings of two small figures; and the panel at the end is carved with lotuses.

CAVE 2

Cave 2, facing north, to the west of Cave 3, created in late 6th century AD, is almost same as cave 1 in terms of its layout and dimensions but it is dedicated primarily to Vishnu. Cave is reached by climbing 64 steps from the first cave. The cave entrance is the verandah, divided by four square pillars, which has carvings from its middle section to the top where there are yali brackets with sculptures within them. The cave is adorned with reliefs of guardians. Like the Cave 1, the cave art carved is a pantheon of Hindu divinities.

The largest relief in Cave 2 shows Vishnu as Trivikrama – with one foot on Earth and another – directed to the north. Other representations of Vishnu in this cave include Varaha (boar) where he is shown rescuing Bhudevi (symbolism for earth) from the depths of ocean, and Krishna avatars – legends found in Hindu Puranas text such as the Bhagavata Purana. Like other major murti (forms) in this and other Badami caves, the Varaha sculpture is set in a circle, the panel is an upright rectangle, states Alice Boner, whose "height is equal to the octopartite directing circle and sides are aligned to essential geometric ratios, in this case to the second vertical chord of the circle". The doorway is framed by pilasters carrying an entablature with three blocks embellished with gavaksha ornament. The entrance of the cave also has two armed guardians holding flowers rather than weapons. The end walls of the outer verandah is occupied by sculpted panels, to the right, Trivikrama; to the left, Varaha rescuing Bhudevi, with a penitent multi-headed snake (Nag) below. The adjacent side walls and ceiling have traces of colored paintwork, suggesting that the cave used to have fresco paintings. The columns show gods and battle scenes, the churning of cosmic ocean (Samudra Manthan), Gajalakshmi and figures, Brahma, Vishnu asleep on Shesha, illustrations of the birth of Krishna, Krishna's youth, Krishna with gopis and cows.

The ceiling of Cave 2 shows a wheel with sixteen fish spokes in a square frame along with swastikas and flying couples. The end bays have a flying couple and Vishnu on Garuda.[8] The main hall in the cave is 10.16 m in width, 7.188 m deep and 3.45 m high and is supported by eight square pillars in two rows. The roof of this hall has panels which have carvings. At the upper end of the wall a frieze runs all along the wall with engravings of episodes from the Krishna or Vishnu legends.

The sculptures of Cave 2, like Cave 1, are of the northern Deccan style of 6th-and 7th-century similar to that found in Ellora caves.

CAVE 3

The Cave 3 is dedicated to Vishnu, and is the most intricately carved and the biggest. It has well carved giant figures of Trivikrama, Anantasayana, Paravasudeva, Bhuvaraha, Harihara and Narasimha. The theme on which the Cave 3 is carved is primarily Vaishnavite, however the cave also shows Harihara on its southern wall – half Vishnu and half Shiva shown fused as one, making the cave important to Shaivism studies as well. Cave 3, facing north, is 60 steps away from the Cave 2. This cave temple's veranda, 21 m in length with an interior width of 20 m, has been sculpted 15 m deep into the mountain, and an added square shrine at the end extends the cave some 3.7 m further inside. The verandah itself is 2.1 m wide and has four free standing carved pillars separating it from the hall. The cave is 4.6 m high, supported by six pillars each measuring 0.76 m square. Each column and pilaster is carved with wide and deep bases crowned by capitals which are camouflaged by brackets on three sides. Each bracket, except for one bracket, has carvings of standing human figures, under foliage in different postures, of a male and female mythological characters, along with attendant figure of a dwarf. A moulded cornice in the facia, with a dado of blocks below it (generally in 2.1 m lengths), have about thirty compartments carved with series of two fat dwarfs called ganas. The cave shows a Kama scene on one pillar, where a woman and man are in maithuna (erotic) embrace beneath a tree.

Cave 3 also shows fresco paintings on the ceiling, but some of these are faded, broken and unclear. These are among the earliest known and surviving evidence of fresco painting in Indian art.[14] The Hindu god Brahma is seen in one of the murals, while the wedding of Shiva and Parvati, attended by various Hindu deities, is the theme of another. There is a lotus medallion on the floor underneath the mural of four armed Brahma. The sculpture is well preserved, and a large number of Vishnu's reliefs including standing Vishnu with 8 arms, Vishnu seated on a hooded serpent called Sesha or Ananta on the eastern side of the verandha, Vishnu as Narasimha (half human – half lion), Varaha fully armed, a boar incarnation of Vishnu in the back wall of the cave, Harihara (a syncretic sculpture of Vishnu and Shiva), and Trivikrama avatars. The back wall also has carvings of Vidhyadaras holding offerings to Varaha, and adjoining this is an inscription dated 579 AD with the name Mangalis inscribed on it. At one end of the pilaster there is a sculpture of the fourth incarnation of Vishnu as Vamana shown with eight arms called Ashtabhuja decorated with various types of weapons. A crescent moon is crafted above his face, crown of Vishnu decorates his head and is flanked by Varaha and two other figures and below on his right is his attendant Garuda. The images in front of Vamana are three figures of Bali and his wife with Shukra, his councilor. Reliefs stand 4 metres tall. The culture and clothing embedded in the sixth century is visible in the art sculpted in this cave. The roof in the verandha has seven panels created by cross beams, each is painted in circular compartments with images of Shiva, Vishnu, Indra, Brahma, Kama and so forth with smaller images of Dikpalas (cardinal guardians) with geometric mosaics filling the gaps at the corners.

The front aisle's roof has panels with murals in the center of male and female figurines flying in the clouds; the male figure is yaksha holding a sword and a shield. Decoration of lotus blooms are also seen on the panels. The roof in the hall is divided into nine panels slightly above the level of the ceiling. The central panel here depicts a deva mounted on a ram – conjectured as Agni. Images of Brahma and Varuna are also painted in the central panels while the floating figures are seen in the balance panels.

CAVE 4

The Cave 4, to the east of Cave 3, excavated around 650 AD, is located higher than other caves. It is dedicated to revered figures of Jainism and was constructed last among all the caves. It also features detailed carvings and diverse range of motifs. The cave has five bayed entrance with four square columns with brackets and capitals, and to the back of this verandah is a hall with two standalone and two joined pillars. The first aisle is a verandah 9.4 m in length, 2.0 m wide and extends to 4.9 m deep. From the hall, steps lead to the sanctum sanctorum, which is 7.8 m wide extending to a depth of 1.8 m. On the back part of this, Mahavira is represented, sitting on lion throne, flanked by bas-reliefs of attendants with chauri (fans), sardulas and makara's heads. The end walls have Parshvanath (about 2.3 m tall) with his head decorated to represent protection and reverence by a multi-headed cobra, Indrabhuti Gautama covered by four snakes and Bahubali are seen; Bahubali is present to the left of Gautama shown with his lower legs surrounded by snakes along with his daughters Brahmi and Sundari. The sanctum, which is adorned by the image of Mahavira, has pedestal which contains an old Kannada inscription of the 12th century A.D. which registers the death of one Jakkave. Many Jaina Tirthankara images have been engraved in the inner pillars and walls. In addition, there are some idols of Yakshas, Yakshis, Padmavati and other Tirthankaras. Some scholars also assign the cave to the 8th century.

CAVE 5

It is a natural cave of small dimensions, undated, is approached by crawling as it has a narrow opening. Inside, there is a carved statue seated over a sculpted throne with reliefs showing people holding chauris (fans), tree, elephants and lions in an attacking mode. The face of this statue was reasonably intact till about 1995, and is now damaged and missing. There are several theories as to who the statue represents.

The first theory states that it is a Buddha relief, in a sitting posture. Those holding the chauris are Bodhisattvas flanking the Buddha, states this theory, and that the cave has been converted to a Hindu shrine of Vishnu, in later years, as seen from the white religious markings painted on the face of the Buddha as the 9th incarnation of Vishnu. Shetti suggests that the cave was not converted, but from the start represented a tribute to Mayamoha of the Hindu Puranas, or Buddhavatara Vishnu, its style suggesting it was likely carved in or before 8th century CE.

The second theory, found in colonial era texts such as one by John Murray, suggested that the main image carved in the smallest fifth cave is that of Jaina figure.

The third theory, by Henry Cousens as well as A. Sundara, and based by local legends, states that the statue is of an ancient king because the statue's photo, when its face was not damaged, lacked Ushnisha lump that typically goes with Buddha's image. Further, the statue has unusual non-Buddha ornaments such as rings for fingers, necklace and chest-band, it wears a Hindu Yajnopavita thread, and its head is stylistically closer to a Jina head than a Buddha head. These features suggest that the statue may be of a king represented with features of various traditions. The date and identity of the main statue in Cave 5, states Bolon, remains enigmatic.

OTHER CAVES

In 2013, Manjunath Sullolli reported the discovery of another cave with 27 rock carvings, about 500 metres from the four caves, from which water gushes year round. It depicts Vishnu and other Hindu deities, and features inscription in Devanagari script. The dating of these carvings is unknown.

OTHER TEMPLES AT BADAMI

On the north hill, there are three temples, of which Malegitti-Shivalaya is perhaps the oldest temple and also the finest in Badami, and has a Dravidian tower. Out of the two inscriptions found here, one states that Aryaminchi upadhyaya, as the sculptor who got this temple constructed and the other dated 1543 speaks of the erection of a bastion during the Vijayanagara rule. The lower Shivalaya has a Dravidian tower, and only the sanctum remains now.

Jambhulinga temple, situated in the town, is presumably the oldest known trikutachala temple in Karnataka. An inscription dated 699 ascribes construction of this temple to Vinayavathi mother of Emperor Vijayaditya.

The place also has Agasthya Tirtha, temples of Goddess Yellamma, Mallikarjuna, Datttreya and Virupaksha. Bhuthanatha group of temples are most important in Badami.

BADAMI FORT

Badami fort lies east of the Bhuthnatha temple, atop a cliff right opposite the Badami cave temples. The entrance to this temple is right through the Badami museum. It is a steep climb with many view points and dotted with little shrines. The path is laid with neatly cut stone, the same that adores all the architecture around.

ETYMOLOGY

The name Vatapi has origin in the Vatapi legend of Ramayana relating to Sage Agastya.There were two demon siblings Vatapi and Ilvala. They used to kill all mendicants by tricking them in a peculiar way. The elder Ilvala would turn Vatapi into a ram and would offer its meat to the guest. As soon as the person ate the meat, Ilvala would call out the name of Vatapi. As he had a boon that whomsoever Ilvala calls would return from even the netherland, Vatapi would emerge ripping through the body of the person, thus killing him. Their trick worked until Sage Agastya countered them by digesting Vatapi before Ilvala could call for him, thus ending the life of Vatapi at the hands of Ilvala. Two of the hills in Badami represent the demons Vatapi and Ilvala.

It is also believed that name Badami has come from colour of its stone (badam - Almond).

CULTURE

The main language is Kannada. The local population wears traditional Indian cotton wear.

GEOGRAPHY

Badami is located at 15.92°N 75.68°E. It has an average elevation of 586 metres. It is located at the mouth of a ravine between two rocky hills and surrounds Agastya tirtha water reservoir on the three other sides. The total area of the town is 10.3 square kilometers.

It is located 30 kilometers from Bagalkot, 128 kilometers from Bijapur, 132 kilometers from Hubli, 46 kilometers from Aihole, another ancient town, and 589 kilometers from Bangalore, the state capital.

WIKIPEDIA

Located at 31 Prestige Plaza Dr. in Miamisburg, this hotel was built in 1980 and was a Holiday Inn until September 2011 when it changed over to the Wyndham Garden nameplate. This hotel closed in July 2014 and was purchased in December 2014 by the Kettering Health Network.

As of mid-November 2015, all that's left of the hotel are the supports and roof of the atrium....and a pile of mattresses.

Located at 200 South Pruett Street, this Classical Revival structure was designed by the Memphis firm of Hankers and Cairns. It was built in 1923, and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

Paragould is located in northeastern Arkansas near the Missouri Boot Heel. It serves as the county seat of Greene County.

Town Hall Square (Vienna)

The inner part of the town square

Street sign town square

The Town Hall Square is located in the first District of Vienna, Inner City. It is named after the erected here (new) Vienna City Hall. Due to its size, design and architecture of the buildings bordering the square it is considered one of the most important places in the center of Vienna.

History

Vienna City Hall , View from 1891

In the area of today's town square was once the Josefstädterstraße Glacis, held as a free field of fire meadows before the walls of Vienna, and later the parade and parade ground of the Imperial Army. During the construction of the Ringstrasse from 1858 this military site remained untouched for some time until the army after long efforts of Mayor Cajetan Felder had abstained and the expansion of the city funds could develop a Baulinienplan (building line plan) for the area. During this time, other locations were considered for the Hall.

Now the Town Hall Square, the largest square in the recessed ring road zone was provided. The northern and southern part of the square shaped city gardener Rudolf Siebeck 1872/1873 as City Hall Park, the central square of the axis Town Hall-Burgtheater, was kept free. 1873, the foundation was laid for the construction of the New Town Hall. 1874, work began on the Town Hall at the former Franzensring opposite the Burgtheater and the south of the square adjacent parliament building (north side front: Town Square 6). From 1877 to the new main building of the University of Vienna (southern side front: Town Square 5 ) built. Are installed on the three sides of the square five blocks with nine home numbers (No. 1 to No. 9), the fourth side is bordered by the ring.

In course of time the name of the place changed four times. In 1870 he was created as Town Hall Square, renamed in 1907 after the incumbent Christian Social mayor in Dr.-Karl -Lueger -Platz. The dominant Red Vienna since 1919, this appeared to be inappropriate, as Lueger in Vienna had prevented the universal and equal male suffrage, in 1907 introduced at state level. Therefore, the of a private committee donated Luegerdenkmal under the rule of mayor Karl Seitz was not, as intended by the Committee, in the town square erected but built in 1926 on a previously unnamed square corner Wollzeile/Stubenring and this place in the same year Dr.-Karl-Lueger-Platz named. The town square was returned to its original name . In 1938, the place was again renewed to Adolf Hitler Platz, what was reversed in 1945.

Christmas Market at City Hall

The large space between City Hall and the Burgtheater was used by all the rulers for political rallies. Since 1921, with its current form dates back to 1929 and was interrupted from 1933 to 1945, it is the traditional final rally of the Vienna SPÖ Maiaufmarsches (May-Procession) on 1 In May at the Town Hall Square. In addition, the space is exploited for most of the year for cultural and social events. The most important of them since 1975, the Christmas market in November and December, the Vienna Ice Dream in January and February, the opening of the Vienna Festival in May and open-air cinema screenings with classical music in July and August. The Life Ball at Vienna City Hall refers also to the town square. Traditionally, a since 1959 every year from one of the states erected large Christmas tree as a gift to the federal capital.

Location and characteristics

The Town Hall Square is located between the extended Grillparzerstraße to the north, the University Ring to the east, the extended Stadiongasse in the south and the extended Reichsratsstrasse in the West. Except the ring on which there are no buildings on this street, bear the buildings that are on the place in the wake of these streets, house numbers of the town square. Stadiongasse and Grillparzerstraße end before the court, the Reichsratsstrasse is interrupted by the court.

About two- thirds of the space area of 40,000 m² are taken from the City Hall park, which is divided by a blocked to traffic, very wide access road between the Burgtheater and the Rathaus, which offers space for events, into a northern and southern half. The town square is lined by some of the most important monumental Ringstrassen-Zone in historicist style. In the square itself is a large number of monuments and statues. Thus, the town square is one of the most representative places in Vienna.

The tram lines 1 and D operate on the ring road and have at the City Hall Square opposite the Burg Theatre and at the corner of Parliament stops. Coming from the south and from the ring turning, operates tram line 2 on the southern edge of the town square to Stadiongasse. The individual passes through traffic heading north on the eastern edge of the square on the ring road in the opposite direction behind the Town Hall on the two-line (Zweierlinie). Cycling trails pass off on the ring road and at the Grillparzerstraße and Stadiongasse. Behind the town hall runs the subway line U2 to the City Hall with the subway station as shuttle to City Hall and City Hall Square.

Building

City hall

The central building in the middle of the west side of the town square is the City Hall, built in 1873-1883 by Friedrich von Schmidt, New Town Hall, Town Hall called only since about 1970. The powerful, dominating the square building was designed by the Dutch Gothic models. It should express the political power of the strengthened bourgeosie against the monarch and the aristocracy.

The City Council has at the Town Hall no main entrance or direct access to the arcade court, they are located on the side fronts of Felderstraße and Lichtenfelsgasse, another entrance is at the rear front at the Friedrich-Schmidt-Platz. The town hall itself is essentially the so-called People's Hall on the ground floor of the town hall via a staircase outdoors is accessible (inputs centered under the town hall tower and left and right). The People's Hall is occasionally used for exhibitions. The outlet is located at the corner of Felderstraße to City Hall basement.

Arcade, Town Hall Square 2-4

Foyer with ceiling painting Apotheosis of Vindobona, Town Hall Square 4

No. 2, 3 and 4: Arcade Shops

The block north of City Hall was built in 1880-1883 by Franz von Neumann. Plan requirement was to equip the buildings (such as on the west side of the Imperial Parliament Street, in the course of which they are) at the town square with arcades. Held in the old German style, houses have remarkable corner projections made ​​with domes. At the central projection there are respectively balconies on herma. The attic floor is decorated with stucco relief female figures. The rib-vaulted arcades are painted with grotesques by Franz and Carl Jobst and equipped with cast iron lanterns. Particularly important are the foyers on No. 4 (and at the back of the block on the Ebendorferstraße 4). Frieze reliefs show the allegories of commerce, the arts and commerce. A large ceiling painting depicts the apotheosis of Vindobona. Lanterns and railings are made of wrought iron.

No. 5: University of Vienna, Main Building

Town Hall Square and front side of the university 's main building in 1900

The Town Hall Square side facing the front of the main university building today (2007 )

On the north side of the town square is the front side of the main building of the University of Vienna. The main work of the late phase of the strict historicism was built in 1873-1884 by Heinrich von Ferstel. The 29-axle side facade is broken repeatedly by risalits as well as by half and full columns. Statues of Anton Schmidgruber and Franz Koch standing in relation to the philosophical faculty. The building has no open entrance here .

No. 6: Parliament

On the south side of the town square is the side front of the parliament building, which was built as Reichsratsgebäude for Cisleithania. It is the most important work of the architect Theophil von Hansen, the latter founded 1871-1883 by ancient Greek models. At the Town Hall Square, the Parliament has a covered side entrance, originally a carriage way.

No. 7, 8 and 9 houses with arcades

Dome on the corner risalt, Town Hall Square 7

South of the Town Hall is located one block of houses with arcades, built 1877/1878 of City Hall architect Friedrich von Schmidt and Franz Neumann in old German forms. These were the first houses with arcades of City Hall district. Dominant are domes on corner risalit and central dome, bay windows, balconies, putti frieze and statues of Venus and Mars on the facade. In the rib-vaulted arcades are embedded gates with half column portals and acroterion figures. The lobbies are decorated with stucco ceilings, among other rich and grotesque painting. At No. 8 is located under the arcades the in City Hall circles famous café and pastry shop Sluka.

City Hall Park

At the request of Mayor Felder the City Hall Park was created as a complementary recreation area in the Ring Road zone. It is a strictly historicist Park, which was created as the city park of city gardener Rudolf Siebeck. The green area is north and south of a link road from the Burgtheater on the Ring to the City Hall laid out, which extends space-like in front of City Hall. In each of the two parts is a Rondeau Park with fountains, which are intended to highlight the two Viennese spring water lines and were financed by the builder Antonio Gabrielli.

Orientation plan

Under the old trees of the park there are five trees that are designated as natural monuments in Vienna. A lime in the southern part of the park was planted on the occasion of the 50th anniversary jubilee of Emperor Franz Joseph I in 1898, an oak tree, also in the southern part of the park in 1906 for the then incumbent mayor Karl Lueger. Winding paths lead through the two parts of the park. The garden fence is original historicist. In the northern part of the park is a large children's play area. A 1890 in the southern part of the park built weather house, destroyed during the Second World War, was renewed in 1955 with mosaics of Mary Biljan-Bilger. The modern toilet facilities were designed by Luigi Blau.

Monuments

Waldmüllerdenkmal (Monument) by Josef Engelhart, 1913

The Town Hall Square is home of a number of monuments, they are described here from the ring road starting.

(Locked) Access from the Burgtheater to City Hall

At the beginning of this approach is, turning off the ring road, left the monument to Theodor Körner, mayor, then President of the Second Republic, by Hilde Uray, bronze statue, 1963,

right of the monument to Karl Seitz, first head of state of the First Republic, then mayor in Red Vienna, by Gottfried Buchberger, bronze statue, 1962.

Directly between the two parts of the park in 1902 eight stone monuments of significant figures in the history of Vienna were placed four at each park side facing each other. They had been established in 1867 on the balustrades of the former Elizabeth Bridge over the river (Wienfluss) on Karlsplatz. When in 1897 the bridge was demolished in this area because of the light rail construction and the resulting vaulting of the Wienfluss, the eight monuments first have been put along the then still in the incision extending new light rail line on the Karlsplatz, where they but heavily by the soot of steam locomotives polluted monuments were popularly called eight chimney sweepers. Therefore, they were transferred to the town square later:

left ( south side):

Margrave Henry II Jasomirgott from the House of Babenberg, by Franz Melnitzky

Duke Rudolf the founder of the House of Habsburg, of Josef Gasser

Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg, defender of Vienna (second Turkish siege), by Johann Baptist Fessler

Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, Baroque architect, Josef Cesar

right (north side):

Duke Leopold the Glorious from the House of Babenberg, by Johann Preleuthner

Niklas Graf Salm, defender of Vienna (first siege of Vienna), by Matthias Purkartshofer

Archbishop Charles Leopold of Kollonitsch, spiritual leader of Vienna (second Turkish siege), Vincenz Pilz

Joseph of Sonnenfels, judicial and administrative reformer of Maria Theresa, by Hanns Gasser (replaced in the Nazi era in 1939 by a statue of the composer Christoph Willibald Gluck, re-erected after 1945)

Next to the town hall (tower), outside of the southern part of the park: replica of the Vienna City Hall man at the top of City Hall tower in scale 1: 1, by Fritz Tiefenthaler, 1985

Southern part of the city hall park (towards Parliament)

At the corner of Park Ring/Parliament, addressed to the ring: Karl Renner, the first Chancellor of the First and first president of the Second Republic, portrait head of Alfred Hrdlicka on monument structure of Josef Krawina, 1965-1967

Josef Popper-Lynkeus, social ethicist, stone bust of Hugo Taglang, 1926. As artists and represented were Jews , the bust was removed in the Nazi regime in 1938, restored in 1951 according to the plaster model.

Johann Strauss (father ) and Joseph Lanner, statues of Franz Seifert, 1905, Art Nouveau, the bronze sculptures stand in front of a curved wall with marble reliefs of ball scenes and a poem by Edward von Bauernfeld. This concept and the architecture created Robert Oerley .

Northern part of the city hall park (towards the University)

Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, marble monument of Josef Engelhart, 1913 , Art Nouveau

Ernst Mach, physicist, of Heinz Peteri, 1926

Adolf Schärf, vice chancellor, then president of the Second Republic, bronze bust of Alfred Hrdlicka, 1985

The most recent monument in the park, built in 1993, commemorates the wartime destruction of Vienna in 1945 and was by Hubert Wilfan under the title Yesterday - Today created from stone.

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rathausplatz_(Wien)

located on the Red Deer River near Sundre Alberta Canada

Located about 7500 light years away in the constellation Cassiopeia lies IC 1805, the Heart Nebula and IC 1794, the Fish Head or Northern Bear Nebula.

This was the first light photo using the Starizona Hyperstar 8 v4 that changed my telescope to a 390mm f/1.9 lens. I was worried about the stars in the corners because they looked really odd, but RC Astro's BlurXTerminator took care of them. This photo only contained Hydrogen alpha (Ha) and Oxygen III (OIII) wavelengths but I actually liked the way the Ha looked so I didn't use any other wavelength.

Telescope: Celestron Edge HD 8" with Starizona Hyperstar 8" v4

Mount: Losmandy GM811G

Camera: ASI2600MC Pro

Filter: Optolong L-Ultimate

Exposure: 30"x400

Software: Pixinsight, RC Astro, Photoshop, Lightroom

Bortle 7.1

Located where the Pinto Fault allows groundwater to reach the surface, the Oasis of Mara sustains a dense gathering of life in the arid desert.

NPS/Brad Sutton

Located above the Big Piney River at the Horseshoe Bend area. Part of the Ozarks of Missouri.

Located at Leonard Bus Sales in Bergen, New York

Located on the lower level of Crossgates Commons, this location opened in February 2011.

Located at Leonard Bus Sales in Bergen, New York

Located in Newington, Connecticut. This is a 1955 O'Mahoney diner. I believe it was one of the largest ever built by O'Mahoney.

Located somewhere on Lynn Shore Drive. I found another one of these for sale with correspondence on the back and it was postmarked 1908.

Back is stamped with "E.13 770 Publ. by Robbins Bros. Boston Printed in Germany Manufacturers of Souveni Postal Cards."

Located adjacent to St. Kilda junction, the so-called Lego building, though officially called The Icon, its cubes are stacked in organised chaos and wrapped in perforated woven mesh that changes colour as sunlight moves.

It was created by artist Matthew Johnson and architects Jackson Clements Burrows.

I wasn't planning on going here during the marathon but I thought I might try to incorporate the building with the scene.

The Triton Fountain is a fountain located on the periphery of the City Gate of Valletta, Malta. It consists of three bronze Tritons holding up a huge basin, balanced on a concentric base built out of concrete and clad in travertine slabs. The fountain is one of Malta's most important Modernist landmarks.

Designed and constructed between 1952 and 1959 under no less than three governing bodies, and conceived jointly by eminent sculptor Chevalier Vincent Apap and his collaborator draughtsman Victor Anastasi, the fountain became unofficially operational on Saturday 16 May 1959. The fountain was used as a stage for National Celebrations named 'Mill-Maltin għall-Maltin' and is popularly believed that it might have contributed to the dramatic collapse of the sculptural group on Wednesday 1 March 1978. This statement has been technically proven incorrect since the sculptural group contained no structural armature to bear the weight of the water laden basin, which subsequently collapsed due to metal fatigue and creep.

The sculptural group was repaired by Malta Drydocks engineers between January 1986 and April 1987. During this intervention a central sculptural addition consisting of three seagulls and seaweed (also the work of Chev. Apap) was introduced within the sculptural group, however this arrangement subsequently diminished the role of the gigantic Triton figures.

The fountain deteriorated in subsequent decades, until the bronze figures were dismantled and restored in 2017. Works were ready by the end of the year, and the fountain and piazza were officially inaugurated on 12 January 2018.

Located near Greenwood, South Carolina at Northwest volunteer fire and rescue department. I decided to siren hunt in Greenwood, SC because I taken a break from recording a weekly siren test. This siren is controlled by Greenwood County Emergency Management and tested at the first Monday of each month at 9:00AM EST (depending on the weather conditions). The county EMA recently changed the test time again.

Located : Cat Cafe in Kyoto.

Located at the heart of the acre, Acre Eatery and Farm is a lavish farmhouse in a lush green setting. Enjoy the view from the seemingly endless windows out onto the perennial produce gardens and terrace while relaxing on locally made and sustainable furniture.

Our eatery is adjacent to Pocket City Farms' Camperdown location.

With the help of the community, PCF is revitalising the 1200 square metres of the old Camperdown Bowling Greens to turn it into a sustainable, urban farm. The Camperdown farm and other small to medium size farms help us bring our sustainably farmed produce to your plate.

www.acreeatery.com.au

Mathura (About this sound pronunciation (help·info)) is a city in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located approximately 50 kilometres north of Agra, and 145 kilometres south-east of Delhi; about 11 kilometres from the town of Vrindavan, and 22 kilometres from Govardhan. It is the administrative centre of Mathura District of Uttar Pradesh. During the ancient period, Mathura was an economic hub, located at the junction of important caravan routes. The 2011 census of India estimated the population of Mathura to be 441,894.

Mathura is the birthplace of Lord Krishna which is located at the centre of Braj or Brij-bhoomi, called Shri Krishna Janma-Bhoomi, literally: 'Lord Krishna's birthplace'. It is one of the seven cities (Sapta Puri) considered holy by Hindus. The Keshav Dev Temple was built in ancient times on the site of Krishna's birthplace (an underground prison). Mathura was the capital of the Surasena Kingdom, ruled by Kansa the maternal uncle of Krishna.

Mathura has been chosen as one of the heritage cities for HRIDAY - Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana scheme of Government of India.

HISTORY

Mathura has an ancient history and also homeland and birthplace of Krishna who was born in yadu dynasty. According to the Archaeological Survey of India plaque at the Mathura Museum, the city is mentioned in the oldest Indian epic, the Ramayana. In the epic, the Ikshwaku prince Shatrughna slays a demon called Lavanasura and claims the land. Afterwards, the place came to be known as Madhuvan as it was thickly wooded, then Madhupura and later Mathura.

In the 6th century BCE Mathura became the capital of the Surasena mahajanapada. The city was later ruled by the Maurya empire (4th to 2nd centuries BCE) and the Shunga dynasty (2nd century BCE). It may have come under the control of Indo-Greeks some time between 180 BCE and 100 BCE. It then reverted to local rule before being conquered by the Indo-Scythians during the 1st century BCE.

Mathuran art and culture reached its zenith under the Kushan dynasty which had Mathura as one of their capitals, the other being Purushapura (Peshawar). The dynasty had kings with the names of Kujula Kadphises, Kanishka, Huvishka and Vasudeva I.

Megasthenes, writing in the early 3rd century BCE, mentions Mathura as a great city under the name Μέθορα (Méthora).

The Indo-Scythians (aka Sakas or Shakas) conquered the area of Mathura over Indian kings around 60 BCE.

The findings of ancient stone inscriptions in Maghera, a town 17 kilometres from Mathura, provide historical artifacts giving more details on this era of Mathura. The opening of the 3 line text of these inscriptions are in Brahmi script and were translated as: "In the 116th year of the Greek kings..."

The Mathura Lion Capital inscriptions attest that Mathura fell under the control of the Sakas. The inscriptions contain references to Kharaosta Kamuio and Aiyasi Kamuia. Yuvaraja Kharostes (Kshatrapa) was the son of Arta, as is attested by his own coins.

Arta is stated to be brother of King Moga or Maues. Princess Aiyasi Kambojaka, also called Kambojika, was the chief queen of Shaka Mahakshatrapa Rajuvula. Kamboja presence in Mathura is also verified from some verses of the epic, the Mahabharata, which are believed to have been composed around this period.

The Indo-Scythian satraps of Mathura are sometimes called the "Northern Satraps", as opposed to the "Western Satraps" ruling in Gujarat and Malwa. After Rajuvula, several successors are known to have ruled as vassals to the Kushans, such as the "Great Satrap" Kharapallana and the "Satrap" Vanaspara, who are known from an inscription discovered in Sarnath, and dated to the 3rd year of Kanishka (c 130 CE), in which they were paying allegiance to the Kushans.

Mathura served as one of the Kushan Empire's two capitals from the first to the third centuries.

Faxian mentions the city as a centre of Buddhism about 400 while his successor Xuanzang, who visited the city in 634 CE, mentions it as Mot'ulo, recording that it contained twenty Buddhist monasteries and five Brahmanical temples. Later, he went east to Thanesar, Jalandhar in the eastern Punjab, before climbing up to visit predominantly Theravada monasteries in the Kulu valley and turning southward again to Bairat and then Mathura, on the Yamuna river.

The city was sacked and many of its temples destroyed by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1018 and again by Sikandar Lodhi, who ruled the Sultanate of Delhi from 1489 to 1517.

Sikander Lodhi earned the epithet of 'Butt Shikan', the 'Destroyer of Hindu deities'. The Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, built the city's Jami Masjid (Friday mosque) .[citation needed] The noteworthy fact is that the exact place of birth of Krishna, according to historians, is in the place of worship of the Hindus, though the mosque was built near the birthplace of Krishna. The bigger Krishna shrine, better known as Dwarkadeesh Temple is a few metres away from what is believed to be the actual birthplace of Krishna. It was built in 1815 by Seth Gokuldas Parikh, Treasurer of Gwalior.

In 2016, 24 people including 2 police officers were killed in the Jawahar Bagh clash, when the police tried to evict a large number of squatters from the public park

GEOGRAPHY

Mathura is located at 27.28°N 77.41°E. It has an average elevation of 174 metres

DEMOGRAPHICS

The 2011 census of India estimates the population of Mathura to be 441,894, a decadal growth rate of 22.53 per cent from 2001 census of India. Males account for 54% (268,445) and females for 46% (173,449) of this population. Sex ratio of Mathura is 858 females per 1000 males, which has increased from 840 in 2001. However, national sex ratio is 940. Population density in 2011 has increased from 621 per km2 in 2001 to 761 per km2. Mathura has an average literacy rate of 72.65 per cent which has increased from 61.46 per cent in 2001 but still lower than the national average of 74.04 per cent. Male and female literacy rate are 84.39 and 58.93 per cent respectively. 15.61 per cent of Mathura's population is under 6 years of age. This figure was 19.56 per cent in 2001 census. Mathura has large population of Jat and Yadav in rural areas and Brahmins & Baniyas in City. The famous cities/villages of Mathura District are as follows.

Lohwan

Vrindavan

Baldeo

Nandgaon

Barsana

Goverdhan

Gokul

Chaumuhan

Kosi Kalan

TRANSPORTATION

RAIL

Mathura is well connected by train to major cities in India such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Indore, Alwar, Jaipur, Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Ujjain, Rewa, Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi etc.

The city is served by four stations, Mathura Junction being the biggest one connecting to West, North and Southern India. Mathura Cantt connects to eastern Uttar Pradesh. Bhuteshwar serves for local trains for Delhi, Delhi NCR, Agra, Bharatpur and Alwar. Another station Krishnajanmabhoomi connects to Vrindavan via rail bus.

ROAD

Mathura is well connected by road to the rest of Uttar Pradesh and India. NH 2 (Delhi-Howrah) Highway passes through the city and connects to National Highway 3 (to Mumbai), a part of which is known as Mathura Road. NH-11 (Agra to Bikaner). SH-33 (Bareilly to Mathura via Badaun ,Ujhani, Kasganj ,Soron, Sikandra Rao, Hathras) NH-93 (Moradabad) are also prominent arterial highways. Yamuna Expressway also connects to Mathura and in fact shortest way to reach Mathura by road.

The city is served by Upsrtc, JNNURAM, Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, DTC, Chandigarh and Punjab state transportation bus companies. Mathura depot, run by upsrtc - the Uttar Pradesh state bus company - runs 120 buses. Direct buses are available to Alwar, Agra, Aligarh, Khair, Indore, Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Jaipur, Udaipur, Ajmer, Delhi, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Kanpur, Meerut, Haridwar, Rohtak and other Indian cities. An intercity JnNURM bus facility also exists.

AIR

As of now the city has no airport but the airport was proposed to Mathura in 2012. The civil aviation minister Ajit Singh suggested Mathura's name for the site of a new greenfield international airport to chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav. Mathura's name came into play when group of ministers terminated the planning of building Taj International Airport at Greater Noida. Land has been marked, and construction is in progress near the Yamuna Expressway, with plans to open in the next five years with regular flights to Delhi, Mumbai, Ujjain and Varanasi and some international routes in future.

TOURISM

Mathura is a holy city for Hinduism, the world's third-largest religion. There are many places of historic and religious importance in Mathura and its neighbouring towns. The twin-city to Mathura is Vrindavan. As the home of Krishna in his youth, the small town is host to a multitude of temples belonging to various sects of Hinduism proclaiming Krishna in various forms and avatars. Some places of interest are:

Baldeo(Dauji Mandir)

Lohwan Mata Mandir

Shri Ratneshwar Mahadev

Gopinath Maharaj Mandir

Keshav Dev Temple (Shri Krishna Janma Bhoomi)

Vishram Ghat (Bank of River Yamuna)

Shri Jagannath Temple Bhuteshwar Mathura

Prem Mandir, Vrindavan

Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir, Vrindavan

Mathura Museum

Birla Mandir

Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi

Naam yog Sadhna Mandir (Baba Jai Gurudev Temple)

Banke Bihari Temple

Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi

Iskcon Temple.

bhuteshwar temple

The Udasin Kashni Ashram (Ramanrati) near Gokul (Mahaven)

STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE

Mathura is the home for Indian I Corps (Strike Formation) within the Indian Army's Central Command, hosting Strike I Corps headquarters in a large classified area in the outskirts of the city known as Mathura Cantonment (Central Command itself has its headquarters at Lucknow). It hosts Strike Infantry units, Air Defence units, Armoured Divisions, Engineer brigades, Aritillery Units and classified units of Strategic Nuclear Command. Corps I is primarily responsible for western borders of India. In 2007 during Exercise Ashwamedha, all the armoured, artillery and infantry divisions performed a simulation of an overall NBC (nuclear-chemical-biological) environment. The aim was to show operational ability in high intensity, short duration and 'sudden' battles.

INDUSTRIES

One of the major contributors in the economy of Uttar Pradesh are Mathura Industries.[citation needed] Mathura Refinery located in the city is one of the biggest oil refineries of Asia with 8.0 MMTPA refining capacity. This oil refinery of the Indian Oil Corporation is a highly technologically advanced oil refinery. Mathura Refinery is the first in Asia and third in the world to receive the coveted ISO-14001 certification for Environment Management System in 1996.

Textile printing industry that includes both sari-printing and fabric dyeing and silver ornaments manufacturing are major industrial contributors to the region. Apart from these other industries are water tap manufacturing units and other decorative and household items. Mathura also is a big centre for production of cotton materials; prominent among them being pure white bleached cotton sarees for women and dhotis for men,and cotton niwar tapes for beds. It is also a hub for production of milk based sweet meals,prominent among them being mathura Pedas and burfis. Renowned as the place where rivers of milk flowed, Mathura till today boasts of Milk trading centres where you can buy any amount of fresh milk where rates vary every few minutes and are notified on a black board akin to stock prices.

POLITICS

In 2014 General Elections Mrs. Hema Malini of BJP became the Member of Parliament from Mathura Constituency. The Mayor of the city is Mrs. Manisha Gupta of BJP.

CULTURE

Mathura has contributed a lot towards Indian Culture through its rich heritage. The ethos of Mathura, and in fact the whole of Braj mandal is centered on Krishna and his tales. Mathura sees heightened activities during the major festivities dedicated to Krishna.

The Braj culture has been expressed widely through various practices.

Sanjhee is the colourful art of decorating the ground with flowers.

Rasiya is a tradition that is integral to Mathura's culture. It is the tradition of folk-songs that describe the love of the divine couple Radha and Krshnaji. It is an inseparable part of the Holi celebrations and all other festive occasions at Mathura. (Dhulendi – Holi with drums (dholak), colours, etc. originated from Braj region hundreds of millennia before today.)

Raaslilas of Mathura have become an integral part of Indian Folklore. Krshnaji had danced the Raas with gopis on banks of Yamuna river.

Charkula is a traditional folk dance of the Braj. In this dance, a woman balances a column of deepikas on her head and dances to the accompaniment of Rasiya songs by the menfolk.

The language spoken in the Braj mandal is mainly Hindi which is spoken in a different dialect. This dialect is characteristic with the Braj region and known as Brajbhasha. Being close to haryana and uttar pradesh haryanwi is spoken by people and very few people speak Punjabi. Before Hindi and until past few centuries, Brajbhasha used to be the dominant language in literature.

Mathura is one of the seven most holy places for Hindus in India.

- Ayodhyā Mathurā Māyā Kāsi Kāñchī Avantikā I

- Purī Dvārāvatī chaiva saptaitā moksadāyikāh II - Garuḍa Purāṇa I XVI .14

A Kṣetra is a sacred ground, a field of active power, a place where Moksha, final release can be obtained. The Garuda Purana enumerates seven cities as giver of Moksha, They are Ayodhya, Mathura, Māyā, Kāsi, Kāñchī, Avantikā, Puri and Dvārāvatī.

MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS

All India Radio has a local station in Mathura which transmits various programs of mass interest. Commissioned in 2001, Mathura has a Programme generating Facility (PGF) of Doordarshan - India's Public service Broadcasters.

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

GLA University, R.K. Group of Institutions (including Rajiv Academy For Technology & Management, Rajiv Academy For Teacher's Education, Rajiv Academy For Pharmacy, K.D. Dental College & Hospital, etc.) and BSA College of engineering and technology, Excel Institute of Management & Technology has been accorded as status of university). 40 engineering & management colleges had been established in Mathura up to 12-12-2009.

Mathura is home to the Uttar Pradesh Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Veterinary University, the first of its kind in the state and the fourth in the country to be made independent veterinary universities."Mathura University ::-:: Website Loading". Upvetuniv.edu.in. Retrieved 2013-11-17.The college was established in 1947 by Govt of U.P. and it is Asia's first veterinary college which awarded Veterinary science degree. The University is located on the Mathura-Agra road, about 5 kilometres from Mathura Junction. The main campus of the University is spread over a land area of 3.1659 km2 in Mathura Cantt and about 6 km2 at Madhurikund, about 20 kilometres from the main campus.

WIKIPEDIA

Located in the town of Branchville, SC. The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company began the first successful scheduled railroad service in America, on Dec. 25, 1830. In 1833 it had 136 miles of track. It ran from Charleston, SC to Hamburg,SC, which made it the worlds longest railroad.