Buddhist caves in India partially coincident with rock-cut architecture in India
The Buddhist caves in India. Maharashtra state Aurangabad Dist. Ellora caves form an important part of Indian rock-cut architecture, and are among the most prolific examples of rock-cut architecture around the world. There are more than 1,500 known rock cut structures in India, out of which about 1000 were made by Buddhists (mainly between 200 BCE and 600 CE), 300 by Hindus (from 600 CE to 1200 CE), and 200 by Jains (from 800 CE to 1200 CE). Many of these structures contain works of art of global importance, and many later caves from the Mahayana period are adorned with exquisite stone carvings. These ancient and medieval structures represent significant achievements of structural engineering and craftsmanship.In India, caves have long been regarded as places of sanctity. Caves that were enlarged or entirely man-made were felt to hold the same sanctity as natural caves. In fact, the sanctuary in all Indian religious structures, even free-standing ones, retains the same cave-like feeling of sacredness, being small and dark without natural light.The oldest rock-cut architecture in India is found in the Barabar caves, Bihar  built around the 3rd century BCE. Of these caves, mostly build by Emperor Ashoka and his grandson Dasaratha for the ascetic sect of the Ajivikas, two caves are thought to have been dedicated to the Buddhist: Karan Chaupar cave, and possibly the Lomas Rishi cave. Most other Buddhist caves are then found in the western Deccan, consisting in shrines and monasteries, dating between 100 BCE and 170 CE. Originally, they were probably accompanied by wooden structures, which would have deteriorated over time. Historically, rock-cut temples have retained a wood-like theme in adornment; skilled craftsmen learned to mimic timber texture, grain, and structure. The earliest cave temples include the Bhaja Caves, the Karla Caves, the Bedse Caves, the Kanheri Caves, and some of the Ajanta Caves. Relics found in these caves suggest a connection between the religious and the commercial, as Buddhist missionaries often accompanied traders on the busy international trading routes through India. Some of the more sumptuous cave temples, commissioned by wealthy traders, included pillars, arches, and elaborate facades during the time maritime trade boomed between the Roman Empire and south-east Asia.Although free standing structural temples were also being built, such as the Bairat Temple (3rd century BCE) and the various free-standing apsidal temples in Sanchi, Taxila or Ter, rock-cut cave temples continued to be built in parallel. Later rock-cut cave architecture became more sophisticated as in the Ajanta Caves, belonging to a second, and last, wave of Buddhist cave building. The last Buddhist caves were built around the 6th century CE.First wave of construction (2nd century BCE- 2nd century CE)
Probably owing to the 2nd century BCE fall of the Mauryan Empire and the subsequent persecutions of Buddhism under Pushyamitra Sunga, it is thought that many Buddhists relocated to the Deccan under the protection of the Andhra dynasty, thus shifting the cave-building effort to western India: an enormous effort at creating religious caves (usually Buddhist or Jain) continued there until the 2nd century CE, culminating with the Karla Caves or the Pandavleni Caves. These caves generally followed an apsidal plan with a stupa in the back for the chaityas, and a rectangular plan with surrounding cells for the viharas.When Buddhist missionaries arrived, they naturally gravitated to caves for use as temples and abodes, in accord with their religious ideas of asceticism and the monastic life. The Western Ghats topography, with its flat-topped basalt hills, deep ravines, and sharp cliffs, was suited to their cultural inclinations.First western artificial vihara caves (100-70 BCE)
Several simple viharas started to be cut in the rock, such as Cave 19 of the Nasik Caves. It is a small Vihara, 14 feet 3 inches square, with six cells, two on each side; their doors are surmounted by the Chaitya-arch ornament connected by a frieze of "rail pattern" in some places wavy. In the front wall are two lattice windows, and in the veranda two slender square pillars, the middle portion of the shaft being chamfered to an octagonal shape. The cave is exceedingly plain in style, and the remarkable rectangularity of all its parts, agree perfectly with what might be expected in a Vihara of the first or second century BCE. Its close family likeness to Cave No.12 at Ajanta and others at Bhaja and Kondane, all of the earliest age, suggest about the same date. The earliest of the Kanheri Caves were excavated in the 1st and 2nd centuries B.C., as were those at Ajanta, which were occupied continuously by Buddhist monks from 200 BCE to 650 AD. As the Buddhist ideology encouraged involvement in trade, monasteries often became stopovers for inland traders and provided lodging houses along trade routes.
Cave No.19 at the Nasik Caves has one inscription of king Krishna of the Satavahanas, which is the oldest known Satavahana inscription, dated to 100-70 BCE
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