अजिंठ्याची सहल Ajinthyachi Sahal (A Trip to the Ajanta Caves)

लेखक मुलांना अजिंठ्याच्या लेण्यांकडे घेऊन जातात. अर्धचंद्राकृती डोंगरदरीच्या पोटात तीस गुंफा आहेत, त्यांनाच अजिंठ्याची लेणी म्हणतात. काही गुंफांत भव्य दालने, कोरीव स्तंभ व नक्षीदार गवाक्षे (खिडक्या) असतात, ज्यातून हवा व उजेड आत येतो.

The author takes the children to the Ajanta caves, drawing their attention to the crescent-shaped ravine ahead. Within this ravine's depths lie thirty caves, the famous Ajanta caves. Stepping inside, some caves reveal spacious, wide chambers - four to five metres high, with flat ceilings, grand carved pillars on both sides, and semicircular window-openings on the ornate entrance for light and air. Upon entering, one feels a cool relief, and the fatigue of travelling through the heat vanishes at once.

गुंफेतील प्रशस्त चौथऱ्यावर पद्मासन घालून बसलेले, अर्धवट मिटलेल्या डोळ्यांचे, करुणामय मुखाचे भगवान गौतम बुद्ध दिसतात. एकोणिसाव्या लेण्याला 'गंधकुटी' असे नाव असून, ते संपूर्णपणे कोरीव कामाने नटलेले आहे.

On a spacious platform sits the Buddha in the lotus posture - one recognises him by his half-closed, lotus-like eyes, his gaze fixed on the tip of his nose, a compassionate expression on his face, earlobes stretching to his shoulders, and curly locks of hair upon his head. Not all the caves have names, but the nineteenth is called 'Gandhakuti' - adorned inside and out entirely with carvings, with a porch and round pillars before it; here, too, stands another figure of the Buddha within an archway, dressed in a flowing robe whose folds are rendered in vivid detail.

गंधकुटी व सोळा-सतरा क्रमांकांच्या लेण्यांत सौम्य, टिकाऊ रंगांतील बहुरंगी चित्रांची भरभार आहे. बहुतेक चित्रे बुद्ध व त्याच्या धर्माशी संबंधित असून, बुद्धाच्या पूर्वजन्मीच्या कथांना (जातककथा) चित्रित केले आहे.

The Gandhakuti cave, along with caves numbered sixteen and seventeen, are richly filled with paintings - pictures wherever one looks, not plain single-coloured ones but vivid, multi-hued paintings, their colours soft and long-lasting. Most of these paintings relate to the Buddha and his teachings, since it was Buddhist people who excavated these caves. The delightful tales of the various castes and animal forms into which the Buddha was born in his previous lives are called Jataka tales, and many of them are depicted in these caves.

सोळाव्या लेण्यातील सगळी चित्रे बुद्धांच्या शेवटच्या जन्मातील आहेत - मायावतीचे स्वप्न, बुद्धांचा जन्म, पाच वर्षांचे बुद्ध धूळपाटीवर अक्षरे गिरवताना, अशा प्रसंगांतून संपूर्ण बुद्धचरित्र चित्रित झाले आहे. ही तीस लेणी सुमारे दोन हजार वर्षे जुनी असून ती कोरायला सुमारे आठशे वर्षे लागली.

All the paintings in cave sixteen depict episodes from the Buddha's final life - the dream that came to Mayavati (the Buddha's mother), the scene of the Buddha's birth, and the five-year-old Gautam Buddha tracing letters with his finger on a dust-slate (since slates or stone pencils did not exist then) - viewing them in sequence to the end, one sees the Buddha's entire life story depicted here. These thirty caves are roughly two thousand years old; we walk through them in three or four hours, but carving them all took about eight hundred years, the author notes, celebrating such wondrous marvels of India.