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Preliminary Material / Walter M. Spink and Naomichi Yaguchi -- Ajanta: An Introduction / Walter M. Spink -- Dandin, Ajanta, Bagh, and the Historicity of the Visrutacarita / Walter M. Spink -- The Development of the Vihara Shrine from Bagh to Ajanta / Walter M. Spink -- Shortening the “Short Chronology” / Walter M. Spink -- Solstitial Concerns: Ajanta’s Vakataka Caitya Halls / Walter M. Spink -- Ajanta; Four Painted Viharas: 1, 2, 16, 17 / Walter M. Spink -- Comments and Comparisons / Walter M. Spink -- Ajanta and the Trajectory of Vakataka History / Walter M. Spink -- Ajanta’s Cells and Cell Doorways / Walter M. Spink -- Illustrations / Naomichi Yaguchi -- Bibliography / Walter M. Spink and Naomichi Yaguchi -- Index / Walter M. Spink and Naomichi Yaguchi.

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Walter Spink’s intense concern with the development of the Ajanta caves and their architectural, sculptural and painted features finds its most insistent reflection in his present richly illustrated study. In part 1, Spink explains the many connections between the Bagh caves and its “sister site”, Ajanta. He particularly emphasizes the leading role that Bagh plays in establishing the “short chronology” and in the crucial matter of Buddhist shrine development from the aniconic to iconic forms of worship. In part 2, along with his colleague Professor Naomichi Yaguchi, who also provided the photographs and the newly informative plans, the authors show how, over the course of a mere decade, better and better ways were discovered to fit the doors in the cells where the monks lived. Such an analysis reveals the vigor of the conceptual and technical changes that characterize Ajanta’s evolution from its start in the early 460s to its traumatic collapse in about 470. Moving from Ajanta’s beginning to its ending, the evolution of door fittings parallels the precise and dramatic development of Indian history in the remarkable course of the emperor Harisena’s reign.