Vol. 6: by Walter M. Spink (text) and Naomichi Yaguchi (photographs).

Includes bibliographical references.

Preliminary Material / Walter M. Spink -- A discussion of H. Bakker’s The Vakatakas / Walter M. Spink -- Cave 26 as an inaugural monument / Walter M. Spink -- Cave 26’s complicated development Compared With Upendragupta’s Caitya Cave 19 and Other Caves / Walter M. Spink -- Cohen’s “Possible Histories” / Walter M. Spink -- Scholarly contributions to Maharashtra Pathik Some Conflicting Views and a Reply / Walter M. Spink -- Patronage: Consistent vs. Collapsing / Walter M. Spink -- Locating Intrusions in Time / Walter M. Spink -- Could any Intrusions Date Before Mid-478? / Walter M. Spink -- Caves 9 and 10: Their Redecoration and Their Intrusions / Walter M. Spink -- Crises and Cave 1 / Walter M. Spink -- The Breakdown of Patronage in the Period of Disruption / Walter M. Spink -- Patronage of the Hinayana Caves: Considerations / Walter M. Spink -- Cave 10: Redecoration / Walter M. Spink -- Cave 10: Intrusions: Summary / Walter M. Spink -- Cave 10: The Aisle Paintings: Original and Intrusive / Walter M. Spink -- Cave 10: Façade Intrusions / Walter M. Spink -- Cave 12 / Walter M. Spink -- Cave 9 / Walter M. Spink -- The Anomalous Painting on Cave 9’s Rear Wall / Walter M. Spink -- Cave 9: Triforium Paintings; Aisle Wall Paintings / Walter M. Spink -- Cave 9: Palimpsests and Other Transformations / Walter M. Spink -- Cave 9: Intrusions on Pillars / Walter M. Spink -- Cave 9: Façade Intrusions / Walter M. Spink -- Cave 9: Considerations About Usage / Walter M. Spink -- Ajanta’s Inscriptions / Richard S. Cohen -- Handbbook of Oriental Studies / Walter M. Spink.

Volume Two begins with writings by some of the most important critics of Walter Spink's conclusions, interspersed with his own responses, using a thorough analysis of the great Cave 26 to support his assertions. The author then turns to matters of patronage, and to the surprising fact that, unlike most other Buddhist sites, Ajanta was purely \'elitist\', developed by less than a dozen major patrons. Its brief heyday traumatically ended, however, with the death of the great emperor Harisena in about 477, creating political chaos. Ajanta's anxious patrons now joined in a headlong rush to get their shrines dedicated, in order to obtain the expected merit, before they fled the region, abandoning their caves to the monks and local devotees remaining at the now-doomed site. These \'intrusive\' new patrons now filled the caves with their own helter-skelter votive offerings, paying no heed to the well-laid plans of the years before. A similar pattern of patronage is to be found in the redecoration of the earlier Hinayana caves, where the careful planning of the work being done during Harisena's reign is suddenly interrupted by a host of individual votive donations. The volume ends with a new and useful editing of Ajanta inscriptions by Richard S. Cohen.