Indian Rock-Cut Architecture

Indian rock-cut architecture is the practice of creating buildings by carving them directly out of solid natural rock, cutting away unwanted stone until only the intended structure remains, a technique found in a greater abundance and variety in India than anywhere else in the world. More than 1,500 known rock-cut structures survive across the country, most of them religious in purpose and many carrying carved stonework and painting of international importance. The earliest examples, such as the Barabar Caves in Bihar, date to around 250 BCE, activity peaked in the fifth and sixth centuries CE at sites such as Ajanta and Ellora, and a final wave of rock-cut building continued as late as the fifteenth century CE at sites such as Gwalior; the tradition was shared across the Buddhist, Hindu and Jain religions and is found chiefly in Bihar in the east, in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Rajasthan in the west and the Deccan, and in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in the south.