In the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra are located the rock-cut cave monuments which are called as the Ajanta caves. These caves house paintings and sculpture which are considered to be masterpieces of Buddhist religious art and universal pictorial art. The Ajanta Caves have been included in the UNESCO World Heritage sites since 1983. These caves date back to the second century BC and were built under the patronage of Hindu Kings at that time.The official number of caves as numbered by the Archaeological Survey of India is 29 and are located in a horse-shoe shaped ravine which is located around 3.5 km from the village of Ajintha. Paintings and sculptures are present all over the caves except the floors and they depict the teachings of Buddhism and also depictions of Jataka Tales is done in these paintings which are murals of a different style.
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