THE ANCIENT ABBEY OF AJANTA 73
imagination. Yet only a detailed study of the whole countryside can give us the real clue to the development of sites like Ajanta.
We forget that every age seems modern to itself, and that warm throbbing human life once filled these empty cells, that human love and conviction inspired every line and curve of their contour, and that human thought beat ceaselessly to and fro against their walls and screens in its search to determine for man the grounds of eternal certainty. But even when we have answered these questions we have yet to answer one other, as pressing, as important. How did all this activity come to an end ? The history of the death of Buddhism in India has yet to be entered upon, in the true spirit of critical inquiry ; but when it is under- taken, what vast areas will be found elucidated !
Here in the neighbourhjood of Ajanta are many features of interest and possible significance. The railway is still forty miles away, and has not yet had time to derange the commercial relations of the grand old market town called Neri, encircled by its battlemented walls. Some eight miles to the north of the caves lies the postal town of Vakod. Is there any connection here with the word Vakataka? Four miles to the south on one side, and again four to the north on the other, are the towns of Ajanta and Fardapur. Both are seats of Moghul fortification testifying, to the strong and independent character of the country from early times. At Ajanta there is a palace
