62 FOOTFALLS OF INDIAN HISTORY
Ajanta have seemed to the handful of monks who took up their abode in its natural caverns, perhaps a couple of centuries before Asoka. The rough path by which they could climb to their eagle's nests of dwellings was soon hewn by their patient hands into simple stairs. But even these were reached, from the north, only after arduous travel over the boulders by the stream side. A perfect site for a monstery. It is difficult to imagine that amongst the scarped and rugged hillsides of Khandesh there could have been found another vale at once so lonely and so beautiful.
Twenty-six caves there are in all ; numbered, in the unemotional fashion of official surveys, in serial order from north to south. In reality, how- ever, they fall according to their ages into some four main groups. The first of these, containing Caves Eight to Thirteen, lies to the left of the stairs by which one reaches the monastery terrace. One arrives on that level between Six and Seven, and the first seven numbers form the third of the periods. Caves Fourteen to Nineteen constitute the second period ; and Twenty to Twenty-six the fourth. Thus : —
13, 12, II, 10, 9, 8: Period I.
19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14: Period II.
7. 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, I : Period III.
26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20: Period IV.
Not that all the caves of any single group were undertaken at once. In each period there is a
