‘The rock-cut temples in India preceded stone building’

"In 1819, a young British officer, when on a shooting party in the hilly country of the Western Ghats north of Aurungabad, came to the rim of a deep ravine; looking down, he saw a row of openings with carved façades all along the curve of the vertical cliff across the gorge; he descended and found that the black openings were the entrances to a series of twenty-nine temples excavated in the solid rock, all richly carved, and some covered with splendid paintings. He had rediscovered the Ajanta cave-temples, built or rather excavated by Buddhists between the end of the third century B.C. and the early part of the seventh century A.D., and long faded from public memory. The story has often been told; but it bears re-telling because the discovery was so dramatic and also so important."

Julian Huxley so write as he gives his impressions of Indian rock-cut architecture in this piece that was originally published in the Architectural Review in September 1956.

Read Huxley's complete essay here: https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/the-rock-cut-temples-in-india-preceded-stone-building