Place · Ashokan rock-cut caves · India
Barābar caves
The oldest surviving rock-cut chambers in India, in Jehanabad district, Bihar, dedicated by Ashoka and his grandson Dasharatha Maurya between 260 and 230 BCE to the Ajivika sect — the sramana order led by Makkhali Gosala. Four polished granite chambers (Sudama, Lomas Rishi, Karna Chaupar, Visva Zopri) carry imperial Mauryan inscriptions in Brahmi; the famous Lomas Rishi arch imitates in stone a wooden gabled roof, the prototype for the Buddhist chaitya window across subsequent centuries. The caves are a reminder that the Mauryan state patronised the sramana orders beyond Buddhism, in parallel grants.
- Function
- Archaeology & heritage
- Tradition
- Ashokan dedicatory inscriptions
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 25.005, 85.063
Connections (1)
- Mauryan patronagePātaliputra
The Barabar caves, the earliest surviving rock-cut sanctuaries in India, were polished to a mirror finish and dedicated by Ashoka and his grandson Dasharatha to the Ajivikas — a rival ascetic order, not Buddhists. They were cut from the Mauryan capital's resources for a sect that has since vanished entirely, which is a useful correction to reading the Mauryan state as simply Buddhist. E.M. Forster used one of them for the Marabar caves.
Sources
Barabar Caves — ASI; Ajivika dedications
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