The Story
OrganizerThe Ellora and Ajanta Caves are among the most extraordinary art sites in the world. Ajanta's painted caves, created between the 2nd century BCE and the 6th century CE, contain some of the finest surviving examples of ancient Indian painting. Ellora's rock-cut temples, spanning Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain traditions across a millennium, culminate in the Kailasa Temple, one of the most ambitious rock-cut architectural achievements in human history.
The dance festival at Ellora and Ajanta is based on a fundamental insight: that classical Indian dance and the iconography of these cave sites share a deep vocabulary. The mudras, stances, and narrative content of Bharatanatyam, Odissi, and Kuchipudi draw directly on the sculptural tradition that produced the figures at Ellora and Ajanta. Performing these forms at the caves is not merely spectacular staging; it is a restoration of the original context in which classical Indian dance and classical Indian sculpture developed together as related arts.
MTDC's sponsorship of the festival positions it as a cultural tourism anchor for Aurangabad, a city that has struggled to develop tourism infrastructure commensurate with the global significance of its heritage sites.
The Ellora Ajanta Dance Festival is one of the very few Indian dance festivals held at UNESCO World Heritage Sites with direct iconographic connection to the dance forms being performed. Classical Indian dance draws on the sculptural canon that reaches one of its peaks at Ellora; performing Bharatanatyam or Odissi against the Kailasa Temple or the painted chambers of Ajanta creates a cultural encounter of unusual depth and legitimacy.
Performing classical Indian dance at Ellora and Ajanta, where the sculptural canon that informs those dance forms was created, is an act of cultural reconnection with no parallel elsewhere in India. The festival's UNESCO heritage setting and its classical dance programming create an experience unavailable anywhere else.
Created a platform for classical dance performance at two of India's most significant World Heritage Sites. Provided a cultural tourism anchor for Aurangabad. Renewed the connection between classical Indian dance and its sculptural heritage at Ellora and Ajanta.
