CENTER FOR ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY 
Cave 12, an early Buddhist vihara (monastery) is one of the oldest hewn and most probably belongs to first century BCE. In its own heyday, the cave probably housed many of the monks associated with the great chaitya hall, Cave 10. An inscription on the back wall of the monastery records the gift of a cell by one merchant called Ghanamadada. The walls of the hall above the cell-doors are ornamented with chaitya window motifs connected at places by a railing motif; the right wall is decorated with stepped merlons of Assyrian pattern.
The monastery once bore paintings of which hardly anything now exists. The cave’s pillar-less hall is surrounded by carefully cut cells, each with two stone beds and that once must have housed at least twenty-four monks. The cave must have provided a ready model for the new excavators, who copied its typically astylar, shrineless plan quite directly during the first years of Vakataka.
During the time of the site’s renewal in the fifth century, this vihara must have been put to use as a residence for the craftsmen, which is suggested by the typically “late” red-brick plaster on the walls that is associated with the Vakataka building activity.
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Cave 13 is a small vihara (monastery) that belongs to first century CE. It must have provided accommodations for the monks who presumably would have conducted the rituals in the nearby early Buddhist chaitya halls, Caves 9 and 10. The front of this cave has perished. The hall has seven cells on three sides; each provided with two stone beds, one cell has raised stone pillows as well. The cells are so narrow that it is quite likely that they only served as dormitories (layanagriha). Cave 13, like the four other early Buddhist caves (Caves 9, 10 12, 15A), was refurbished in the Vakataka period; and the remaining traces of the notably “late” red plaster in the cells suggests that here, as in both of the other early Buddhist viharas, this was not done until 477 or later. There is no trace of the cave having ever been painted.
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Cave 14 is a large Vakataka vihara (monastery) that started around 475 CE and was sponsored by an identified patron from the Vakataka period. It is located directly above the Cave 13, the early Buddhist cave, where space was still available late in the site’s development. It is reached through an incomplete cave by an ancient staircase. Cave 14 is one of the two more ambitious Vakataka undertakings (the other one being Cave 28) started after the Asmaka feudatories took over the site a few years before Harisena’s death in 477 CE. However since it was not begun until a year or before emperor Harisena died, its development was soon aborted. The cave’s cistern chamber was one of its first features completed. The decoration of the pillars of the verandah is unique in the whole Ajanta site. The top corners of the central doorway leading up to the hall are adorned with sala-bhanjikas with attendants.
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