The Ajanta Caves are 29 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments dating from the second century BCE to about 480 CE in the Aurangabad District of Maharashtra state in India. Ajanta Caves are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Universally regarded as masterpieces of Buddhist religious art, the caves include paintings and rock-cut sculptures described as among the finest surviving examples of ancient Indian art, particularly expressive paintings that present emotions through gesture, pose and form.
Ellora Caves are a rock-cut Hindu, Buddhist and Jain cave complex, with artwork dating from the period 600–1000 CE, located in the Sambhaji nagar District of Maharashtra, India. There are over 100 caves at the site, all excavated from the basalt cliffs in the Charanandri Hills, 34 of which are open to public. These consist of 17 Hindu, 12 Buddhist and 5 Jain caves. Each group represents deities and mythologies prevalent in the 1st millennium CE, as well as monasteries of each respective religion. They were built close to one another and illustrate the religious harmony that existed in ancient India. Because of their exceptional achitecture and testimony to the mixing of cultures and religions in ancient India, the Ellora Caves were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1983.
Aurangabad (pronunciation officially known as Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, also spelt Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, is a city in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarters of Aurangabad district and is the largest city in the Marathwada region. Located on a hilly upland terrain in the Deccan Traps, Aurangabad is the fifth-most populous urban area in Maharashtra with a population of 1,175,116. The city is known as a major production center of cotton textile and artistic silk fabrics. Several prominent educational institutions, including Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, are located in the city. The city is also a popular tourism hub, with tourist destinations like the Ajanta and Ellora caves lying on its outskirts, both of which have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1983. Other tourist attractions include the Aurangabad Caves, Devagiri Fort, Grishneshwar Temple, Jama Mosque, Bibi Ka Maqbara, Himayat Bagh, Panchakki and Salim Ali Lake. Historically, there were 52 Gates in Aurangabad, some of them extant, because of which Aurangabad is nicknamed as the "City of Gates". In 2019, the Aurangabad Industrial City became the first greenfield industrial smart city of India under the country's flagship Smart Cities Mission.
Marathwada is a proposed state and geographical region of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It was formed during the Nizam's rule and was part of the then Hyderabad State. The region coincides with the Aurangabad division of Maharashtra. It borders the states of Karnataka and Telangana, and it lies to the west of the Vidarbha and east of Uttar Maharashtra regions of Maharashtra. The largest city of Marathwada is Aurangabad. Its people speak Marathi And Deccani Urdu.
Daulatabad Fort, also known as Devgiri Fort or Deogiri Fort, is a historic fortified citadel located in Daulatabad village near Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India. It was the capital of the Yadava dynasty, for a brief time the capital of the Delhi Sultanate (1327–1334), and later a secondary capital of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate (1499–1636).
Aurangabad district is one of the 36 districts of the state of Maharashtra in western India. It borders the districts of Nashik to the west, Jalgaon to the north, Jalna to the east, and Ahmednagar to the south. The city of Aurangabad houses the district's administrative headquarters. The district has an area of 10,100 km2, of which 37.55% is urban and the rest is rural. Aurangabad District is a major tourism region in Marathwada.
Partur is a town with municipal council in Jalna district in the Indian state of Maharashtra.
Maharashtra attracts tourists from other Indian states and foreign countries. It was the second most visited Indian state by foreigners and fifth most visited state by domestic tourists in the country in 2021. Aurangabad is the tourism capital of Maharashtra.
The Jawaharlal Nehru Engineering College (JNEC) is an engineering college in Aurangabad CIDCO, India. It was established in 1982 and is affiliated with the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University in Maharashtra.
Bhadkal Gate is a structure in Aurangabad City in Maharashtra, India. This gate is the biggest in the city. It was built by Ahamadnagar's Murtaza Nizamshah's vizier Malik Ambar to commemorate the victory against the Mughals in 1612. It is also known as Victory Gate.
The Gates of Aurangabad distinguish it from several other medieval cities in India. Each of the 52 gates have a local history or had individuals linked with it.
The Aurangabad caves are twelve rock-cut Buddhist shrines located on a hill running roughly east to west, close to the city of Aurangabad, Maharashtra. The first reference to the Aurangabad Caves is in the great chaitya of Kanheri Caves. The Aurangabad Caves were dug out of comparatively soft basalt rock during the 6th and 7th century.
Rafat Saeed Qureshi is an Urdu writer hailing from Aurangabad, Maharashtra. He has written more than a 100 articles, features, reviews and translated stories from English to Urdu. His work are mostly on culture, tourism, history and monuments. An activist in the field of history and monuments, Qureshi has promoted Aurangabad at the national level through his Radio talks on Akashwani. He is also a regular talker on Akashwani. He has also conducted series of talks on various monuments of India.
The history of cave paintings in India or rock art range from drawings and paintings from prehistoric times, beginning in the caves of Central India, typified by those at the Bhimbetka rock shelters from around 10,000 BP, to elaborate frescoes at sites such as the rock-cut artificial caves at Ajanta and Ellora, extending as late as 6th–10th century CE.
Namantar Andolan was a Dalit and Navayana Buddhist movement to change the name of Marathwada University, in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India, to Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar University. It achieved a measure of success in 1994, when the compromise name of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University was accepted. The movement was notable for the violence against Dalits and Navayana Buddhists.
Tourism in Marathwada refers to tourism in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra state in India. Aurangabad is a regional headquarters in Marathwada, and the tourism capital of Maharashtra state. Out of the four UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Maharashtra, two are in the Marathwada region. There are also 110 monuments in Marathwada which are protected by Government of Maharashtra and recognized by Archaeological Survey of India.
Imtiyaz Jaleel Syed, also known as Syed Imtiyaz Jaleel, is an Indian politician and member of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen. In 2019 General Elections, Jaleel was elected as Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from Aurangabad Lok Sabha Constituency. He was elected as member of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from Aurangabad Central constituency in 2014. He is also the state president of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen in Maharashtra as well as a member of the Standing Committee of the Urban Development (UD).
Milind College is a group of three coeducational general degree colleges located in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India, namely Milind College of Science, Milind College of Arts, and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar College of Commerce. They offer undergraduate courses in arts, commerce and sciences. All three colleges are affiliated with Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University. The college is named after Milind, the Indo-Greek king.
Gangadhar Vithoba Pantawane was an Indian Marathi language writer, reviewer and Ambedkarite thinker from the state of Maharashtra. He was the follower of B. R. Ambedkar, polymath and the father of the Indian Constitution. He is one of the pioneers of the dalit literary movement" in Maharashtra. In 2008, he was elected president of the first Marathi Vishwa Sahitya Sammelan that was held in the United States. His pioneering journal, Asmitadarsh, galvanised generations of Dalit writers and thinkers. In 2018, he was honored with the Padma Shri by the Government of India.
