{"id":20233,"date":"2024-02-08T02:27:06","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T20:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=20233"},"modified":"2025-04-05T23:16:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T17:46:30","slug":"ajanta-and-ellora-caves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/ajanta-and-ellora-caves\/","title":{"rendered":"Ajanta and Ellora Caves"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About Ajanta and Ellora Caves<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Ajanta and Ellora caves, considered to be one of the\u00a0finest examples of ancient rock-cut caves, are located near\u00a0Aurangabad in Maharashtra.<\/li>\n<li>The Ajanta and Ellora cave complex is adorned with beautiful\u00a0sculptures, paintings, and\u00a0frescoes and\u00a0includes Buddhist monasteries, Hindu and Jain temples.<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0Ajanta caves are 29 in number and were\u00a0built between the 2nd century\u00a0BC and the 6th century AD, whereas the\u00a0Ellora caves are more spread out and\u00a034 in number and date to the period between the\u00a06th and 11th Centuries AD.<\/li>\n<li>Ajanta Caves are\u00a0mostly Buddhist sites and were used as a retreat by Buddhist monks.\n<ul>\n<li>The caves consisted of cells for meditation, assembly halls for discussions, and stupas for rituals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Ellora\u00a0has a better\u00a0mix of Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist structures.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The caves are adorned with\u00a0sculptures that reflect the spiritual beliefs of the time.\n<ul>\n<li>The sculptures range from depictions of deities, celestial beings, and mythological scenes to portraits of royalty and everyday life.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0Kailash Temple in Ellora is an architectural marvel. It is\u00a0one of the largest monolithic structures in the world.\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li>The structure is\u00a0carved vertically from a single rock. It took 18 years to carve out the temple.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>They are designated as\u00a0UNESCO World Heritage Sites.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Key Facts about Swadesh Darshan Scheme<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It was launched in 2015 by the\u00a0Ministry of Tourism, Government of India,\u00a0to develop sustainable and\u00a0responsible tourism destinations\u00a0in the country.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>It is\u00a0100% centrally funded\u00a0scheme.<\/li>\n<li>Under the scheme, the Ministry of Tourism\u00a0provides financial assistance to State governments, Union Territory Administrations,\u00a0or Central Agencies\u00a0for development of tourism infrastructure in the country.<\/li>\n<li>Operation &amp; Maintenance (O&amp;M)\u00a0of the projects sanctioned under the Swadesh Darshan Scheme is the\u00a0responsibility of the respective State Government\/UT Administration.<\/li>\n<li>Swadesh Darshan 2.0:\n<ul>\n<li>The Ministry of Tourism has revamped its Swadesh Darshan scheme as Swadesh Darshan 2.0 (SD2.0) for the\u00a0development of sustainable and responsible tourist destinations, covering tourism and\u00a0allied infrastructure, tourism services, human capital development,\u00a0destination management, and promotion, backed by policy and institutional reforms.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The objective of the Swadesh Darshan 2.0 scheme envisages\u00a0increase in private sector investment\u00a0in tourism and hospitality.<\/li>\n<li>It may help in increasing\u00a0Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in the field of tourism and operation and maintenance of the assets created under the scheme.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What are UNESCO World Heritage Sites?<\/h3>\n<p>A World Heritage Site (WHS) is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by UNESCO under the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, established in 1972. These sites are designated by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, scientific or other forms of significance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/city\/aurangabad\/ajanta-ellora-now-part-of-swadesh-darshan-scheme\/articleshow\/107475542.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Ajanta &amp; Ellora now part of Swadesh Darshan scheme<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ajanta and Ellora caves, considered to be one of the finest examples of ancient rock-cut caves, are located near Aurangabad in Maharashtra.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":20234,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}