Ajanta was found again by accident, by a British officer supposedly out hunting tigers, who left his own name carved on a pillar to prove it.
Found by a hunting party
British army officer John Smith is credited with rediscovering the caves for the colonial record in 1819, reportedly while pursuing a tiger through the ravine and glimpsing the carved facades through overgrown vegetation. He is said to have carved his name and the date onto a pillar inside one cave, a mark that reportedly survived for some time afterward as an unofficial record of the rediscovery, though the caves had never been unknown to the local population living nearby.
Painting rather than only carving
Ajanta is distinguished among Buddhist rock-cut sites by extensive surviving wall paintings, depicting Jataka tales of the Buddha's previous lives alongside courtly and devotional scenes, executed in a naturalistic style using mineral pigments on a mud and plaster ground. The paintings are widely regarded as among the finest surviving examples of ancient Indian art and have influenced study of painting traditions across South and Southeast Asia.
An abandonment without a clear cause
Excavation and use of the caves appears to have ceased by around the seventh century, with no single confirmed explanation; proposed causes include shifting trade routes that had supported the monastic community, declining royal patronage, and broader changes in the region's religious landscape as Buddhism's presence in India receded over subsequent centuries.