Cave IV. is the largest vihara of the series, and has a verandah 87 feet by 11 feet 9 inches, and 16 feet high, supported by eight octagonal columns with bracket capitals. A room at each end, 10 feet by 8 eight feet 6 inches, is entered by a small door with three steps. The cave had a projecting frieze along the front, with chaitya-window ornaments at intervals, each containing a human head. The windows are surrounded by neat tracery, and a female and an attendant are at the bottom of each jamb. The hall has one central and two side doors, and two windows between the doors. The large entrance is one of the most elaborate of its kind found at Ajanta; but the inner lines of moulding are reduced to give room to the sculpture, which rather overloads the design. The lintel is ornamented with little figures of Buddha and other sculptures. The dvarapalas consist of females attended by dwarfs. The upper compartment of the architrave has a bull like Nandi; and two monkeys are carved at the extreme right, on the upper member of the cornice. The frieze has five chaitya-windows, three of which contain Buddhas, and the end windows have pairs of human figures. The upper corners of the door have figures like goats rampant, facing each other, and had riders on them, but these are destroyed. Between the right side of the door and the architrave of the window, is a large compartment, with a variety of figures at the side; and in the middle is a large Padmapani, with the figure of Amitabha Buddha on the forehead. The head is surrounded by a nimbus, and a lotus was in the left hand. The four compartments on each side represent the Buddha litany, so that the cave is probably of late age, and contemporary with Dherwara at Elura, and Cave VII at, Aurangabad, where this litany is also found. Buddha is represented seated in a small horse-shoe arch above, with a tall spire over it; and in the large panel, Padmapani occupies the centre, with a vidyadhara on a cloud over each shoulder. The sides of the compartments are carved with the “eight forms of evil,” from which Padmapani gives deliverance, viz., elephants, lions, fire, snakes, thieves, fetters, drowning, and demons. The two middle pillars of the back row are richly decorated, but the other pillars inside are plain octagons. There are traces of a small fragment of painting in very brilliant colours, on the roof of the verandah to the right of the central door. The antechamber is 21 feet by 13 feet; and on either side of the shrine door is a large standing Buddha, with two similar figures on each end wall of the antechamber. The Buddha in the shrine is in the teaching attitude, and has an attendant on the left, holding a lotus in the left hand. The wheel and deer are in front, and a group of worshippers is at each corner of the throne. The hall is 87 feet square, and has twenty-eight plain columns, with a deep architrave over them as at Ghatotkach, which raises the roof of the cave considerably. The front aisle is 97 feet long, and has a cell at each end.
