The use of rock-cut sanctuaries goes back to the time of Emperor Ashoka, during the third century b.c. , when itinerant Buddhist monks formed a religious order and the emperor provided them with rock-hewn cells as a vihara (retreat) during the monsoons.
The emperor gave traveling Buddhist monks rooms carved out of rocks for shelter during the monsoons in the third century B.C.
Soldiers and civilians sitting at dining table.