India, June 7 -- The Barabar caves near Bodh Gaya, carved during the Mauryan era, are India's oldest rock-cut caves, famed for their acoustics, polished interiors, and inscriptions honouring the Ajivak sect.

Gaya was the capital of the Magadha Empire, the most powerful of the ancient Indian kingdoms even prior to Buddha and Mahavira. Flourished here many philosophies, sciences and art forms for over a thousand the years and by the time the capital of Magadha shifted from Gaya to Patliputra around 460 BC, Gaya was already a well-established cultural hub.

Mentioned in Ramayana, Mahabharata, Buddhist and Jain texts, the settlement also saw the rise of the heterogenous Ajivak sect, which is reckoned by some as the precursor to Buddhism and ...