The painting of Bodhisattva Padmapani is one of the most famous and oft-illustrated paintings at

Ajanta is correct. The lotus-holding Bodhisattva Padmapani is the best-known figure in the murals of Cave 1 at Ajanta, a Mahayana Buddhist complex in Aurangabad district, Maharashtra. He is usually shown alongside Vajrapani in the same cave, and it is the image most students recall when they hear 'Ajanta paintings'.

Why the others fail:

• Badami (Karnataka) was a Chalukya capital known for rock-cut cave temples with Vaishnava, Shaiva and Jaina sculpture. Its painted surfaces are fragmentary and it has no Padmapani tradition.
• Bagh (Dhar, Madhya Pradesh) has Buddhist caves with Gupta-influenced paintings, but these are partly lost and are not the Padmapani reference point.
• Ellora (Maharashtra) is famous for the Kailasa monolithic temple and its Buddhist, Hindu and Jaina caves, not for a single painted Bodhisattva.

Concept: The Ajanta murals, produced under Vakataka-period patronage (Harishena, roughly 5th-6th century CE), are central to the study of Indian painting, Buddhist iconography and the Bodhisattva concept. For Mains, they link to art and culture and to how royal and monastic patronage shaped heritage.

Trap: Candidates mix up Bagh and Ajanta because both have Buddhist murals. The test is which site produced the iconic Padmapani image.