Why is there Hindu gods in this decorated wall in the Vihara of Bhaja I am a student of art and I am studying on Buddhist art .In the Vihara of Bhaja  there is a decorated wall with two important gods of Hindusim, namely Surya and Indra. It refers to the Shunga period.


Why they have used images from Hindu gods?
Why would they have made this kind of art at all?


I thought that Buddha was against Hindu gods, and that people should follow him because Buddha advised that people should rely on themselves and not on the gods!
From Wikipedia, Buddhism and Hinduism:


  Hinduism and Buddhism, have common origins in the Ganges culture of northern India during the so-called "second urbanisation" around 500 BCE. They have shared parallel beliefs that have existed side by side, but also pronounced differences.


The Bhaja Caves date to around 200 BCE, so at the time of the relief carvings, Buddhism would only have been around for roughly 300 years. At this point Buddhism would have been considered fairly "young", and would have lacked as much of the independent symbolism, art, etc. that we see today (after the passage of ~2,200 years).

Within the first 300 years of Buddhism, mainstream society in India would still have been very much Hindu-oriented. Hinduism would have been everywhere, reflected in all aspects of daily life. So it follows that artists would have used familiar symbolism and artistic subjects, taken from the Hindu-driven mainstream culture.

This is, of course, as good a guess as any. We'll never know that specific artist's personal motivations or the circumstances that led to the choice of those particular carvings. But looking back on the period holistically, I don't think it's too surprising that we'd see a lot of Hindu art everywhere, even in and around "Buddhist sites".