crazy little thing called blog: Ellora

Showing posts with label Ellora. Show all posts

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Ellora - Kailasanatha Temple

Kailasanatha Temple (also known as Kailash or Kailashnath Temple) is the most spectacular of the 34 monasteries and temples that were carved in the wall of a high basalt cliff at Ellora. It is the largest monolithic structure in the world, twice as big as Parthenon! It was built in the 8th century by the king Krishna I (from Rashtrakuta dynasty) and it was designed to recall Mount Kailash, the abode of Lord Shiva.

The most amazing thing about Kailasanatha Temple is that it was carved out of a single rock. It combines immensity of effort with grace and superb craftsmanship. Apparently, what also makes it unique is that the carvers started at the top of the original rock, and excavated downward, exhuming the temple out of the existing rock. It is believed that it took around 200 years to excavate it, during which 200,000 tones of rock were removed from the site.

The main temple is located in the U-shaped courtyard. It is two-story high and has several rooms, gathering halls and an enormous lingam at its heart - all carved from stone, of course. It is heavily decorated with images of deities, mithunas (erotic male and female figures), as well as other figures. Most of the deities at the left of the entrance are Shaivaite (followers of Lord Shiva) while on the right hand side the deities are Vaishnavaites (followers of Lord Vishnu). At the base of the temple there are statues of elephants, meant to suggest that the temple is aloft.

The courtyard is edged by a columned arcade three stories high. The arcades are punctuated by huge sculpted panels, and alcoves containing enormous sculptures of a variety of deities. Originally, stone bridges connected these galleries to the main temple, but these have fallen.

Kailasanatha Temple, front view:

View to the main Shiva Temple from a side gallery:

Shiva Temple:

One of many pillars:

The whole structure is heavily decorated:

Elephants at the base of the temple:

Second floor of Shiva Temple:

Inside the main part of Shiva temple:

The outer walls of Shiva Temple are heavily decorated:

Friday, February 4, 2011

Caves in Ellora

Ellora is an archaeological site that preserves 34 caves/temples belonging to three religions: Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism. I find it inspiring and admirable that in India those religions could and can coexist peacefully.

Ellora is located 30 km (19 miles) away from Aurangabad and we visited it during the same trip during which we went to the Ajanta Caves. Both cave complexes are very impressive and I would not be able to name the one that I liked more. The Ajanta Caves are in the more pristine location, see less tourists, and have better preserved frescoes. On the other hand, the Kailsanatha Temple in Ellora is the most spectacular of all the cave-temples we saw. I also thought that it was great that in Ellora we could directly compare Buddhist, Hindu and Jain temples (all temples in Ajanta are Buddhist).

The Ellora Caves were excavated out of the cliff of the Charanandri hills between the 5th century and 10th century, during the reign of the Rashtrakuta dynasty. There are 12 Buddhist (caves numbered 1 to 12), 17 Hindu (caves 13–29) and 5 Jain (30–34) caves.

The most impressive cave in the complex is the Hindu Kailasantha Temple (Cave No 16), to which I dedicated a separate post. But also other Hindu temples are very beautiful, each in its own way. They represent different styles and some of them are so complex that they must have taken several centuries to be completed.

The most famous of the Buddhist caves is Cave No 10, a chaitya hall or 'Vishvakarma cave', popularly known as the "Carpenter's Cave". At its heart is an impressive 15-foot statue of Buddha seated in a preaching pose. Most of the Buddhist Caves are large, multi-storied, and included living and sleeping quarters, kitchens, and other rooms.

In contrast to the majestic Hindu and Buddhist Caves, the five Jain Caves are small and have ascetic feel to them. They do have, however, more intricate and exceptionally detailed art works. Also, many of the structures had rich paintings in the ceilings – fragments of which are still visible.

Buddhist Caves

The central statue in the Cave No 10:

A waterfall and caves No 1 to 5:

Cave No 5:

Hindu Caves

Cave No 15:

Sculptures in the Cave No 15:

Side statues in the Cave No 21:

Views from the Cave No 26:

A waterfall and Caves No 25 and 26:

Cave No 29:

Jain Caves

Cave No 32:

Sculptures in the Cave No 32:

The central statue in the Cave No 32:

Side sculptures in the Cave No 32:

Cave No 32:

Side sculptures in the Cave No 32:

Cave No 34:

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Ajanta

After long and hard negotiations, Anil managed to convince his mother to allow us to travel together to the Ajanta and Ellora Caves. She only agreed to that under a condition that their family driver, Majid, would accompany us during the trip. In India it is extremely uncommon for unmarried man and woman to travel together (or even to go out for a date without a third party present). Majid's role was to make sure that we behave decently and also to be "the third party" for us, so that our reputation does not get ruined.

Long-distance driving does not make too much sense in India. It is slow, stressful and dangerous. Therefore, we decided to take an overnight train to Aurangabad (in the state of Maharashtra) and only there rent a car with a driver. (The train trip deserves a separate post, so I am not going to describe it here.)

The Ellora Caves are located around 30 km, and the Ajanta Caves around 100 km from Aurangabad, so they can be easily seen during the same trip (though I do not think it is possible to see both of them in one day).

We first went to Ajanta. It took us only around 2h by car to get there even though the road was narrow, heavily used by cows, motorcyclists and pedestrians, and had a significant number of holes. All that was not enough to discourage the driver we hired from driving between 90 to 110 km/h...

On the way to Ajanta I was worried that we are going to kill somebody, whereas on the way back I was worries that also we are not going to survive this trip... Anil and I were sitting in the back of the car, where there were no seat belts. In my imagination I could see us flying out of the car through the front window as soon as we hit something/somebody, or even just when the car breaks suddenly. I shared my concerns with Anil and asked him to ask the driver to slow down, but, stoically, he replied: "At least we are going to die together. Wouldn't that be a good solution to our problems?" (Our problems = problems that his mother was causing us at that moment in time.) But all's well that ends well :) We survived the trip and we lived to tell how spectacular and fascinating the caves in Ajanta are.

The Ajanta Caves are a series of 29 Buddhist cave temples, carved out of a horseshoe-shaped cliff along the Waghora River. Some of them were built in the 2nd century BC, rest likely around 500 AD.

Five of the caves were used by Buddhist monks as prayer halls (chaitya grihas) and 24 were monasteries (viharas). They are thought to have been occupied by some 200 monks and artisans for about nine centuries, and then got abruptly abandoned, likely in favor of Ellora. Since then the temples have been abandoned and forgotten, and gradually reclaimed back by the jungle. They got rediscovered in April 1819 when a British officer, John Smith, accidentally discovered the entrance to one of the cave temples while hunting a tiger.

The caves are numbered from east to west, 1 through 29. Today, they are connected by a terraced path, but in ancient times each was independently accessed from the riverfront.

Inside the caves are many masterpieces of Buddhist art. Older caves follow the Theravada tradition of depicting the Buddha only in symbolic form such as a throne or footprints. The newer ones (the Mahayana caves) also feature colorful murals and statues depicting the lives of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas. In some caves there are also depicted scenes from everyday life of the monks.

First views of Ajanta Caves: