Maharashtra State - Ellora Caves, Part 2

Exploring "The Ellora Caves", Part 2
Event date: 11th December 2011

The Hindu Group of Caves are from Cave No. 13 to 29 which stands out eminently because of the grandeur of its architecture, abundance of sculptures and variety of subjects. The episodes from Hindu mythologies are found animated here in the form of sculptures. I'm personally amazed with the closer looks of these sculptures as it has a different types of emotions, sentiments, different bodily actions, variety in jewellery, clothing and hairdressing are so skillfully carved stands before us as living models.

Cave No. 15, was where I went up alone as it seated a little higher than other cave which requires staircase climbing (many steps). It is a double storey cave temple influenced by Buddhist caves no. 11 & 12. The largest images of Shri Ganesh and Nandi (in below photo) is the main attraction. As soon as you landed the top of the cave, you may encounter a Mandap (4 square building) which was sculptured with lions in Greek style.

Below is Cave 13, "Ravan Ki KHai', the 1st Hindu cave. It's style, architectures and sculptures are different from the Buddhist cave. All it's walls are occupied by a large sculpture panels. There is no idols in the sanctum beside the broken image of Goddes Durga. There are a large male and female guardian sculpture on the doorways. 

Cave 16, Kailas is the highest peak of architecture cave in the world. The creation of this temple is credited to Krishna 1st of Rashtrakut dynasty. The carving work commenced from top down using only chisel and hammer. During the carving process, the huge rock in the middle was preserved for the main temple, providing vacant space for devotion hall and multi storied side galleries. The dravidian architectural style has its dominant impact on the caves with rich colored paintings. Over the times, the painting colors faded and very few of the painted areas remained to be seen, especially at the main prayer building.



Both sides of the gateway have large sculptures, including 8 goddesses guarding 8 directions called "Dikpals", a large and beautiful panel of Gajalaxmi greets the visitor to a starting point of the spacious open area surrounding the temple and the lofty pillar along with the elephants (on both left and right sides) as can be seen from below photo.

At the side of the main palatial structures are another minor 1 also with grace and splendour carvings, which clearly shows the impact of Dravidian architecture. Just behind the temple, a sight of steep hill rock carved with skillfully arts and crafts of epic from Mahabratha and Ramayana are clearly visible. Every carving has its own story.

We have to walk quite far to go to the next temple. At this point, the boys started to protest when their picture was taken as the weather is getting hotter. Therefore, once we passed caves No. 17 - 20, we called the driver to send us straight to Cave No. 29 and thereafter to the group of Jain Caves, No. 30 to 34.

While all my family member & the driver were happily opted to wait in the car, I went alone inside Cave No. 29 & 28 to explore its beauty. The cave no. 29 is the second imposing and finest of the Hindu Caves after Kailas, being called "Sita Ki Nahani @ Dhuma Cave". It has 3 sides entrance with each entrance has a pair of seated lions on its steps. Inside, the sanctuary of the cave is very big, having entrances from 4 sides. Dancing Shiva, Ravan shaking mount Kailas, Shiva-Parvati marriage (below photo), Shiva-Parvati playing dice and Shiva killing andhrakasur are some of the large scale sculpture panels on the walls of this cave.   

In here too, I was gazing to a group of monk with their colorful attire from Thailand. I sat a while at a bench near the sanctuary having a peace moment by myself, thanking God, when the leader, seen in the photo below insisted to have our pictures taken, and I said "Sawadeekap" when his assistant helped me with the photo.

Ganesh and Jogeshwari group of caves is located at the upper side of the caves 28 and 29 on the bank of Yelganga river. A small bridge between these caves is constructed to cross the river. The river flows through several small waterfalls in this region. As it was winter, we miss an opportunity to see the numerous waterfalls within Ellora Caves. Caves no. 27, 26 & 25 seen from below photo taken from Cave No. 28.

The group of Jain caves are located at the distance of 1 and a half km from the last Hindu cave, No. 29. All the 4 caves are continuous on a ground level near a foothill, belonged to Digamber Jain Cult. The temples are adorned with intricate and graceful sculptures and designs. 2 out of 4 caves are incomplete works for unknown reason. Below photo was taken inside Cave No. 32.

The boys were happy playing with a friendly squirrel inside the Caves No. 32, forcing me stayed longer and listening to their nonsense reason why must we bring back a beautiful creatures.

Secretly, I too admired this beautiful squirrel. It would be pleasant to have their company at home.

After an exhausted tour, we adjourned for a very lavish and reasonable charged meal at a restaurant along the road to Aurangabad. Everybody gives a huge thumbs-up to the meal and the ambiance.

My next entry is our tour to places of interest in Aurangabad, including a visit to Bibi ka Maqraba.

to be continued....