The magnificent Ellora Caves
Civilisations are built around ideas: ideas around man, his relation to others and often to a higher power. Looking back at history, we quickly realise that most civilisations try to preserve the ideas that are most important in ways that outlive their creators.
Many of these ideas revolve around religion and beliefs. Most civilisations in India have had a patron deity or a state religion and have often invested heavily in ensuring that the idea of their Gods is recorded for posterity. While much of the early heritage was shared orally, civilisations around the 4th and 5th centuries AD began constructing temples hewn from rock.
(Many folks believe that Hinduism ‘always’ had temples, but there is no historical evidence of temples in the Vedic times. Many of the temple structures we see commonly have roots in temple architecture at Aihole).
One of the wonders of Indian temple architecture is the set of caves at Ellora.
Modern history books at school (at least the ones I remember) treat Ellora as a hyphenated cognate of Ajanta caves with just a short chapter mentioning how grand the caves are.
Ellora caves are a set of rock-cut temples that span over 2 km, but well over 400 years of history. The name Ellora derives from the historical moniker Elapura.
There are over 34 caves at Ellora, split into Hindu, Buddhist and Jain caves (unimaginatively referred today by just cave numbers). At the centre stands the magnificent Kailashnath temple (cave 16).
The construction of the Kailashnath temple is attributed to the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I. It is believed to have been carved out of a single rock, and some records state that over 10 generations of sculptors worked on finishing it. By some estimates, the sculptors had to excavate 30000 tons of rock to build the temple.
In today’s day of instant gratification, even a month often seems long-term. What inspiration it would take to have generations work on a single project with many being certain that they would never see the finished product.
And through the generations, what a magnificent job they’ve done!
The Kailashnath temple is breathtaking in its intricacy. It has a traditional gopuram structure dedicated to Shiva but also has multiple smaller shrines dedicated to the river goddesses Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati. The walls are adorned with sculptures from the Mahabharata, Ramayana and other tales.
To the immediate left of the Kailashnath temple lie other Hindu temples. In one of them, the entrance has a wonderful sculpture of Shiva impaling Andhaka on a trident.
Andhaka is a fascinating but little-known character from Indian mythology. As per many of the early tales, Parvati once playfully shut Shiva’s eyes with her hands and unknowingly plunged the world into darkness. To restore light Shiva opened his third eye on the forehead. Due to the heat of the third eye, Parvati’s hands began to sweat, and from the sweat was born a child who was blind, and hence named Andhaka.
Andhaka was given to a childless king to raise (by some accounts, Hiranyaksha, the demon who abducted the earth and was killed by Vishnu’s avatar — yeah, I know, Hindu mythology is intricate!), but was not accepted as king after his father’s death. He undertook penance and asked for boons to restore his eyesight and to make him invincible, the catch being that he would never look at a woman who was like a mother to him with lust (as an aside, it is interesting to note the similarity to the Greek Oedipus).
He returns to his kingdom a fierce warrior and conquers all, but then is told of a divine beauty at Kailash. He attempts to take her by force when Shiva intervenes and impales him with his trident. Every drop of blood creates a clone, and Shiva creates creatures who drink up the blood and finally lops his head off. However, Andhaka repents just before dying and is made chief of Shiva’s followers.
The rock carving depicts with amazing dexterity the story of Andhaka, down to creatures in the battle.
The other side has a carving of Ravana trying to carry Kailash home, only to find it too heavy because Shiva presses his big toe onto it.
Inside the temple, there is another rich carving depicting Shiva and Parvati playing a game of dice. You can even make out Parvati’s peevish pose at having lost the game, even as Shiva tries to cajole her.
A little to the left lie the set of Jain temples believed to have been constructed towards the ninth and tenth century AD. The Jain temples all belong to the Digambar sect, and include the finely detailed Indra Sabha that has ornate carvings depicting the court of the king of deities, Indra.
The last set of caves lie to the right and are predominantly Buddhist.
Cave 10 is a giant cathedral-like structure hosts a giant statue of the Buddha in meditation. The ceiling is carved out to give an impression of wooden beams. As we entered, we saw a set of Japanese tourists, chanting prayers that echoed gently around the hall, giving the cave a sense of immense calm.
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Ellora is a UNESCO world heritage site and one that we highly recommend if you’re interested in Indian history.
Originally written in 2015
