Ellora Caves

The Ellora caves are located in the Aurangabad district of the state of Maharashtra in India. They lie on the Aurangabad-Chalisgaon road, at a distance of 30 km northwest of the district headquarters. The caves have the distinction of being one of the largest rock-cut structures in the world and have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The caves were excavated between 6th A.D to 11th century A.D. There are more than 100 caves out of which only 34 are open to the public. Out of the 34, caves 1 to 12 are Buddhist, caves 13 to 29 are Brahmanical and caves 30 to 34 are Jain. The existence of caves belonging to three different religions in close proximity of each other indicates a spirit of religious tolerance. The most famous of these is cave number 16, which has the largest single monolithic rock-cut structure in the world, known as the great Kailasa temple.

The constructions at Ellora were done under the patronage of kings and wealthy merchants and traders. Although inscriptional evidence is quite scanty, yet it is known that the Rashtrakuta dynasty got part of the Hindu and the Buddhist caves constructed, while the Yadava dynasty constructed the Jain caves. Ellora has a history of continuous human inhabitation starting from the Upper Palaeolithic age (10,000 - 20,000 years ago). The rock-cut constructions had begun in the vicinity of Ellora much earlier at Pital Khora, Nasik, and at Ajanta. When these places filled up, the constructions started at Ellora in the 5th century A.D. Due to their close proximity to a trade route, the Ellora caves, unlike the Ajanta caves, were never lost to oblivion. There are written records which prove that these caves were visited regularly by travellers and royal patronage continued well after the last constructions took place.

Ellora was a site of continuous construction activity for almost 700 years. As the constructions here were done under different dynasties, one can see the workings of different regions and styles. This indicates that artist, such as craftsmen, stonecutters, and skilled sculptors migrated in search of work. They have lent their unique styles to their work in Ellora and the Kailashnath temple is a good example of that. As the caves lay on an ancient trade route, they also served as a resting place for the pilgrims. This may be a reason for the number of Buddhist monasteries and the spacious halls of the Jain caves, which provided spaces for travellers and devotees during large gatherings. The patronage may have been royal or ecclesiastical but the artists were secular and they have showcased the affluence and prevalent styles of ancient India in the richly ornamented and intricately carved sculptures of religious deities in these caves.

The caves at Ellora are full of Buddhist, Jain and Hindu images, with their unique iconographical features. The Buddhist caves have images of Gautama Buddha, and the bodhisattvas, belonging to the Vajrayana sect. The cave pillars have friezes of Naga queens, and the reliefs have images of entertainers, dancers, and musicians. The Hindu caves have images of Lord Shiva, who is also depicted in the form of a linga. Cave 16, also known as the Kailasa temple, has numerous Shaiva, Vaishnava and Shakti images, and carvings depicting the stories of the epics. One of the finest reliefs is found in Cave 15, which depicts the death of Hiranyakashipu. The Jain caves, belonging to the Digambara sect, depict the 24 Jinas, yaksha, yakshi, and saints such as Parsvanatha and Bahubali. Some of the caves also have wall paintings which have been made on lime and mud mortar layers.

The caves of Ellora point to the developments that took place in the three religious creeds of India between the 6th and the 11th centuries A.D. The Buddhist caves indicate that the Vajrayana sect had been well established by this time. The Hindu iconography gives evidence that the Brahmanical religion had by now evolved the trilogy of gods and each of these gods was endowed with their specific attributes. The concept of incarnation or the avatars of gods was also prevalent. The Jain iconography at Ellora suggests that Jainism had imbibed some of the features of Hinduism. This is evident by the carving of the river goddesses, Ganga, and the Yamuna, on the door jambs of the Jain caves. The Indra panels in the Jain cave shows that the two religions shared certain mythologies. The depiction of entertainers in the Jain caves points to the development of the Samavasarana doctrine in Jainism.

The Ellora caves have been made in the scarp of a rocky plateau running in a north-south direction for 2 km, in the shape of a semi-circle. The Buddhist caves lie on the south, the Jain caves lie on the north, while the Brahmanical caves are at the centre. The rock is composed of multi-layered basalt formation, the finer grains of which can be finely sculpted. The architectural marvel at Ellora is the Kailasa Temple in the Hindu cave no. 16, a monolithic rock-cut temple, with all the components of a temple carved out of a single rock. The Buddhist caves consist of monasteries and prayer halls. The famous Buddhist structures are Cave 5, with its pair of parallel refectory benches, and the Cave 10, a prayer hall, with it's ceiling giving an appearance of wooden beams. The Jain caves consist of halls, with the shrines located in the back wall.

A myth is associated with why the Kailas temple was carved starting from the top to the bottom. It is said that there was a queen who took an oath that she would not take even a drop of water unless she saw the shikhara of a Shiva temple that she had promised to build if her husband was cured of a disease. The sculptor thus carved the shikhara of the Kailas temple first to save her from death. It is also said that the same sculptor could never repeat this feat, although he made several attempts. A copper plate inscription found at Siddhamshi, Gujarat, belonging to a Rashtrakuta king, Karka Suvarnavarsha, dated 812 A.D., has a verse that says that when the gods saw the Kailasa temple from the skies they did not believe that it was a human creation, but held that it was made by Lord Shiva himself.