Ellora Caves

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

As we entered Ellora Caves we took a ticket at Rs.10 per head and Rs.10 for rickshaw parking and then headed off to see the caves.

Our driver called out to us and said to us, Checkout cave no. 1 first and then come here to cave no. 16 to which we readily agreed.

Ellora Caves is also known as Kllooru is located 29 km away from Aurangabad. These caves were built by the Kannadiga Rashtrakuta Dynasty.

There are not only Buddhist Caves here but also Hindu and Jain Caves all of which were built in between the 5^th century and 10^th century.

When Namrata first told me about Jain Caves, I couldn’t believe it as I had never heard of Jain Caves before and so thought that she was pulling a prank on me.

Caves 1 to 12 are Buddhist Caves.

Caves 13 to 29 are Hindu Caves

Caves 30 to 34 are Jain Caves

The Buddhist Caves were built first followed by the Hindu Caves and later the Jain Caves.

Most of the caves are identical in nature. They had small doors cut out in the rock that I guess served as rooms to stay. Some had carvings at the entrance of the caves. Buddha in various meditation poses.

There were many caves which had huge beautifully carved pillars in them and in the centre there was a rock cut door in which there was a huge carving of Buddha accompanied by other carvings. The walls of these caves were carved with both small and huge life size images of Buddha.

Cave no. 10 features Buddha sitting near a Stupa. There are beautifully carved pillars around the Stupa. The ceiling too is beautifully carved with carvings near it. This is the first stupa I have come across that has a Carving of Buddha near it.

Cave no.11 is like a two storey cave carved in the rocks. The walls of which were carved depicting Buddha in various poses. There were rooms carved on each of the storeys.

The Hindu Caves had carvings on them depicting various Hindu mythological figures.

Cave no. 15 The Dashavatara, is a beautifully carved temple in front of a one storey excavated temple carved in the rock. Again it features carvings of Hindu mythological.

Cave no. 16 is the best find of them all. I took me to another world altogether. It’s called the Kaliasanatha. This entire temple is carved out of one single rock. This temple is beautifully carved.