Guest Blog: Ellora Caves
This guest blog was written by Geoff Thorpe
Monday 1 May - With Ro still suffering from the proverbial upset tummy I headed off alone to the Ellora Caves. I faced the hour-long drive with some trepidation having spent 3 ½ hours the previous evening returning from the Ajanta Caves. But you get used to the traffic and the wild ways of the drivers. It’s fascinating, they push and pass at impossible places, but I haven’t yet seen any car or bike touch another, remarkably close but never an incident……so far!
The history of the caves of Ajanta and Ellora are very different. Whereas the Ajanta caves commenced 200 years BC (and stop in 600AD after a 200 year hiatus), the Ellora caves commenced around 600AD and ended in 800AD, but the last group of caves being the Jain caves, were excavated between 800AD and 1000AD. While the Ajanta caves are remarkable for their paintings, the Ellora caves are remarkable for their sculptures. The period of the cave building reflects the various strengths of the various religions. In the Ajanta caves in the centuries before and after Christ, Buddhism was strong and all the caves are Buddhist, whereas the Ellora caves are not all Buddhist, the earliest are, but during this time Buddhism was declining in India, hence the latest series of Hindu and Jain caves and temples at Ellora. It is said that the Ajanta caves slowly died as a result of the change of the Silk Road (or one of the many tributaries of the Silk Road) moving east thereby missing Ajanta and proceeding south to Ellora on its way to Chennai, where cargoes came and went by boat to Indonesia.
Whereas the Ajanta caves were Buddhist, the Ellora caves have Buddhist, Hindu and Jainist origins. The various caves comprise either of temples or monasteries, the monks living in the monasteries and the visitors worshipping in the temples. The caves brought the travellers whom the monks serviced with food, water and accommodation, producing good revenue for the monastery. The caves were originally funded by the local king and rich merchants of the Rashtrakuta dynasty and of course, their successors over the centuries. In 800AD the caves were abandoned with some still incomplete.
Possibly the most awesome of the caves is Cave 16, dedicated to Lord Shiva. It is the largest monolithic excavation of them all. Unlike the other caves which are carved into the face of the cliff, this cave commenced from the surface of the hilltop and dug down into the rock, leaving the areas of rock to be shaped and formed as they proceeded into the ground, some 30 metres below the hilltop level, The areas that were left to be shaped were then carved into temples and shrines and huge free-standing rock towers all intricately carved and shaped. When you touch these carvings you can feel and realise how hard it must have been as they are solid basalt rock. This temple took 7,000 labourers to build and entailed removing 2,000 tons of rock (85,000 cubic metres), all funded by the local king who saw these temples as a glorification of his memory.
The drive back to Aurangabad was interesting listening to the guide’s opinions on the rule of Prime Minister Modi, the true story (as he saw it) of the tragedy around the father and son relationship of the Taj Mahal in Agra, the partitioning of India and formation of Pakistan in 1947 and the provocation of the Hindus to the Muslims in and around that period. It was interesting to hear the Muslims’ point of view in respect of historical events of which we read a Hindu interpretation.
I’ll always remember the age-old saying “history is written by the victors”.