Ellora Caves-A must visit architectural miracle on earth -Part 4

Never I have been so much influenced by the historical monuments of our country as I am now. After exploring the southern side of  Ellora caves, we were intrigued to see what came next.Moving towards the northern side,we came upon cave no 21 also known as The Rameshwara Temple,excavated in the 7th century A.D.This temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva and has a courtyard and a hall consisting sculptured pillars on both sides.

Like any other shiva temple,we saw a beautiful shiva-lingam inside the hall and many other intricately carved  figurines of Lord Shiva . The courtyard had a huge Nandi sculpture placed right in the middle and beautifully carved river goddess adorned the exterior panels of the cave.

river goddess

At this point we took the bus provided by the government authorities to reach the Jain temples which was around one km from there.

Jain Temples( Cave 30-34)
The Jain caves were excavated in the ninth and early tenth centuries.These caves belonged to the Digambara sect  and were the last ones to be excavated in Ellora. We started off with the finest of the Jain caves,cave no 32 also known as the Indra Sabha. It was a double storied cave having the most intricately  carved figurines of  god Mahavir and goddess Ambika .Just adjacent to this cave was cave no 31 which was not completed.

	Cave 32
	cave 31

Another notable cave among the Jain caves was cave no 30 also known as chhota Kailash having similarities with the Kailash temple.It had 22 tirthankaras with Mahavir at the centre .Cave no 33 also known as the Jagannath Sabha dates back to the 9th century.It had massive pillars and was similar in plan to cave no 32.

Thus this brought an end to our remarkable journey and I wonder why Ellora caves is not among the seven wonders of the world.....

                                                                                                                                                        

    

Ellora Caves – A must visit architectural miracle on Earth -Part 1

Few advertising campaigns do speak the truth. Incredible India!! An ad campaign carried out by Government of India to promote tourism is one of them. It truly showcases the beauty and essence of India, and I couldn’t agree more to this, when I visited Ellora caves. This magnificent architectural marvel left me awestruck and I felt an immense sense of pride and attachment for my country.

When I was growing up, whenever someone mentioned Ellora Caves, the first image which came to my mind was that of some erotic sculptures. Blame it to Bollywood movies or my lack of knowledge, for a long period of time I had this image until when I actually visited this place with my best of buddies. As a matter of fact, it is one of the most sacred places of India and the only place where all the three religions viz Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism co exists.This co-existence clearly demonstrates how much religiously tolerant Indians were way back then.

Ellora caves are located 30 kms from the city of Aurangabad in the Indian state of Maharashtra.Its about 300 kms from Mumbai and about 255 kms from Pune .There are over 100 caves at Ellora, all excavated from the basalt cliffs in the Charanandri hills,34 of which are open to public. These 34 caves comprises of Buddhist, Hindu and Jain temples and monasteries.These caves were excavated in the 6th  to 10th century making it one of the oldest wonders of our modern world.

The best time to visit Ellora caves is  from November to March when it is cooler and dry.The caves are open from 8 am to 5.30pm.There is an entry fee of Rupees 40 for Indians and rupees 600 for foreign tourists.

There are no eating joints inside the caves except the local vendors selling some fruits .It takes about nearly four to five hours to see the entire site which is stretched over for about 2 kms. Many buses are also provided by the government which starts from Cave no 16 and goes until the last cave.

This journey continues....

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