Temple complex of the Caves of Ellora in India: a description of how to get there

2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06

With the fact that India is an amazing country, no one will argue. Not only beach lovers come here, but also those who suffer to know all the secrets of the universe and nourish themselves with spiritual food. Indian spiritual practices are known all over the world, because it was here that they originated. Until now, scientists with admiration and reverence study the ancient temple complexes that amaze the imagination of modern people with their beauty and monumentality. There are many similar places in India, but one of them is forever imprinted in the memory of curious tourists, and these are the caves of Ellora. At the first glance at the complex of these structures, the thought of their extraterrestrial origin comes up, since it is difficult to imagine that human hands could create this incredible beauty in the thickness of the bas alt rock. Today, all the temples included in this historical monument are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. They are carefully protected fromdestruction, but the Indians themselves still treat them as a shrine, observing a special ritual of behavior when approaching the temple. The article will tell you what the Ellora caves are and describe the most famous and beautiful temples of this unique complex.

Brief description of the complex

India today is a completely civilized country, at first glance, not much different from many others. However, it is worth moving away from the tourist districts a bit and looking at the life of ordinary people to understand that Indians are incredibly original. They coexist well with modern rules and laws with ancient traditions and rituals. Therefore, the spirit of sacred knowledge is still alive here, for the sake of which many Europeans come to India.

Ellora is a symbolic place for any resident of the country. It is on a par with such great monuments of world culture as the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge. Scientists have been studying the caves of Ellora for many years and during this time they have not been able to put forward any reliable version that could explain the appearance of dozens of temples in this place.

So what is the ancient temple complex? Cave temples are located in the Indian state of Maharashtra, which today is a place of pilgrimage for tourists from all over the world. The complex itself is conditionally divided into three parts, since in fact three groups of temples are carved from bas alt in the caves. Each belongs to a particular religion. There are thirty-four shrines in the caves of Ellora. Of which:

• twelve belong to Buddhists;
• seventeen createdHindus;
• five are Janai.

Despite this, scientists do not divide the complex into parts. If you look at the UNESCO World Heritage List, temples are not described separately. For historians and archaeologists, they are of interest precisely in the complex.

The temples of Ellora are full of amazing mysteries. It is impossible to get around them all in one day, so many tourists stay near the complex in a small hotel and stay there for several days to see the entire complex. And it's worth it, because ancient sculptures, bas-reliefs and other decorations are still in their places in the temples. All this is carved from stone and preserved almost in its original form. Sculptures of Shiva, for example, amaze with their authenticity and subtlety of work. It seems that the divine power guided the hand of the master when he created such masterpieces.

The history of the creation of a unique complex

It's amazing, but so far no explanation has been found as to why and for what the temples were built in Ellora. It is hard to imagine what kind of genius could come up with the idea of gouging a large-scale complex of temples in dense rock. Scientists make only assumptions about this.

Many agree that the temples in Ellora (India) arose on the site of a busy trade route. India in the Middle Ages conducted an active trade in its goods. Spices, the finest silks and other fabrics, precious stones and elaborately carved figurines were exported from here. All this was sold for huge money, mainly inEuropean countries. Trade was brisk, and merchants and maharajas grew rich. However, in order not to experience further need, they donated their money for the construction of temples. On the trade routes there are always a lot of different people, including craftsmen. Merchants agreed to work with them. So that gold would not leave these places, then temples were built right here. In addition, everyone who donated money could at any time check how the masters disposed of them.

Scientists believe that the first buildings in Ellora appeared at the beginning of the sixth century. In general, temples were built for a century and a half. However, some decorations and improvements date back to a later time - the ninth century.

Therefore, scientists consider the temple complex of Ellora not just a cultural monument, but rather a kind of textbook on the history of religion. From sculptures, decorations and bas-reliefs, you can learn about how the religious beliefs of the Hindus have changed over the course of several centuries.

Features of the temple complex

Scientists in the study of temples have determined that they were built in groups according to religion. The first were Buddhist structures, they began to be built in the fifth or sixth centuries and are represented by a large number of temples. Gradually, Buddhism in all regions of the country was replaced by Hinduism, and the next group of buildings was erected according to the canons of this religion. The Janai monasteries were the last to appear in Ellar. They were the fewest.

One of the buildings of Ellara, which today is considered one of the most beautiful, the Kailasanath temple was built already in the thirteenth century. Histhe construction was financed by the Rashtrakuta dynasty. Its representatives were fabulously rich, and in their influence they could even be compared with the rulers of the Byzantine Empire.

All temples have their own numbering. This was done by scientists in order to facilitate the study of the structures of the complex. However, when visiting tourists, they usually do not focus on these figures. They arm themselves with flashlights and go to meet the amazing Indian history.

Buddhist part of the temple complex

Since these temples were erected the very first, tourists inspect them first of all. In this part of the complex there is a huge number of sculptural images of the Buddha. They are very skillfully made and depict the Buddha in various poses. If you put them together, they will tell the story of his life and enlightenment. According to religious rules, all sculptures are turned to face east. Interestingly, some Buddhist temples look unfinished. For some reason, the masters stopped and did not complete the work. Others have a stepped architecture. They rise up in tiers and have many niches in which Buddha sculptures were placed.

The most memorable temples of this part of the complex are:

• Tin Thal Temple;
• Rameshvara complex.

They will be discussed in detail in the following sections of the article.

It is interesting that Buddhist temples (India) in Ellar consist not only of prayer halls. Here you can see the cells of the monks, where they lived for a long time. SomeThe rooms were meant for meditation. In this part of the complex, there are also caves, which later they tried to remake into other temples. However, the process was not completed.

The pearl of the Buddhist part of Ellara

To see such a majestic and harsh structure, which is Tin Thal, you need to go down twenty meters. A very narrow stone staircase leads to the foot of the temple. Having descended, the tourist finds himself in front of a narrow gate. In front of his eyes will be massive square columns. The masters arranged them in three rows, each rising sixteen meters in height.

Having entered the gate, the curious finds himself on the site, from where it is necessary to go down another thirty meters. And then spacious halls open up to the eye, and from the twilight of the caves here and there the figures of the Buddha loom. All halls are framed by the same impressive columns. The whole spectacle leaves a truly lasting impression.

Rameshvara temple in the caves

This temple looks no less majestic than the previous one. However, it is made in a completely different style. The main decoration of the facade of Rameshvara are female statues. They seem to hold its walls, while the statues look both elegant and severe.

The facades of the temple are distinguished by dense carvings. It is made in such a way that from a distance it resembles hands raised to the sky. But as soon as you get closer to the temple, the bas-reliefs seem to come to life, and you can see plots on a religious theme in them.

Everyone who dares to enter this stonethe temple turns out to be in a dense ring of fantastic creatures. The sculptures are made so skillfully that they create a complete illusion of life. They seem to reach out to a person, trying to grab him and leave him forever in darkness and dampness.

The walls of the temple depict real animals, scenes from the life of ordinary people and the gods watching them. Interestingly, when the lighting changes, the paintings change, which gives them an unprecedented reality.

Many tourists write that this temple impressed them the most and left them with the feeling of an unrevealed mystical secret.

Hindu temples

This part of Ellara was built a little differently than the previous one. The fact is that Buddhist masters built their temples from the bottom up, but Hindu temples were built by workers using other technologies. The masters began to cut off the excess from the top and only then moved on to the base of the temple.

Practically all buildings here are dedicated to Lord Shiva. Sculptures and bas-reliefs with his images cover the entire surface of temples and courtyards. Moreover, in all seventeen temples, Shiva is the main character. Interestingly, only a few compositions are dedicated to Vishnu. This approach is not typical for Hindu structures. Until now, scientists do not know why all the temples in this part of the complex are dedicated to only one god.

Near the temples are rooms for monks, places for prayer and meditation, as well as cells for solitude. In this, both parts of the complex are almost identical.

Specialists believe that constructionHindu temples ended by the eighth century. The most significant object for tourists here is Kailash. This temple is often called the "roof of the world" because of its unusual location on top of a hill. In ancient times, its walls were painted white, which was magnificently visible from afar and resembled the top of the mountain, after which it got its name. Many tourists first of all go to inspect this unusual structure. It will be discussed in the next section of the article.

Kailasanatha: the most amazing sanctuary

The temple of Kailasanatha (Kailash), according to legends, was built for a long one hundred and fifty years. It is believed that about seven thousand workers worked at the construction site, who for all the time carried out more than four hundred thousand tons of bas alt rock. However, many doubt the reliability of this information, because, according to preliminary estimates, the indicated number of people could not cope with such a large-scale project. Indeed, in addition to the construction of the temple itself, they had to carry out carvings. And she, by the way, glorified the temple to the whole world.

The sanctuary is a temple thirty meters high, thirty-three meters wide and over sixty meters long. Even from afar, Kailasanatha strikes the imagination of any person, and close up, it leaves an indelible impression even among archaeologists who have seen a lot of bizarre buildings of antiquity before.

It is believed that the construction of the shrine was ordered by a Raja from the Rashtrakuta dynasty. He had great influence in India and was very rich. At the same time, the Raja turned out to be very talented, sohow he independently developed the project of the temple. All sculptures, carvings and bas-reliefs were invented by him.

As for construction technologies, here scientists just shrug their shoulders. They have never seen anything like it anywhere else in the world. The fact is that the workers began to carve it from the top. In parallel, they made an adit deep into the hill so that another group of craftsmen could deal with the interior halls and decorate them. Most likely, at this stage of construction, the sanctuary resembled a well surrounded by people on all sides.

Kailasanatha was dedicated to the god Shiva and was very important for the Hindus. It was assumed that he would play the role of some kind of intermediate link between the gods and ordinary people. Through this gate, they were supposed to communicate with each other, thereby bringing peace to the earth.

The temple has a lot of decorative elements. Amazingly, there is not a single inch of smooth stone on the surfaces of the sanctuary, be it the ceiling, the walls, or the floor. The entire temple is completely covered with patterns from floor to ceiling inside and out. It strikes, surprises and delights at the same time.

Conventionally, the temple is divided into three parts, but in reality it has a large number of rooms with sculptures of Shiva and other gods. For example, the image of the demon Ravana is often found in the sanctuary. He, according to the religious beliefs of the Hindus, is the master of dark forces.

Jain caves

Many tourists are advised to start their tour from these temples, because after the splendor of Hindu and Buddhist sanctuaries,unfinished buildings will not make the proper impression. It is known that this religion could not conquer the Hindus. It was only spread for a short time. Perhaps a certain modesty of the temples is connected with this. In addition, almost all of them are unfinished.

Even with a cursory examination of the caves, it is noticeable that much in them repeats the temple complexes already built earlier. However, the masters could not even come close to the perfection of such sanctuaries as Kailasanatha or Tin Thal.

Some travel tips

Europeans quite often violate the rules of behavior in Indian temples, so you should carefully study them before going to Ellora. After all, be that as it may, these sanctuaries were created to serve the gods, and special ceremonies were held here. The Indians themselves take the Ellora complexes very seriously and reverently.

Remember that it is forbidden to take anything from here as a keepsake. Esotericists believe that pebbles from ancient sanctuaries will only bring trouble to the owner. But the guards, who disguise themselves as ordinary tourists, will not explain anything to you, but will simply take you out of the temple.

After sunset, it is forbidden to be in the shrines. But with the first rays of the sun, you can already be at the walls of the temple and spend the whole day here until dark. No one limits the time of the tour.

The entrance ticket to the complex is two hundred and fifty rupees for children and adults. Tourists are advised to take a flashlight with them for inspection, because without it, some sculptures and carvings will simply not work.make out. The temple complex is open six days a week, on Tuesday it is closed to the public.

If you can't find a time to travel to India and visit the temples, then consider December as an option. This month, Ellora hosts a traditional festival. It is dedicated to music and dance, and is often held near temples. This spectacle leaves a lot of unforgettable impressions.

Ellora: how to get to the caves

There are several options to visit these magnificent temples. For example, while relaxing in Goa, you can buy a sightseeing tour for yourself and go to the caves with all the comfort that India is capable of.

If you are not afraid to travel by rail, then we can advise you a very interesting tour, which includes a visit to Ellora. His program involves a train ride with stops in five cities in India. The starting point of the route is Delhi. Then tourists spend time in Agra and Udaipur. The next intermediate station for traveling by rail is Aurangabad. It is from here that you will be taken to see the cave temples. And for this, quite a lot of time is allotted - the whole day. The tour ends in Mumbai. It should be noted that trains with all amenities are used for such a trip. Therefore, tourists always leave positive reviews about such tours.

For those who go to India just to visit the cave temples, we can recommend a flight to Mumbai. Here is the closest to Ellorainternational Airport. However, it should be borne in mind that there are no direct flights from Russia to Mumbai. It is better to choose a transit route, which is carried out by Arab air carriers.

When you arrive in Mumbai, you can take a train and in nine hours you will be in Aurangabad. If the train is not your option, then take the bus. He also walks to the city for about eight or nine hours.

In Aurangabad, you also need to take a bus. Literally in half an hour you will already be in Ellora and will finally be able to start exploring the sanctuaries. By the way, there are many taxi drivers in Aurangabad. Any of them will gladly take you to the right place. Many tourists do this in order not to wait for the bus.

There is another option how to get to Ellora. From Russia planes fly straight to Delhi. And from there you can buy a train ticket to Aurangabad. It is believed that this route is much more convenient and faster than the previous ones.