I was fortunate enough to visit the world heritage sites Ajanta and Ellora on my short trip to Aurangabad. I had known their names for long time now. But when I saw these cave temples I was dumbfound.
Any building or architecture is built from its foundation. But the temples in Ellora beg to differ from this usual concept. The mountain is taken as a monolithic rock and is chiseled from top to bottom and outside to inside. There are Hindu, Bhuddist and Jain temples, the best of which I found was the Kailash temple. A full fledged temple with a main gopuram and many small gopurams are all carved out of a single mountain. So just remember that there is no luxury of carving the stone of the gopuram and then placing it on top of the temple. Also the outer and inner walls depict numerous stories sculpted on the walls. The amazing piece of carvings are the Ramayana scenes on one side, depicting the full epic and the Mahabharata scenes on the other side of the temple. The ceiling is also not left blank. It is decorated with sculptures of Nataraja, Annapoorni and other such marvellous creations. Imagine using a chisel and hammer on the ceiling and carving a structure. (As I had already said this is a monolithic stone turned to a temple. So statues are not just fitted. They are carved along with the ceiling or walls).
I was amazed at the engineering skills these people of 6th - 7th centuries to have planned and executed a massive project like this over more than 6 generations. There was a multi-storeyed temple complex too ! (and I thought flats were a relatively modern concept). To add on to this all, the whole temple was once painted with vegetable dyes which is now just seen in some places.
The Bhuddist and Jain temples were masterpieces too. They had decorative pillars and statues of their Bhodisatvas or Thirthankaras. The best among those was the Bhuddist "Carpenter's Cave". Beyond its multi-storey ed entry is a cathedral-like stupa hall also known as chaitya, whose semi cylindrical ceiling has been carved to give the impression of wooden beams.
Ajanta Caves are all Bhuddist caves where we see the paintings of Jataka Tales as well as carvings of Bhuddha. You can find so much similarity to the Ellora Bhuddist caves.
Any building or architecture is built from its foundation. But the temples in Ellora beg to differ from this usual concept. The mountain is taken as a monolithic rock and is chiseled from top to bottom and outside to inside. There are Hindu, Bhuddist and Jain temples, the best of which I found was the Kailash temple. A full fledged temple with a main gopuram and many small gopurams are all carved out of a single mountain. So just remember that there is no luxury of carving the stone of the gopuram and then placing it on top of the temple. Also the outer and inner walls depict numerous stories sculpted on the walls. The amazing piece of carvings are the Ramayana scenes on one side, depicting the full epic and the Mahabharata scenes on the other side of the temple. The ceiling is also not left blank. It is decorated with sculptures of Nataraja, Annapoorni and other such marvellous creations. Imagine using a chisel and hammer on the ceiling and carving a structure. (As I had already said this is a monolithic stone turned to a temple. So statues are not just fitted. They are carved along with the ceiling or walls).
I was amazed at the engineering skills these people of 6th - 7th centuries to have planned and executed a massive project like this over more than 6 generations. There was a multi-storeyed temple complex too ! (and I thought flats were a relatively modern concept). To add on to this all, the whole temple was once painted with vegetable dyes which is now just seen in some places.
The Bhuddist and Jain temples were masterpieces too. They had decorative pillars and statues of their Bhodisatvas or Thirthankaras. The best among those was the Bhuddist "Carpenter's Cave". Beyond its multi-storey ed entry is a cathedral-like stupa hall also known as chaitya, whose semi cylindrical ceiling has been carved to give the impression of wooden beams.
Ajanta Caves are all Bhuddist caves where we see the paintings of Jataka Tales as well as carvings of Bhuddha. You can find so much similarity to the Ellora Bhuddist caves.
Near Aurangabad is the Daulatabad Fort, a huge one built by the Yadhava dynasty. The security measures that existed to protect the fort is amazing. But the devastation to the fort and other priceless sculptures due to the Muslim invasion is saddening.
Truly... a man made wonder. I now feel Taj Mahal is not as great when compared to these marvels.
