The Kailashnath (Kailash)
temple at the Ellora Caves is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site located near
the city of Aurangabad in the state of Maharashtra. Let's take a look at their
history, architectural details and travel information.
There are famous examples
of rock-cut sanctuaries elsewhere in the world – Abu Simbel or Petra, for
example – but nowhere else did cave architecture reach such heights of
achievement or play such a central part in the development of civilization. It
is as if the cave served a need that the Indian psyche felt with a peculiar
intensity. A particularly fine conglomeration of these sanctuaries is to be
found at Ellora, in
Maharashtra state.
Ellora is dominated by
the mammoth Kailashnath temple complex, or Cave 16. Dedicated to Shiva, the
complex is a replica of his legendary abode at Mount Kailash in
the Himalayas. The world's largest monolithic structure, approximately twice
the area of the Parthenon in Greece and 1.5 times as high, the Kailasha reveals
the genius, daring, and skill of its artisans.
To create the complex, an
army of 7000 stonecutters worked for 150 years, starting at the top of the
cliff, where they removed 930,000 cubic meters (3 million cubic feet) of rock
to create a vast pit with a free standing rock left in the center. Out of this
single slab, 86 meters (276 feet) long and 48 meters (154 feet ) wide, they
created Shiva's abode, which includes the main temple, a series of smaller
shrines, and galleries (small rooms) built into a wall that encloses the entire
complex. Nearly every surface is exquisitely sculpted with epic themes. Over
175,000 metric tons of rock are estimated to have been removed, and the whole
complex took over one hundred years to complete. No wonder the architect
presiding at its completion is said to have exclaimed: "Oh wonderful! Have
I done this? How could I ever have accomplished such a thing?”
The Kailashnath Temple
dates from A.D. 765 and was built by the Rashtrakuta dynasty, under the
patronage of King Krishna I. Although much of the carving inside was damaged by
the Muslims at the end of the thirteenth century, the temple is both a
masterpiece of the rock cutters' art and a storehouse of Hindu mythology. The
temple is in the southern Indian (Dravidian) style, with some northern Indian
(Indo-Aryan) elements. Mount Kailash is considered the center
of the universe, the axis of the world and the holy territory par excellence.
Shiva is "Lord of Kailash" (Kailashnath).
The whole place has been
hewn out of the living rock by starting at the top and sinking three great
trenches on the north, south, and east sides to create a quarry Once these
trenches were begun, wooden trunks were inserted into them, which were then
soaked with water, the resulting expansion splitting the rock. In this way the
builders slowly exposed the entire rock face. This left one huge block-over two
hundred feet (sixty meters) long and one hundred feet (thirty meters)
high-standing free. Starting from the top, this block was sculpted into
everything you see: the temple with its crowning spire (vimana), the subsidiary
shrines, and the elephants. Workers laboriously cut and polished each section
before moving on to the next, to avoid the use of cumbersome and dangerous
scaffolding. All the carving was done with chisels, each about an inch (less
than three centimeters) wide!
To prevent the whole
edifice being lost in the darkness of the pit, it was "raised" on a
platform some twenty-five feet (seven and a half meters) high. Thus the
structure is on two floors: the lower one a solid plinth, the upper containing
the temple proper – Nandin shrine, hall, and holy of holies. Moreover, the
building was originally covered in white stucco, which not only lightened the
whole effect but served to mimic the snow-covered peaks of the gods' Himalayan home.
Nevertheless, the overwhelming feeling here is one of massive solidity.
Emotionally, this fulfills the purpose of the temple because it is through its
special quality of stability that sacred architecture most faithfully
represents the divine.
The external decorations
of the temple-niches enclosing deities, colonnades, engaged columns, and the
heavy overhanging cornices, the “Bengali roof” type, these are all, like the
main spire, typically Dravidian. There are also mandaps or halls, which would
typically have been used during festivals and celebrations such asMahashivratri.
Travel
The caves are open from
dawn to dusk, from Wednesday to Monday. The ticket costs Rs.10 for Indians and
5USD for overseas visitors. The Ellora caves are only 30 kilometers or 18 miles
from Aurangabad in Maharashtra. Aurangabad and Bombay are only about 45 minutes
apart by air. The Government of India Tourist Office in Aurangabad oversees
about 40 multilingual tour guides who can be hired through its office, the MTDC
office, also in Aurangabad. Guides are also available at the ticket office at
the Kailashnatha Temple. Archaeological Survey guides can be also hired without
prearrangement at the sites, often at a lower rate, but there's no guarantee
one will be available when you want one.
The Ellora Dance
Festival, held annually in December/January, draws top classical Indian dancers
and musicians from around the country to perform outdoors against the magical
backdrop of the Kailashnath temple.
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