Ellora and Ajanta Caves - Wonders that never cease to excite

Many would have visited the Ajanta and Ellora caves and I am sure there are many blog posts already on how amazing these caves are. I am not sure if this post adds much of a new information to what is available already. But, having visited the place recently, I want to document my amazing experience. So, here you go.

REACHING THERE: Ellora and Ajanta represent a series of caves in Maharashtra in Western India. The nearest town is Aurangabad. Aurangabad is relatively well connected with all major cities around Western India. It is located at a distance of around 215 kms from Pune and over 400 kms from Mumbai. Nashik, a famous religious town is also around 218 kms from Aurangabad. For more on Nashik, visit my previous blog post at http://travelwithguru.blogspot.com/2010/04/nashik-good-old-religious-town.html

Ellora caves are located at a distance of around 30 kms from Aurangabad. Ajanta is a further 100 kms from Ellora. Both these caves can be covered in a day from Aurangabad, provided you remind yourself that you would not spend too much time exploring the beauty of a single cave. It is definitely not without good reason that there are tourists spending a week at each of these wonderful caves to explore it in detail.

ELLORA CAVES: The sheer sight of the Ellora caves leaves you floored. The cave structure is so mighty extending over a significant landscape that you start to wonder where to begin. The signage which point to Cave 1-15 on to your right, Cave 16 straight ahead and Cave 17-36 to your left makes you feel all the more exciting. Yes, you heard it right. 36 caves collectively form the Ellora caves.

What is really intriguing is that the caves represent how well multiple religions thrived in the bygone era. Cave 1-12 belong to Buddhism, Cave 13-29 belong to Hinduism and Cave 30-36 belong to Jainism. But, what do these caves contain?... Well, Ellora is all about wonderful rock carvings. Each cave carries a treasure load of rock-cut sculptures that would leave you dazzled and speechless. These jewels seem to have been constructed over several centuries, some of them dating back to 6th century AD.

The biggest of them all is Cave 16, a monolithic Kailash temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva. The entire temple is supposed to have been carved out a single mountain rock by drilling holes right through. A simple carving out of a rock is by itself a real tough task and to have a full fledged temple carved out of a mountain is something well beyond imagination. How did the kings and craftsmen manage to achieve such a mammoth task in those days with hardly any technological advancement? How many people worked on this project? Who had the glorious vision to shape this wonderful piece of work? All these were some questions that crossed my mind as I kept staring at the entrance to Cave 16, the Kailash temple.

The entrance was gigantic in size, with among others, life size carvings of the 10 avatars of Lord Vishnu. Once you step inside, you are welcomed with huge statues of gods and goddesses. There is an intricately carved stone pillar on one side and gigantic elephant statue at the other end. To the left, is a two-storeyed cave with huge rock cut statues of goddess Lakshmi. The hall at the upper floor of the cave is huge in size with magnificently worked pillars. Straight on is a series of steps that take you to the sanctum of lord Kailash, an amazing linga. You could move around the sanctum of lord Kailash to find more sculptural wonders.

As you walk around the building of the Kailash temple, you would find the exterior walls filled with exquisite carvings depicting the story of Ramayana and Mahabaratha, apart from depicting numerous other gods and goddesses.

As you move ahead towards the other caves, you are filled with great wonders. We obviously did not have the time to explore all caves in detail. So, we had to take the help of the officials there to suggest us the best caves to visit. They suggested caves 14 and 21 among the Hindu caves. These caves had breathtaking carvings of Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Ganapathy apart from several other mythological characters.

Then, we proceeded towards the Buddhist caves, which had their own charm. The officials suggested not to miss Cave 10. The cave had a huge statue of sitting Buddha in self realisation posture. The hall was well decorated with intricate carvings and had a well-ornamented dome. Then, we visited a few other Buddhist caves that carried various postures of Buddha and images from Jathaka tales. Quite a few of the Buddhist caves were arranged in multiple storeys and most of them seemed to appear like a prayer hall.

The Jain caves from cave 30 to 36 are relatively smaller ones and we quickly covered all of them. Interesting ones among them being cave 30 and cave 32. Cave 30 too is a monolithic temple structure similar to the Kailash temple. Cave 32 is probably the most magnificent of the Jain caves with beautiful sculptures of Mahavir and Tirtankara.

AJANTA CAVES: After immersing ourselves in great architectural splendour at Ellora, we pushed off to the Ajanta caves. Unlike Ellora, your vehicle cannot directly take you to the caves. The caves are located inside the forest, where one cannot take his own vehicle. We need to alight at a particular point from where we are take to the foothills of the cave by a special bus. The journey takes about 20 minutes and is a very interesting ride. The jungle environment definitely adds to the excitement.

Once we descend from the bus, we need to do quite a bit of climbing up the hills to reach the caves. The pathway is a bit steep and long and may not be ideal for the faint hearted. But, once up there, one would realise all the pain was worth it. While Ellora was all about sculptures, Ajanta is all about wonderful mural arts. Unfortunately, unlike Ellora which have stood the test of times, Ajanta cave paintings have deteriorated over time and we see now are sadly only a few shades of masterstroke that still remain. However, having said that, the authorities are doing their best to keep the existing painting remains well-preserved.

Ajanta has a cave structure of 29 caves spread over a vast area. Most of the caves carry a strong Buddhist influence. The caves are supposed to have been excavated between 2nd century BC to 7th century AD and were primarily used by Buddhist monks. However, these caves had been almost forgotten over time, until a British hunter managed to discover them around the 19th century AD.

The first few caves appear to be in better shape compared to the later ones. In order to protect the images from further damage, the caves are mildly lit and flash photography is strictly prohibited. So, the only real way of capturing the beauty there was through my eyes. Although, a touch disappointing to see the murals in the disintegrated state, I could not help fantasising how they would have looked in full splendour. The guides in each of the caves are well knowledgeable and guide you to important aspects that needs to be noticed in the caves.

Overall, a visit to Ajanta and Ellora is architecturally a very rewarding experience and given an option, one should never miss this UNESCO World Heritage wonder.

ADDITIONAL NEAR-BY VISIT: When at Ellora, one should not miss a visit to Grishnesvara Temple. It is one of the 12 jyothirlingas dedicated to Lord Shiva and is located just a few kms away from the Ellora caves. The temple is constructed out of sandstone and has a wonderfully designed vimana that is worth many a clicks. The shiva linga inside is a small one where one could offer pooja directly with milk and flowers.

SCHEDULING YOUR TRIP: The best way to schedule your trip is to reach Aurangabad the night before. You could complete a visit to Nashik and Shirdi and could halt at Aurangabad. The next day, you should be well on time to cover Ajanta and Ellora.

Have a great trip!!!

Nashik - The good old religious town

Just back from a hectic 3 day quick trip to Maharashtra, I thought I would start penciling in my thoughts on the trip. To start with, I would like to talk about Nashik, the good old religious town in the state of Maharashtra. True to its stature, the town remains soaked in history and religion, and remains relatively aloof from the urbanisation and developments seen in the nearby towns. Through this post, I just hope to cover the important places to visit in this historic town.

REACHING THERE: Nashik is well connected by road and rail. The nearest rail head, Nashik Road, is about 10 kms from the city. Trains run to Nashik road from Mumbai, the state capital of Maharashtra. By road, Nashik is about 185 kms from Mumbai. From Pune, Nashik is 220 kms away. The road passes through several ghats making it a very lively driving experience.

Nashik city is dotted with several temples. Most of them are small in size, but carry considerable historical significance.

Here is a quick round-up of temples definitely worth a visit:

GODAVARI CONFLUENCE: This is the primary landmark of the city. River Godavari is in full flow here, originating from the Brahmagiri hills, not far from here. However, unlike a typical river flow, the place looks like a series of water tanks, given the numerous bifurcations done to the river flow. The flow is also very gentle here and it gives one an appearance of a lake rather than a river.

KAPALEESHWAR MANDIR: The importance of the Godavari confluence lies in the numerous small temples that decorate the banks of the river. There is a temple here for Lord Hanuman, River Godavari and River Ganga to just name a few. One of the significant temples on the bank is the Kapaleeshwar temple located at a walkable distance from the river bed. The temple is located on a small hillock. The temple, as the name suggests, is dedicated to Lord Shiva. The interesting facet about the temple is that unlike a standard Shiva shrine, here Nandhi statue is absent in front of the linga. This gives quite a close, direct view of the lord.

VENKATESH BALAJI MANDIR: Just opposite the Kapaleeshwar temple, is a temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu. Interestingly the deity here resembles the lord in Tirupathi, the famous temple town in South India. The statue of the lord has a very pleasing appearance and a visit to this temple leaves a good feel in one's mind despite being quite a small temple.

KALARAM MANDIR: Undoubtedly the biggest temple of the town, is the temple dedicated to Lord Rama. Rama and Ramayan has a strong connection with Nashik as the town seems to have been the very land where lord spent his time in exile. The temple architecture is a great sight and could admire its beauty for quite a long time. The primary deities, lord Rama, Lakshmana, Hanuman and lordess Sita are structured out of black stone and hence the name Kalaram, standing for Black Ram. What is equally amazing about the temple architecture is the effort to beautify the inner sanctum of the temple, to match the grand exteriors.

GORA RAM MANDIR: Close to the Kalaram Mandir lies the Goraram Mandir. This is a relatively small temple, with the statue of deities Ram, Lakshman, Sita and Hanuman carved out of white Marble. The Place attracts a lot of foreign tourists, for whom lectures are conducted on certain topics out of the Ramayan.

PANCHAVATI: As one walks further along the road, one would reach Panchavati. This is again a major landmark from the point of Ramayan. It is said that Rama and Sita had their hut established here while living in exile and it is from here that Ravan took Sita away to Lanka. Panchavati, as the name indicates, is a confluence of five trees that have stood the test of times. One can actually see the five trees marked as one to five, representing the origin of the place.

SITA GUFA: Probably the most interesting place in Nashik is the cave called Sita Gufa. It is located right next to Panchavati. As you enter the premise, it looks like a tiny temple with a single pedestal. However, the real fascination starts there after. We make our first entry to the cave, where the passage narrows and turns slightly darker. Our first sight is that of Rama along with Sita, Lakshman and Hanuman. When we feel that this is it about the cave, we are shown a second passage that takes us further down the cave. At the second halt, we have a turtle statue. Although, I am not fully aware of its significance, statue of turtle seems to be very common in all temples in this region.

When we were already excited having travelled quite a bit inside the cave, we saw a third passage waiting for us. As we advanced further in, we were able to sense the fact that we were really travelling deeper inside the earth, well below the ground level. To our amazement, we found to a nice, well crafted Siva Linga here. We were allowed to touch the same and offer our prayers. It was quite a scintillating experience that I would remember for long.

SOMESHWAR TEMPLE: To complete our trip within the town of Nashik, we proceeded to Someshwar temple located slightly far from the city centre, roughly about 15 kms away on the Mumbai highway. There is a small Siva temple here along with deities of Rama, Lakshman, Sita and Hanuman. Around here, river Godavari has a very gentle flow and hence one could take a boating trip near the temple.

ADDITIONAL NEAR-BY VISITS: Invariably, a visit to Nashik would not be complete without visiting Trimbakeshwar, located around 35 kms from here. It is revered as one of the 12 jyothirlingas of Lord Shiva. The trip had its own set of memories and I would cover them in my following post.

SCHEDULING YOUR TRIP: Best way to schedule your trip to Nashik is to come down from Mumbai or Pune. On completion of religious sight seeing at this historic place, you can push off to Shirdi, the abode of Sai Baba. Shirdi is just around 90kms from Nashik.