ELLORA CAVES

 VERUL CAVES OR ELLORA CAVES IS THE WORLD FAMOUS ARTEFACT

 

VERUL OR ELLORA CAVES

 Ellora Caves which is a world heritage of Dravidian period located in Dist. Sambhaji Nagar ( Aurangabad). It is just 25 km away from SambhajiNagar city. This world famous caves exact located in Verul village. There are total 34 caves carved into the hillsides of the Sahyadri 's Satmala mountain range, dating form 5th to 11th century. It has 12 Buddhist temple (caves no 1 - 12 ), 17 HINDU TEMPLE (caves no 13 - 29) and 5 Jain Temple (caves no 30 - 34 )

The caves was declared a NATIONAL MONUMENT by Govt. of India in 1951 and UNESCO add Verul or Ellora caves into the world Heritage in 1983. 

THE KAILASA TEMPLE - The Kailasa Temple is unique in its architecture was built during the Rashtrakuta Dynasty Naresh Krishna I  (757 - 783 ).

The Entire mountain is carved like a murti on the outside, shaped like a Dravidian style temple. Overall 276 feet long, 154 feet wide, this temple is built by cutting single rock from up to bottom. To build it, about 40 thousands tons of stone were extracted from the rock. The first part was separated for its construction and later this mountain part was cut from inside and 90 feet high temple was built. The outside of the temple is full of idols. The palace o this temple was on top three sides, which were attached to the upper part of the temple. In front of the open pavilion are Nandi and huge elephants and pillars. This work is a wonderful example of Indian architectural skill.

HISTORY - 

Built between the 5th to 11th centuries. the famous Kailas temple in the cave was built during the reign of the Rashtrakuta King KRISHNA I . There is an inscription of the Rashtrakuta king Dantidurga on the back wall of cave number 10 of this cave. 753 - 757 AD. this artical is from this period. King Krishna I who built the Kailash Caves was the uncle of King  Dantidurga. This suggests that the Kailas Caves may have been between 757 and 783 AD.

This group of caves was on the trade route, it remained in sight of the then society. Visits to these caves can be found by royals as well as enthusiastic and scholarly travellers.  Arab traveler AL-MAS-UDI visited it in the 10 the century. There is also a reference that Bahamani Sultan Gangu camped here and visited this cave. The cae were under the control of the Nizam of Hyderabad for some time.

    During the British rule in India in the 19th century, erolla was neglected. Idols were also damaged by invaders or over time. The British made little attempt at repair. However, after independence, in the 1960s, efforts to take care of these caves started to spread as international tourist destinations.

STRUCTURE -

The two floor grand entrance with wonderful carvings. Entrance almost looking like mandap that's why its called the grand gate mandap. two towering pillars, a full size stone carved grand elephant 

the Shaivite images and scenes from PURAN are depicted in thees caves. The Kailas Temple ( Cave 16) is the most remarkable structure of the cave  group. Hand hewn from a single massive rock, it includes an entrance, hall, sanctum sanctorum and a bastion testifying to the excellence of Dravidian art. Kailas Temple is an amazing piece of architecture, which has interesting local influence and magnificent sculpture. It is believed to have been started by the Rashtrakuta king Krishna1. For your information some photos of Kailas Temple, by seeing which the grandeur of Kailas Temple can be estimated.

ELLORA - VERUL CAVES (1 TO 12 BHUSHIT CAVES)

In the Bhudhist group of  caves there is 5 large hall. The massive two and three floor excavation looking unique feature of site. The Bhudhist caves ornate Buddha and Bhodhistava statues in various mudras.One more notable themes are represented in the sculptures of Budhist goddesses such as Tare Mahamayri and Manjushree. Main cave of  this series of Buddhist cave is cave no 10 also known as Vishvakarma Cave. In the main stupa hall lies a 15

feet statue of Buddha and is dedicated to preayer among all the other caves

After going to the Buddha temple, the magnificence of this temple known. There is a mandap in the temple premises and it rests of strong and beautiful crafted pillars.

JAIN CAVES (NO 29 TO 34)

The Jain caves of  Verul were the last to be excavated. Around 9 - 10 century. These caves were built during the ring of the Rashtrakuta king Amoghavarsa probably belonged to the Jain family. The reason why Jain caves are so rare in Maharashtra is that there is no plan for congregational prayer in the Jain system of worship. There is no such special feature of Jain architectural style. Jain caves look very similar to Buddhist and Brahminical caves. Jain cave generally have carved images of Mahavir, Parshvanatha, Gomteswara and Yaksha. All the jain caves of Verul are not only adjacent to each other but are not different but on e. Although each of the caves looks different from the outside, all these caves are actually connected from the inside. So one can enter cave number 35 and come out from cave no 30. Jain Caves of Verul are characterized by colourful paintings based on the life of  Mahavir on the walls and ceilling.