Ajanta and Ellora Caves

                                                                                28.02 - 03.03.2008

After loads of work, Michael took some days free so we decided to use this to enrich our cultural experience in India by visiting the World Heritage Sites of Ajanta and Ellora Caves. For this some need to reach the town of Aurangabad 400 Km east of Mumbai from where is easy to organise the trips to the caves. Ajanta are Budhist caves dating from 200 BC and 650 AD. There are 30 caves cut in rock and they are decorated with rich paintings and elaborate carvings. The paintings are about daily life of that time, the life of Budha or simply geometric and floral patterns. In every temple is a huge statue of Budha and in few of them there are also detailed carvings about his life.

 

 

 

 

Ajanta Caves are cut in the rock face of a horseshoe-shaped gorge

 

 

One of Budha statues

 

 

 

 

The Budhist caves of Ajanta have some good preserved wall paintings, some over 2000 years old

 

 

 

 

Fine paintings and carving decorate most of the caves

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Religious sculptures

 

 

 

 

Budha

 

 

Ceiling paintings

 

 

 

 

Inside a temple

 

 

 

 

Another example of the good preserved fine paintings

 

 

 

 

Temple facade

 

Carvings inside a temple depicting the life of Budha

 

 

 

 

Temple

   

 

 

Reclining Budha

 

 

 

 

Temple

 

 

 

 

Way of going around the caves by chair...

 

 

 

 

 

Lonar Meteorite Crater is 2Km in diameter and 170m deep. At the bottom is a lake and several temples. To reach the crater is 3 hours drive from Aurangabad, to climb down and up you need a bit of fitness and strenght to beat the heat

 

 

 

 

Monkey in a temple on the lake shore

 

 

 

 

Another temple in the crater

 

 

Small shop-restaurant near the crater

 

 

 

 

The road to Aurangabad

 

 

The 14th century Daulatabad fortress close to Aurangabad is worth a visit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bats in the fortress

 

 

6m long cannon

 

 

 

 

Tower of the Moon built in 15th century is 60m high

 

The Ellora has a mix of Budhist, Hindu and Jain caves, from which the Budhist are the oldest (600-800 AD) and the Jain are the newest (800-1000AD). The most impressive ist the Kailasa Temple, the world largest monolithic sculpture carved from the rock by 7000 labourers over 150 years period.

 

 

 

 

Ellora caves

 

 

Temple cut in rock

 

 

Budhist cave

 

 

 

 

Cave with teaching Budha

 

 

 

 

Hindu cave (unfinished)

 

Budhist cave

 

 

 

 

 

The 1300 years old Kailasa Temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva

 

 

 

 

View of the upper part of Kailasa Temple

 

 

Kailasa Temple

 

 

 

 

Rich decorations of the temple wall

 

 

View of Kailasa from the hill from where was cut, which gives you a good impression of the task involved to carve such a huge temple by hand

 

 

 

 

Jain caves

 

 

Small Kailasa, a Jain temple

 

 

 

 

Double storey Jain cave

 

 

Jain cave

 

 

 

  Taj Mahal?  

No, is Bibi-ka-Makbara in Aurangabad

 

 

 

 

Aurangabad is a weaving centre specialising in cotton and silk material with designs inspired from motifs of Ajanta frescoes. Here is traditional Paithani sari made from silk and gold or silver brocade. This sari takes 6 months of handwork to finish and costs around 1100 euro

 

 

 

 

Waiver at work