Ancient Caves

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Aurangabad was our first proper tourist-town, and so accoringly the auto-rickshaw touts were much more aggressive here, but we managed to break through the throng of drivers all desperate to get us into their rickshaws (some of them for suspiciously low prices of 5Rs - they were opbviously hoping for commision from the destination hotel, which means we pay extra there), found our way onto the strreet and walked 200m before finding a good, comfortable (I think our standards have dropped a lot in the last 3 months), cheap room.

The Dutch/Dutch-English couple at the table in the hotel restaurant, where we ate lunch, were very paranoid about Indian people and spending. They seemed more concerned about the fact that we pay more for almost everyting (though it's still much cheaper than home) than actualy enjoying their time here. We spent a couple of hours talking to them, but it all seemed to be complaints about touts, scams and spending. Some of these talks seem to degenerate into wiser-than-thou chats between travellers. Or perhaps I just don't like to take advice when I don't think I need it (I know my mother will vouch for that). Both, I think.

Spurning the hotel's offer of a guided tour around the caves, or alternativelyt a bus there and back in our own time, for "only" 200Rs, we ventured ot the next morning to the local bus stand, turning down the hotel's rickshaw-to-the-bus-stand offer of "only" 30Rs, took a rickshaw for 7Rs to the bus stand, and then took a but to the Ellora Caves for 19Rs. Felt pretty pleased with ourselves (though I think our hosts were a bit miffed that we didn't take their overpriced offer).

There are 2 sets of caves near(ish) Aurangabad. The closest, the Ellora Cave Temples, are about 30 minutes on the local bus. They date from between the 8th to the 15th centures (give or take a couple, I think). They were hewn right out of the living rock and formed into intricately carved pillars and sculptures of Hindu deities. As with a lot of Hindu art of the period, the sculptors were generally obsessed with immense, round breasts and wide hips (not that I'm complaining). Most impressive was cave #16, which isn't really a cave - it's a huge temple to Shiva carved straight out of the rock, all in one piece. Hundreds of people still come every day to worship the Lingam inside.

The (Buddhist) Ajanta caves took longer to reach (a 2 hour bus ride). They are considerably older - dating from about 200BC or so, I think. They were abandoned when work started at Ellora. Many of these caves still contain the original paintings, so they are kept in very subdued lighting. I found these a lot more interesting in general. Particularly impressive were the acoustics in a couple of the caves. I stood in the centre and loudly chanted "Aummmm...." I counted for 5 seconds afterwards while the note held. Amazing. Took a video (with sound, on my new camera), but it's too big to upload to the site.

Again, I really want to upload the photos from these caves, but the USB port on this computer isn't responding properly, so it'll have to wait a little while.

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