Ellora caves

---

I have been looking forward to Ellora and it didn't disappoint. We first visited the Jain temples which are the latest in date. These temples have many similarities with the earlier Hindu temples. In these temples the detail of the carving of the pillars stands out. There are urns and shields which look almost European in style. This is possibly due to some influence from Greece, though I might be wrong about that.

The Hindu temples are the most impressive,particularly two caves. One has very large sculptures, cave 26. My particular favourite here was Ravenna lifting Mt Kailas. Unusually in this cave there is a Nataraja or dancing Shiva executed badly with wrong proportions. If it was the work of an apprentice, they would have failed that assignment. the biggest cave looks like a huge temple surrounded on all sides by cliffs of rock. It is not a building built from the ground up, but rock carved from the top down. This is the largest monolithic carving in India. It is in the shape of a chariot, although there is some damage, its glories still remain. It wasn't easy to photograph, but the scale of the structure can just about be seen on the blog photo.

The final group of temples is Buddhist and the oldest at Ellora. These temples are simpler. One of them stands out for several reasons. It has a roof carved in stone to look like wooden beamsAnd at the end of the long hall is a simple elegant Buddha. This is the chanting temple with a very good acoustic. Our guide had a very good voice and gave us a very atmospheric chant.

After a late lunch there was time for a visit to the Daukatab fort. This included a route to enter the fort through a dark passage with no natural lighting. This was to confuse the enemies. The fort was taken many times, but by hunger siege rather than direct attack.

We arrived in Mumbai late in the evening. The flight was short, but it took nearly as long as the flight for the airport to find a ramp to get us off the plane. Mumbai seemed modern and western. We drove over a new bridge, built only five years ago. The building cranes are still busy here on the skyscrapers.

---