Ellora caves: a man-made wonder of India. Treasures of Maharashtra: Cave temples of Ellora and Ajanta

cave temples in Ellora Caves

The temples of Ellora are located in the state of Maharashtra and arose in the era of the state of the Rashtrakut dynasty, which in the 8th century united under their rule western part India. In the Middle Ages, many considered the Rashtrakut state to be the greatest state. It was compared with such powerful powers as the Arab Caliphate, Byzantium and China. official science believes that the Temples of Ellora were built between the 6th and 9th century AD. However, independent researchers, taking into account the nature of the building and the high-tech design of rocks, attribute the date of construction to more ancient period, approximately by 8,000 BC

In total in Ellora exists 34 temples and monasteries, carved into the monolith of one of the mountains of Charanandry, are a real embodiment of the achievements of Indian cave architecture. Each cave of Ellora is unique and beautiful, and a particle of the soul of the Indian people is invested in each. The interior decoration of the temples is not as dramatic and rich as in the Ajanta caves. However, there are refined sculptures of a more beautiful form here, a complex plan is observed and the sizes of the temples themselves are larger. And all the memos are much better preserved to this day. Long galleries were created in the rocks, and the area of ​​one hall sometimes reached 40x40 meters. The walls are skillfully decorated with reliefs and stone sculptures. Temples and monasteries were created in the basalt hills for half a millennium (6-10 century AD). It is also characteristic that the construction of the caves of Ellora began around the time when the holy places of Ajanta were abandoned and lost sight of.

These caves were created as Buddhist, Hindu and Jain temples and monasteries, the so-called viharas and mathas, during the period from the 5th to the 10th centuries. So 12 out of 34 caves are Buddhist sanctuaries, 17 are Hindu and 5 are Jain.

Previously, it was believed that the Buddhist part of Ellora (caves 1-12) was built the very first - in the 5th-7th centuries. But more recent studies have shown that some Hindu caves were created in more early times. So, this part, for the most part, consists of monastic premises - large multi-level rooms carved into the rock, some of which are decorated with images and sculptures of the Buddha. Moreover, some sculptures are carved with such skill that they can be confused with wooden ones. The most famous Buddhist cave is the 10th cave - Vishwakarma. In its center stands a statue of Buddha 4.5 meters high.

The Hindu part of Ellora was created in the 6th-8th centuries and is made in a completely different style. All walls and ceilings of the premises of this part are completely covered with bas-reliefs and sculptural compositions of such complexity that sometimes several generations of craftsmen worked on their design and creation. The most striking is the 16th cave, which is called Kailasanatha or Kailasa. It surpasses all other caves of the complex in its beauty. It is rather a real temple, carved into a monolithic rock.

Dzhanist caves were created during the 9th-10th centuries. Their architecture embodied the craving of this religion for asceticism and simplicity. They surpass the rest of the premises in size, but, despite all their simplicity, they are not inferior to them in uniqueness. So in one of these caves, Indra Sabha, an amazing lotus flower is carved on the ceiling, and on the upper level there is a statue of the goddess Ambika, sitting astride a lion among mango trees hung with fruits.

One of the most amazing and popular places for tourists - Ellora caves.

How to get to the caves of Ellora?

The caves are located in the Indian state of Maharashtra, more precisely in Northern Maharashtra, about 30 kilometers west of the city Aurangabad. The nearest airport is located in the same place, in Aurangabad. A plane ticket from Moscow costs about 26,000 rubles. At Aurangabad Airport, you can rent a car and get to the caves in 2 hours. To visit India, Russian citizens do not need to apply for a visa, and this pleases.

Ellora's 34 caves dated between the 6th and 9th centuries AD are a mixture of several religions: Buddhists, Hindus and Jains.

The caves were excavated from the volcanic rocks along a 2 km section of the western side of the embankment. 34 large caves, are numbered sequentially rather than chronologically, starting with the Buddhist group (caves 1-13) in the south. Other groups of the Brahmin pantheon (caves 14-29) and Jainism (caves 30-34). The most notable monument is Cave 16, the Kailash Temple, which is the culmination of rock architecture, with huge sculpted reliefs, sublime general temple symbolism such as the cosmic mountains and the home of Shiva.

When you look at these majestic sculptures, you admire the ancient sculptors. The most incredible thing about these caves is that they were made by hand with just a hammer and chisel. The caves of Ellora are famous for their unique architecture. You will see excellent paintings both inside the Kailash temple and climbing the hill around it. Its huge size is staggering, it is twice more area Pantheon in Athens and one and a half times higher. Best time for visiting the caves: November - March, when it is cooler and drier.

When to visit the caves of Ellora?

Opening times: 9am until sunset (around 5:30pm). The caves of Ellora are closed on Tuesdays but are open on days national holidays. However, try to avoid visiting on these days, the crowds can be maddening and you won't get a pleasant experience. Take a flashlight with you as many places are quite dark.

The caves of Ellora are free to visit, with the exception of a magnificent temple under open sky Kailash, which costs US$5 to visit. Children under 15 are admitted free of charge.

Those who are interested in music and dancing should visit these places at the end of the year. In the last week of November every year, a festival is held here for 4 days. The most outstanding singers and dancers of India take part in the festival.

There is no doubt that this place will remain in your heart for many years, you can even feel the presence of the Buddha here.

Attractions nearby

The caves of Ellora are examined in a complex with the cave monastery of Azhdanta (2nd century BC - 5th century AD), which is located nearby.

If you want to get to know the history of the ruling dynasties and religious cults of the country better, the preserved architectural monuments that clearly tell about the greatness of ancient empires will help you do this. Certainly one of the most important ancient history are the cave temples of India, which served as a refuge and the main center of learning for the followers of Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism from the beginning of our era.

The most famous and well-preserved cave temples are located in the state of Maharashtra near the city of Aurangabad - ancient capital the Mughal empire. Long before the arrival of the Mongol conquerors, this region was the center of the development of trade and religion. ancient trade routes passed through the plains of the Deccan, and the pilgrims found refuge in the caves, which were rebuilt as spiritual abodes.

I want to talk about the cave temples of Ajanta and Ellora - the true gems of ancient Indian art and architecture. Even at the beginning of our era, there were trade routes along the territory of the Deccan plateau (the modern state of Maharashtra), along with traders, the first Buddhist ascetics went, carrying their faith to the territory of southern India.

To escape from the seasonal rains and the scorching sun, travelers needed shelters. The construction of monasteries and temples is a long and costly business, so the first pilgrims chose caves in rocky mountains, which gave coolness and heat and remained dry during the rainy season.

The first Buddhist caves were carved in the 2nd century BC, when they were simple and uncomplicated shelters. Later, at the turn of the 4th-6th centuries, the cave temple complexes grew into huge monastic cities, where hundreds of monks lived, and the caves turned into three-story monasteries, skillfully decorated with sculptures and wall paintings.

IN cave cities Ajanta and Ellora consistently professed three religions - Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. Now on the territory of the complexes you can see ancient statues and wall paintings of these three religions. So, the first inhabitants cave cities there were Buddhists, then Hindus came, and the last to be carved out were Jain temples, although it is possible that followers of all religions coexisted here at the same time, creating a tolerant religious society in the middle of the first millennium.

The cave temple complex of Ajanta is located 100 kilometers from the city of Aurangabad, it is located in the bed of the Waghor River and was cut down from the 2nd century BC to the middle of the 7th century AD. For centuries, ancient sculptors methodically removed soil from basalt rock, and the interior of the caves was decorated with elegant sculptures and frescoes.

At the end of the 5th century, the Harishena dynasty, which was the main sponsor of the construction of the caves, fell, and the complex was gradually abandoned. The monks left their secluded abode, and locals gradually forgot about the existence of cave temples. The jungle swallowed the caves, walling up the entrances with a thick layer of vegetation. An artificial microclimate was formed in the caves, which has preserved to our times the frescoes of the beginning of the first millennium, which have no analogues not only in India, but throughout the world. Thus, the caves have brought the beauty of ancient masters to our days.

The complex was discovered by British Army officer John Smith in 1819 while hunting for a tiger. From the opposite bank of the Waghor River, he saw the archway of the entrance to Cave No. 10.

Now it is one of the most famous sights. central India. On this moment in the complex you can visit 28 caves belonging to the Buddhist tradition. In caves 1,2,9,11,16,17, ancient frescoes have been preserved, and in caves 9,10,19,26 you will see elegant Buddhist sculpture.

Some caves served as a place for performing rituals and group prayers, they are called "chatya", or meeting rooms, others served as the dwelling place of the monks, they are called "vihara", or monasteries. The caves have different layouts and decorations.

Some caves are under development, these examples clearly show how the complex was built. From the opposite bank of the Waghor River opens beautiful view for the whole complex, the scale of the complex is really impressive.

Previously, each cave had its own personal descent to the river for a fence drinking water, a system was developed to store rainwater and watercourse during the monsoon period. The walls of most of the caves were painted with detailed frescoes, the secret of which has not yet been unraveled. Separate well-preserved sections convince us of the high level of skill of ancient painters, and before our eyes forgotten history and customs of those times.

Of course, visiting the cave temples of Ajanta will create one of the most interesting experiences in India, but it will not be complete without a visit to the Ellora complex, which is located nearby. Despite the fact that both complexes are similar in concept, they are completely different in execution.

The cave temple complex of Ellora, located 30 kilometers from Aurangabad, was cut down in the period from the 5th to the 11th century and has 34 caves, 12 of which are Buddhist (1-12), 17 Hindu caves (13-29) and 5 Jain caves (30 -34), cut down in chronological order.

If the Ajanta complex is famous for its frescoes, then in the 34 caves of the Ellora temple complex it is certainly a sculpture. Ellora acquired a true dawn with the withering of Ajanta, apparently most of the monks and masters moved here starting from the 6th century AD. In Ellora, the viewer is struck by the scale of the buildings, for example, some caves are three-story "viharas" - monasteries where up to several hundred monks could live. Of course, such a scale is amazing, especially considering that the dates of construction refer to the 5th-7th centuries of our era.

But the true pearl of the complex is the temple of Kailasanath (the lord of Kailash), or cave No. 16. This 30-meter temple was carved for 100 years during the eighth century. For its construction, 400,000 tons of rock basalt rock were extracted, while not a single detail was brought into the temple from the outside, everything was cut out in rock basalt rock from top to bottom, as on a modern 3-D printer.

Of course, nothing like this in India simply does not exist. This masterpiece ancient architecture stands on a par with the temples in Cambodia, Java and the temple complex in Burma, only it was built almost a millennium earlier.

The temple is an allegory of the sacred Mount Kailash in Tibet, on which, according to legend, Lord Shiva was in meditation. Previously, the entire temple was covered with white plaster in order to resemble snow-capped peak Kailash, all the sculptures were skillfully painted with colors, the details of which can be seen even now, many galleries of the temple are decorated with detailed stone carvings. To understand the greatness of the Kailasanath temple, you need to see it with your own eyes, photographs can hardly convey its grandeur and beauty.

The temples of Ajanta and Ellora attract many tourists from India and all over the world, on holidays it can be quite crowded, and in order to better understand the history in stone, it is recommended to take a tour with a guide. It is better to choose the city of Aurangabad as a base for visiting the temples, there are many hotels for every taste and budget, you can get here by train, plane or bus from Mumbai or Goa.

A visit to the cave temples of Ajanta and Ellora is definitely one of the most vivid and memorable experiences in India. A trip to Aurangabad is easy to make in three days, visiting the cave temples will be a great addition to relaxing on the beaches of Goa.

The complex of cave temples of Ellora is located in the Indian state of Maharashtra, not far from Ajanta, and consists of 34 cave temples that were created during the 8th-9th centuries. Twelve of them are Buddhist, two are Jain and the rest are Hindu. The Hindu part of the ensemble includes a huge rock temple Kailasanatha.

The emergence of the cave temples of Ellora dates back to the era of the state of the Rashtrakut dynasty, which in the VIII century united under their rule western territories India. Medieval Arab chroniclers named the state of the Rashtrakuts among the greatest states of that time, along with the Arab Caliphate, Byzantium and China.

The Rashtrakutas were the most powerful Indian rulers of that time. Around 750, they began a grandiose construction in their lands. Undoubtedly, the influence on Ellora of the earlier cave temples of Ajanta. But how natural features, and the trends of modern times, led to the creation of a completely original monument in Ellora, where stone sculpture began to play the main role. The cave halls of Ellora, created at the beginning of the 8th century, differ significantly from Ajanta in their size and more complex plan. Long galleries are laid in the rocks, the area of ​​some halls reaches 40x40 meters. The walls of the halls are decorated with stone sculptures and reliefs in abundance.

The main cave temple of Ellora is called Tin Thal. This is the largest underground temple ever created in India. It consists of three floors and is located in the depths of a rectangular courtyard resembling a narrow well 33 meters wide and 20 meters deep, the entrance to which leads through a narrow monolithic gate. The facade of the temple is extremely simple and ascetically severe. It consists of three rows of square columns resting on monolithic rock platforms. The height of the facade is 16 meters.

A narrow staircase carved in stone leads to the temple. And when a person gets inside the underground sanctuary, vast halls with countless powerful square columns and statues of Buddhist deities open up to his gaze. The halls of Tin Thal overwhelm with their colossal and severe, elementarily simple forms. The width and depth of the halls reaches 30-40 meters. The gloomy mystical mood in the temple is enhanced by the effect of the dusk deepening in its depths, in which huge stone sculptures ghostly flicker.

The same impression is produced by other, smaller cave temples of Ellora. In the Rameshvara temple, sculptural relief and stone carving dominate almost the entire surface of the walls and columns. Huge wall high reliefs literally surround the viewer. Terrible fantastic statues carved into the rock make a particularly strong and hypnotizing impression due to their plastic power and sharp contrast of light and shadow.

The facades of the Rameshvara temple are decorated with four columns and two semi-columns with intricately carved capitals and large female caryatid figures located on both sides of the columns. Stone carving adorns the entire facade of the cave temple, but its splendor only emphasizes the massiveness of the columns, resembling muscles tensed in superhuman effort. In the later cave halls of Ellora, one can feel the loss by the sculptors of the artistic achievements of the masters of the previous era. The temple complex of Ellora completed the ancient Indian tradition of building rock temples.

The central building of Ellora is huge temple Kailasanatha, carved into a monolithic, lonely standing rock. The very idea of ​​such a fabulous building, towering among the cave temples surrounding it, is unusual. The temple is perfect in its power and size. unique and can only be compared with the rock temples - Abu Simbel and the temple of the goddess Hatshepsut in Deir el-Bahri. The majestic and unique rock temple of Kailasanatha is carved like a sculpture from a monolithic rock, isolated from the slopes surrounding Ellora low mountains three deep, up to thirty meters deep, clefts. This rock mass was hewn, starting from the top and down to the very bottom, without the use of scaffolding. Initially, the entire Kailasanath temple was covered with white plaster and was called Ranga Mahal - "painted palace". Its snow-white silhouette stood out like a bright spot against the background of the rocks.

The Kailasanatha Temple was built, or rather, cut into the rock, for a very long time. It began to be created under the ruler Dantidurga from the Rashtrakuta dynasty, and completed under Krishnaraj I. The temple rises in the middle of a courtyard cut out of the rock with an area of ​​​​58x51 meters and more than 33 meters deep into the rock. The area of ​​the temple is 55x36 meters.

The lower part of the temple is carved in the form of an eight-meter-high plinth. In its center there are monumental sculptures of elephants and lions about three meters high, as if holding the weight of the temple building on their backs. Closely spaced rows of elephants are carved in such a way that it seems that this is only the visible part of them, and the rest of the elephants are hidden under the massif of the temple. This idea of ​​a huge structure resting on the backs of elephants and lions is mythological and symbolic - after all, the world, as is known from ancient legends, stands on three elephants. Only there are much more elephants in Kailasanath...

From top to bottom, the temple is covered with stone carvings, made with great skill. As the Russian pre-revolutionary Indologist I. P. Minaev wrote, the temple in Ellora has “such a mass of images that it can be considered a book of Indian mythology.”

One of the most interesting images on the walls of the Kailasanatha temple is the relief of Ravana trying to overthrow Mount Kailash. This is one of the most dramatic works of Indian medieval sculpture. The central event of the relief is the taming of the demon Ravana by the god Shiva, who seeks to destroy sacred mountain Kailash (the hypostasis of the sacred Mount Meru), where Shiva lives. This plot symbolizes the clash of the forces of good and evil. An enraged demon, depicted as a terrible many-headed and many-armed creature, rages in a rage, unsuccessfully trying to shake the sacred mountain. His wife Parvati clung to the almighty Shiva in fear. But the frantic efforts of the demon are not afraid of Shiva: with one slight wave of his hand, he pacifies the monster.

No less interesting are other reliefs of the Kailasanath temple: “Shiva the Conqueror”, “The Abduction of Sita”. They are performed with such art, with such a captivating expression that the viewer cannot remain just an observer and at some point he is sincerely captured by the drama of the events depicted. Such an impact of the artistic image on a person first appears in Indian art only in Ellora.

Located in the Indian state of Maharashtra, the magnificent Ellora Caves are 34 structures carved into the vertical slopes of the Sharanandri cliffs. official facility world heritage UNESCO, the Ellora Caves include 12 Buddhist, 17 Hindu and 5 Jain monasteries built between the 6th and 10th centuries

They have survived to our times, as a testament to the religious harmony and peace that reigned in that period of Indian history. Ellora caves - the most visited historical monument in the country and one of the most popular tourist attractions in India. I suggest you admire the incredible photographs of these places, as well as learn more about each group of temples and monasteries

Buddhist monasteries of Ellora

The Buddhist caves (also called the Vishwakarma caves) are the earliest of the Ellora caves and date from 500 to 750 AD. Interestingly, the caves become larger and more beautiful as you move up. north side. Scientists explained this by the growing need for competition with Hinduism, because already in 600 the first Hindu temple appeared here.

Hindu caves of Ellora

The Hindu monasteries of Ellora are completely different from the Buddhist caves, both in terms of style and decoration. These caves were carved from top to bottom, and the shape was given to them in several stages. In total, there are 17 caves, carved between 600 and 870 years. They take central part rocks clustered around famous temple Kailasa. Unlike the solemn and serene Buddhist caves, the walls of Hindu monasteries are covered with living bas-reliefs depicting the events of their Hindu scriptures. All of them are dedicated to the god Shiva, but there are also images of Vishnu and his various reincarnations.

Jain caves of Ellora

The Jaina Caves are the youngest in the Ellora complex and date back to 800-900 years. They are located 2 kilometers to the north, where an asphalt road leads. They reflect the distinctness of Jain philosophy and tradition, including strict asceticism along with elaborate decoration. These monasteries are not as large as the Hindu and Buddhist ones, but contain exceptionally detailed artwork. Amazing paintings that once completely covered the ceilings of temples are partially preserved here.