From Aurangabad, we drove to Ellora caves. It was about 30 km. drive. By now, we have gotten used to waking up very early in the morning. Most of the times, we would wait for the driver. It is the 'Indian puncuality' for the others. Always later than the time that was fixed.
The parking fee for Indians was 10 rupees per person. Rao paid thirty rupees for the 3 of us. For non-Indians the fee is 100 rupees. We parked the car and then we were asked to hire an auto-rickshaw to take us from one group of caves to the other.
The total number of caves were 35 all structures excavated out of the vertical face of the Charanandri hills. They consist of Buddhist, Hindu and Jain cave temples and monasteries dating back to the 5th century and 10th century. The 12 Buddhist caves were 1-12, 17 Hindu caves 13-29 and 5 Jain caves 30-34 - you can see the religious harmony that was prevalent then.
I walked the least in these caves. Rao walked the most. But this gave me an opportunity to take some photos and also observe other tourists, talk to some and also, to contemplate more on my life in general. Shakeel kept company with me.
Most of the sculptures were ruined by the Muslim fanatics.
I was impressed by the fact that all those temples, balconies and sculptures have been carved out of one piece of rock.
The Kailasa Temple is the masterpiece of all. It is the Shiva Temple and is the world’s largest monolithic sculpture, supposedly built by 7000 laborers over a 150-year period. Over 200.000 tons of rock has been removed to create the temple. I wondered how someone even could think of destroying and defiguring those sculptures!
It is awe inspiring and a must see for all. I am still trying to upload some photos that I have taken in this trip.
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