Ellora Hindu Cave 20 Adds the Last Adventure of Buffalo Demon Mahisha

Summary: Ellora Hindu Cave 20 in Maharaashtra, India, accepts Shiva as fertility god, Nandi as fertility bull, Mahisha as buffalo demon and Devi as demon slayer.

door and façade of Ellora Hindu Cave 20; sketch by Scottish archaeologist James Burgess (Aug. 14, 1832-Oct. 3, 1916), in J. Fergusson and J. Burgess, The Cave Temples of India (1880), Plate LXXVIII: via Internet Archive

Ellora Hindu Cave 20 in Maharashtra state, western peninsular India, allies Nandi with Shiva as fertility bull to fertility god and Mahisha with Devi Mahishasuri as demon buffalo to the demon slayer.

Itinerant artisans, merchants and monks built Ellora Hindu Cave 20 as a cave temple to basic beliefs in animal and divine bearers of healthy population levels. They carved cut stone into a round-pedestal, square-based linga (from Sanskrit लिङ्ग, "emblem") that copies reproductive parts of the Hindu (from Sanskrit सिन्धु, "stream") fertility god. The destroyer god Shiva (from Sanskrit शिव, "auspicious") and his mount Nandi (from Sanskrit नन्दि, "joy") respectively do multi-tasking duties as fertility god and fertility bull.

Ellora Hindu Cave 20 exhibits the entry-level exploits that established Shiva's consort and female energy as demon slayer of the buffalo demon Mahisha (from Sanskrit महिष, "buffalo").

Vaishnavite (from Sanskrit विष्णु, "all-pervasive") Hindu itinerant artisans fashioned and finished Ellora Hindu Cave 20 under tolerant Kalachuri (from Sanskrit कलचुरि, "country chieftain") dynasts (753?-982 C.E.?).

Indus Valley centers at Harappa around 4000 B.C.E. and Mohenjodaro (from Sindhi موئن جو دڙو, "dead men's mound") around 2000 B.C.E. gave Hindu mythology fertility deities. Hindu mythology honors Indus-like fertility deities Shiva Mahadeva (from Sanskrit मह, "great" and देव, "deity") and Devi Mahadevi (from Sanskrit मह, "great" and देवी, "female deity"). Indus Valley mythologies invest fertility goddesses and fertility gods respectively with half-bull half-ram fertility animals and with fertility bulls, buffaloes, deer, elephants, rhinoceroses, snakes and tigers.

Shiva's consort juggles Shiva's fierce shakti (from Sanskrit शक्ति, "female-empowered"

Creator god Brahma's (from Sanskrit ब्रह्म, "grow"), preserver god Vishnu's (from Sanskrit विष्णु, "all-pervasive") and Shiva's flaming mouths kindled the Ellora Hindu Cave 20 demon slayer.

The beautiful, ten-armed, yellow-bodied demon slayer located a Himalayan (from Sanskrit हिम, "winter" and आलय, "abode") tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) as her charger and 10 weapons. One hand maintained the arrow and quiver of sun god Surya (from Sanskrit सूर्य, "sun"), another the bow of wind god Vayu (from Sanskrit वायु, "air"). The club of the wealth god Kubera (from Sanskrit कुबेर, "bad-limbed") and the conch shell of western regent Varuna (from Sanskrit वरुण, "water") nestled into other hands.

The demon slayer observed in Ellora Hindu Cave 10 operated the discus of Vishnu and the flaming dart of fire god Agni (from Sanskrit अग्नि, "fire").

Buffalo demon Mahisha of Ellora Hindu Cave 20 never perished from the demon slayer presenting the snake garland of serpent king Shesha (from Sanskrit शेष, "surplus").

The demon slayer quickened fatal outcomes for buffalo demon Mahisha with the thunderbolt of storm god Indra (from Sanskrit इन्द्र, "raindrop-possessing"). The iron rod of King Yama (from Sanskrit यम, "twinborn") of the Dead ripped through buffalo demon Mahisha for ravaging Mount Meru (from Sanskrit मेरु, "central"). Demon slayer Mahishasuri saved her fellow deities' celestial kingdom, Mount Meru, after its storming by buffalo demon Mahisha of the Vindhya (from Sanskrit विन्ध्य, "thought-opposing") Mountains.

Hindu fertility bull Nandi and Hindu fertility god Shiva triumph, thanks to demon slayer Mahishasuri, in Ellora Hindu Cave 20, over Indus fertility buffaloes and deities.

"Plan of Cave XX"; sketch by Scottish archaeologist James Burgess (Aug. 14, 1832-Oct. 3, 1916), Report on the Elura Cave Temples (1883), Plate XXXII: via Internet Archive

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

door and façade of Ellora Hindu Cave 20; sketch by Scottish archaeologist James Burgess (Aug. 14, 1832-Oct. 3, 1916), in J. Fergusson and J. Burgess, The Cave Temples of India (1880), Plate LXXVIII: via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/cavetemplesofind00ferguoft/page/n716/mode/1up

"Plan of Cave XX"; sketch by Scottish archaeologist James Burgess (Aug. 14, 1832-Oct. 3, 1916), Report on the Elura Cave Temples (1883), Plate XXXII: via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.1544/page/n165/mode/1up

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