Ellora Hindu Cave 21 Acclaims Shiva and Alludes to Jumna and Krishna

Summary: Ellora Hindu Cave 21 in Maharashtra, India, applies architectural, carved artistry to fertility god Shiva and to the Jumna River goddess and her Krishna.

artwork at entrance to Ellora Hindu Cave 21; Monday, Sep. 12, 2016, 15:15: Ms Sarah Welch, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Ellora Hindu Cave 21 in Maharashtra state, western peninsular India, angles auspicious associations of Jumna River goddess and Krishna into ancient architectural, carved, sculpted artistry that advances destroyer and fertility god Shiva.

Itinerant artisans, merchants and monks built Ellora Hindu Cave 21 under the religious and spiritual tolerance of Kalachuri (from Sanskrit कलचुरि, "country chieftain") dynasts (753?-982 C.E.?). Their Shaivite Hindu (from Sanskrit शिव, "auspicious" and सिन्धु, "stream") temple contains an imaginary equilateral (from Latin aequus, "equal" and lateralis, "belonging to a side") triangle. It divulges an imaginary base line between two sculptures of two different, sacred river goddesses, Ganga (from Sanskrit गङ्गा, "earth-goer") and Jumna (from Sanskrit यमुना, "stop").

Ellora Hindu Cave 21 expresses three imaginary angles of 60 degrees through imaginary lines from and to the two sculptures and a stone-carved male reproductive organ.
Ellora Hindu Cave 21 features a stone-fashioned male reproductive organ that favors destroyer and fertility god Shiva (from Sanskrit शिव, "auspicious") as heir to ancient deities.

Shiva Nataraja (from Sanskrit नट, "dancer" and रज, "king") gets cyclical, never-ending universal time from world creations to world recreations through intermediate dances of world destruction. Stone-honed linga (from Sanskrit लिङ्ग, "emblem") fertility helps perhaps hint here of Ganga and Shiva having together a son, war god Karttikeya (from Sanskrit कार्तिकेय, "Pleiades"). The Jumna River goddess, identified as Yami (from Sanskrit यामि, "earth-goer"), interconnects more with Krishna (from Sanskrit कृष्ण, "black-colored"), Lord of the Cowgirls, than with Shiva.

The Jumna River goddess in Ellora Hindu Cave 21 juxtaposes Hindu mythology's first woman and sacred waters that join ocean king Sagara (from Sanskrit सगर, "poisonous").

The Jumna River goddess of Ellora Hindu Cave 21 kept preserver god Vishnu's (from Sanskrit विष्णु, "all-pervasive") eighth avatar (from Sanskrit अवतर, "descent") safe three times.

Vishnu launches human-born, live-hero Krishna, eighth of 10 world-saving lifeforms, to liberate the Mathura (from Sanskrit मथुरा) kingdom from demonic King Kansa (from Sanskrit कंश, "goblet"). He married Vasudeva (from Sanskrit वसु, "sweet" and देव, "deity") to Devaki (from Sanskrit देवकी, "divine-parented"), Devaka's (from Sanskrit देवक, "deity") seventh daughter and Kansa's niece. Demonic Drumalika notifies Kama (from Sanskrit कमा, "beauty"), illegitimate son with Mathuran Queen Pavanarekha (from Sanskrit पावनी, "breeze" and रेखा, "line"), of Vishnu naming Krishna's parents-to-be.

The Jumna River goddess observed in Ellora Hindu Cave 21 offered Devaki and Vasudeva the opportunity to obstruct Kansa organizing an infanticide against their newborn Krishna.

The Jumna River goddess presented in Ellora Hindu Cave 21 protected Krishna and Vasudeva from perishing when their escape path put them in perilously rising waters.

Jumna River sacred waters quietened again during Krishna's day-long quest and six-month-long Rasalila (from Sanskrit रस, "pleasure" and लीला, "pastime") dance with the married, river-bathing cowgirls. Krishna; 16,108 wives; 16,108 daughters; and 161,080 sons retired to Dvaraka (from Sanskrit द्वारका, "many-gated"), fortress city realized by Yami's grandfather Visvakarma (from Sanskrit विश्वकर्म, "omnificent"). Lakshmi (from Sanskrit लक्ष्मी, "fortune") selected as spouse Vishnu over Shiva and showed up as Princess Rukmini (from Sanskrit रुक्मिणी, "gold-adorned"), spouse to Vishnu's eighth avatar.

Ellora Hindu Cave 21 touts destroyer and fertility god Shiva even as it treasures the Jumna River goddess traditionally teamed with Shiva's rivals, Krishna and Vishnu.

River Goddess Ganga at entrance of Ellora Hindu Cave 21; Monday, Sep. 12, 2016, 15:14: Ms Sarah Welch, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

artwork at entrance to Ellora Hindu Cave 21; Monday, Sep. 12, 2016, 15:15: Ms Sarah Welch, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Artwork_at_the_entrance_of_Cave_21_of_Ellora.jpg

River Goddess Ganga at entrance of Ellora Hindu Cave 21; Monday, Sep. 12, 2016, 15:14: Ms Sarah Welch, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Goddess_Ganga_at_Cave_21_entrance,_Ellora.jpg

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