Earth and Space News: Ellora Hindu Cave 27 Appears Second Most Ancient Among Ellora Caves

Summary: Ellora Hindu Cave 27 acts as second most ancient cave temple after Ellora Hindu Cave 28 amid Buddhist, Hindu and Jain Ellora Caves in Maharashtra, India.

View of Ellora Hindu Cave 27's verandah wall shows recessed carvings of Lakshmi with two male attendants (right of door) in the Ekanamsha (from Sanskrit एकानंशा, "one-part [Vishnu]") panel and part of recessed trio of Siva (visible left of pillar), Vishnu and Brahma (not visible); Ellora Caves, Maharashtra state, western peninsular India; Wikimedia Commons page created Tuesday, Sep. 6, 2016, 05:33, via UploadWizard: Anumpamg, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Ellora Hindu Cave 27 assumes abandoned architectural aspects and second most ancient excavated, painted, plastered, sculpted cave temple among the Buddhist, Hindu and Jain cave temples of Maharashtra state, western peninsular India.

Ellora Hindu Cave 27 boasts, second to north-neighboring Ellora Hindu Cave 28, being the most ancient of the 34 Ellora Caves that bolster annual area tourism. Architectural and art historians correlate its architectural artistry to the mid-sixth through seventh centuries, just after Ellora Hindu Cave 28 and before Ellora Hindu Cave 19. They date Ellora Hindu Cave 27, like Ellora Hindu Cave 28, to the Haihaya Kalachuri dynasty of the mid-sixth through seventh centuries in ancient Madhya Pradesh.

Excavation, artistic and architectural expressions that evoke the Ajanta Caves 60 miles (96.56 kilometers) away endure in Ellora Hindu Cave 27 and Ellora Hindu Cave 28.

The 34-cavern Ajanta Caves, furnished for itinerant artisans and merchants and itinerant and resident monks, feature abandoned, incomplete and unfinished cave temples from both construction phases.

Architectural and art historians give the Ajanta Caves first-stage construction from the third through first centuries B.C.E. and second-stage construction from the fifth through eighth centuries. Perhaps the same itinerant artisans headed to the Ellora Caves from finished and unfinished construction of cave temples in the Ajanta Caves during late second-phase excavations. Douglas Barrett, in his book Paintings of India, identifies North versus South Deccan (from Hindi दक्खिन and Urdu دکھن, "south, southern") architectural, painting and sculptural influences.

Deccan India geographically joins Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Telangana; Karnataka; and Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as respectively northerly, northerly and southerly, and southerly states.

The Barrett chapter on Wall Painting (Second to Sixteenth Century) keeps the Ajanta Caves and the Ellora Caves within respectively North and South Deccan decorative styles.

Deepak Kannal, in his article The Riddle of Ellora for Sahapedia, links Ellora Hindu Cave 27 to North and South Deccan styles through overlapping work orders. He mentions Ellora Hindu Cave 27 and Ellora Hindu Cave 28 as perhaps Hindu makeovers of cave temples meant as Buddhist caverns like the Ajanta Caves. The American Institute of Indian Studies' Virtual Museum of Images & Sounds website notes estimated dates of 451-499 C.E. for a pillar and the front section.

Estimated dates of 451-499, 500-599, 551-581, 576-599 and 600-699 C.E. overlap estimated earliest construction of the Ellora Caves and ending construction at the Buddhist Ajanta Caves.

Ellora Hindu Cave 27 possesses a veranda with a fragmented pillar and one octagonal pillar, a 53 by 22-foot (16.15 by 6.71-meter) hall and a vestibule.
The 23 by 10-foot (7.01 by 3.05-meter) shrine, with two door guardians, queues up a long oblong altar, a raised floor and two short square pillars. Dvarapala (द्वारपाला) guards revere Vishnu (विष्णु, "all-pervader"), represented as asleep atop man-serpent king Sheshanāga (शेषनाग) and as the boar Varaha (वराह) with land goddess Prithvi (पृथ्वी). Ellora Hindu Cave 27, as Milkmaid's Cave, shelters carved creator god Brahma (ब्रह्मा), goal-facilitating goddess Lakshmi (लक्ष्मी), buffalo-slaying goddess Mahishāsuramardini (महिषासुरमर्दिनी) and supreme being Siva (शिव).

Titling Ellora Hindu Cave 27 Milkmaid's Cave targets the carved Lakshmi, agricultural god Balarama (बलराम) and supreme deity Krishna (कृष्ण), trinity treasured by ābhīra (आभीर) cowherds.

View of waterfall that rainbows Ellora Hindu Cave 28 (behind waterfall) shows Ellora Hindu Cave 27 (right) and neighboring Ellora Hindu Cave 26 (farther right); Ellora Caves, Maharashtra state, western peninsular India; Friday, Aug. 14, 2015, 16:58: KIshor Kumar Mishra (Kkmishra1960), 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.

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Earth and Space News

Friday, May 1, 2020

Ellora Hindu Cave 27 Appears Second Most Ancient Among Ellora Caves

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