Ellora Hindu Cave 29 Assumes That Parvati and Shiva Adore One Another

Summary: Ellora Hindu Cave 29 in Maharashtra, India, avails itself of a name; a waterfall; and aggressive and amorous adventures of Shiva with demons and Parvati.

sculpture depicting marriage of Shiva and Parvati in Ellora Hindu Cave 29; Monday, Dec. 10, 2007: Sanjay ach, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Ellora Hindu Cave 29 in Maharashtra state, western peninsular India, admits to a name; a waterfall; and Shiva adoring second wife Parvati, and vice versa, and averting attempted mountaintop and tree removals.

Itinerant artisans, merchants and monks built Ellora Hindu Caves 19, 27 and 28 before they bedecked the basalt cliff with caverns 29, 21, 20 and 26. They constructed a Shaivite Hindu (from Sanskrit शिव, "auspicious" and सिन्धु, "stream") cave temple to their destroyer and fertility god Shiva (from Sanskrit शिव, "auspicious"). They drew for caved, sculpted depictions of his dominant deeds upon Shiva's defeating demonic Andhaka (from Sanskrit अन्धक, "blind") and demonic Ravana (from Sanskrit रवण, "roaring").

Ellora Hindu Cave 29 enlists an entire wall panel to elucidate the events easing a grieving, widowered Shiva into an enduring marriage the second time around.

Kalachuri (from Sanskrit कलचुरि, "country chieftain") dynasty (753?-982 C.E.?) artisans furnished Ellora Hindu Cave 29 with a stone-carved linga (from Sanskrit लिङ्ग, "emblem") in a central shrine.

Shiva getting the Hindu destroyer and fertility godship guides the Dhumar Lena (from Sanskrit धूम्र, "smoke-colored" and लेन, "refuge") cave temple getting his symbolic reproductive organ. The sage Bhrigu (from Sanskrit भृगु, "cliff") heralded Shiva's reproductive organ as worship-worthy heir to Indus Valley fertility symbols from 4000 B.C.E. to 2500 B.C.E. Impassioned interactions with second wife Parvati (from Sanskrit पर्वति, "rock") instead of intellectual interactions with Bhrigu installed Shiva as fertility god with a worship-worthy reproductive organ.

The sage Daksha (from Sanskrit दक्ष, "competent") judged the thereby jinxed Shiva in Ellora Hindu Cave 29 unworthy to join other gods for a sacrificial fire.

Sati (from Sanskrit शाटी, "cloth"), Daksha's daughter and creator god Brahma's (from Sanskrit ब्रह्म, "to grow") granddaughter, knew keeping Shiva from sacrificial fires as dishonoring her husband.

Sati leaping into sacrificial flames left Shiva lonely until the gods let Sati live as Parvati, Himalayan (from Sanskrit हिम, "winter" and आलय, "abode") mountain daughter. Ravana, King of Lanka (from Sanskrit लङ्का, "obtaining [happiness]") and leader of rakshasa (from Sanskrit राक्षस, "demoniacal") demons, thrice misbehaved on Mount Kailasa (from Sanskrit कैलास, "crystal"). Austerities net superpowerful demons so Ravana negociated immortality and Parvati for himself and Shiva's Atmalingam (from Sanskrit अत्म, "essence" and लिङ्ग, "emblem") for his Shiva-worshipping mother.

Ellora Hindu Cave 29 offers Shiva, with Parvati as onlooker, obstructing with only one big toe, the first of Ravana's two Mount Kailasa mountaintop removal operations.

Ellora Hindu Cave 29 presents Ravana during his unsuccessful push against Mount Kailasa, before his successful pull on the Kailasa mountaintop after Shiva prevaricated about immortality.

Destructively creative Tandava (from Sanskrit ताण्डव, "dance") dances of world destruction between world creation and recreation in cyclical, never-ending time qualify Shiva as Hindu destroyer god. Brahma, Shiva and preserver god Vishnu (from Sanskrit विष्णु, "all-pervasive") realized destruction of demonic Andhaka for attempted removal of the Parijata (from Sanskrit पारिजात, "coral-tree") tree (Erythrina fulgens). Cross-shaped, 18-foot- (5.49-meter-) tall, 26-pillar hall; cushion-capital, flute-shafted, square-based columns; flower-bearing doorkeepers; guard lions; porch-sheltered river goddesses; and waterfall-sprayed balcony set sculpted stages for Shiva stories.

Ellora Hindu Cave 29 teams a chaturmukha (from Sanskrit चतुर्मुख, "four-faced") shrine; a Kalyanasundaramurti (from Sanskrit कल्याणसुन्दरमूर्ति, "23-form") Shiva panel; a mutilated Vishnu; and Parvati tales.

central shrine with dwârapâlas in Ellora Hindu Cave 2; Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, 14:59: Ronakshah1990, 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:

sculpture depicting marriage of Shiva and Parvati in Ellora Hindu Cave 29; Monday, Dec. 10, 2007: Sanjay ach, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ellora-caves-1.jpg

central shrine with dwârapâlas in Ellora Hindu Cave 2; Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, 14:59: Ronakshah1990, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dvarapalas,_Cave_No._29,_Ellora_Caves.jpg

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