Ellora Hindu Cave 25 Artisans Adorned Its Ceiling with Sun God Surya

Summary: Ellora Hindu Cave 25 in Maharashtra, India, attests to anciently artistic architecture in a cave temple whose ceiling arrangement accents sun god Surya.

carving of Sun God Surya in ceiling of Ellora Hindu Cave 25; Monday, Sep. 12, 2016, 15:07: Ms Sarah Welch, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Ellora Hindu Cave 25 in Maharashtra state, western peninsular India, accommodates heavenward adoration through the architectural artistry of the ancient sun god Surya appearing in the ceiling arrangement of its cave temple.

Itinerant artisans, merchants and monks built Ellora Hindu Cave 25 because or before they built Ellora Buddhist Cave 10 in the fifth through 13th-centuries Ellora Caves. They constructed the two cave temples with a comparable concern for centering adorational and meditational concentration upon ceilings respectively carved like the sun and like wood. They drew upon a duo from the ancient deities that did not dismay religiously tolerant Rashtrakuta (from Sanskrit राष्ट्रकूट, "country chieftain") dynasts (753-982 C.E.).

Ellora Hindu Cave 25 emphasizes Surya (from Sanskrit सूर्य, "sun"), sage Kasyapa's (from Sanskrit कश्यप, "black-toothed") and Aditi's (from Sanskrit अदिति, "boundless") son and Visvakarma's son-in-law.

The beam-like, rib-looking, wood-styled stone Ellora Buddhist Cave 10 ceiling fosters ancient Visvakarma (from Sanskrit विश्वकर्म, "omnificent"), English Carpenter's Hut and local Sutar ka Jhopda names.

Ellora Hindu Cave 25 gets graven into its basalt ceiling Surya, husband of Saranyu (from Sanskrit शरण्यु, "protector") and brother-in-law of Trisiras (from Sanskrit त्रिशिर, "three-pointed"). Saranyu had the twins Yama (from Sanskrit यम, "twinborn"), King of the Dead; and Yami (from Sanskrit यामि, "sister"), Yamuna (from Sanskrit यमुना, "twin") River goddess. She installed as identical imposter Chhaya (from Sanskrit छाया, "shadow"), instead of her twin sister, while she itinerated as the mare Aswini (from Sanskrit अश्विनी, "horse").

Descending bloodlines and, from one-eighth of superfluous solar brilliance, divine weaponry mythologically join Surya of Ellora Hindu Cave 25 and Visvakarma of Ellora Buddhist Cave 10.

Surya knew nothing about Saranyu keeping herself away until Yama kicked Chhaya, mother with Surya of the rishi Manu (from Sanskrit ऋषि, "saint" and मनु, "thinking").

The handmaiden launched curses that left Saranyu's son with a leg laden with sores and worms since only a biological mother's curses leave a child unharmed. Yama thenceforth moved on one healthy foot and one shriveled foot even though one of Surya's roosters managed to cure the sores and remove the worms. Surya nestled as a horse into field and forest niches with Saranyu as a mare and with their offspring, twin horsemen named Aswin, subsequently the gods' physicians.

Visvakarma as skilled artisan offered Surya the opportunity to operate once again, with all his offspring, like the sun god observed in Ellora Hindu Cave 10.

Saranyu and Surya, no longer mare and horse, presented themselves with their three sons, the twin horsemen and their youngest child Revanta (from Sanskrit रेवन्त, "brilliant").

Visvakarma, through his shaving lathe, quit the creator god Brahma's (from Sanskrit ब्रह्म, "priest") grandson of all but his quintessential brilliance everywhere except his feet. He removed superfluously beneficent, strong brilliance for remaking into storm god Indra's (from Sanskrit इण्ड्र, "raindrop-possessing") thunderbolt and war god Karttikeya's (from Sanskrit कार्त्तिकेय, "Pleiades") lance. Superfluous splendor that stressed Surya served as sources for destroyer god Shiva's (from Sanskrit शिव, "auspicious") trident and preserver god Vishnu's (from Sanskrit विष्णु, "all-pervasive") discus.

Ellora Hindu Cave 25 treasures the red-bodied, three-eyed, four-armed rider of the golden, seven-horse chariot of Arun (from Sanskrit अरुण, "tawny-colored"), the bird king's legless brother.

view of Ellora Hindu Cave 25 (right) with Cave 26 (center) and Cave 27 (left); Thursday, July 7, 2011, 12:47: Abhinav pandagale, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, 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:

carving of Sun God Surya in ceiling of Ellora Hindu Cave 25; Monday, Sep. 12, 2016, 15:07: Ms Sarah Welch, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Surya_(Sun_god)_carved_into_the_ceiling_of_Cave_25,_Ellora.jpg

view of Ellora Hindu Cave 25 (right) with Cave 26 (center) and Cave 27 (left); Thursday, July 7, 2011, 12:47: Abhinav pandagale, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:From_top_of_the_last_ellora_caves.JPG

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