Ellora Buddhist Cave 6 Augurs Auspiciousness With Its Makara Torana

Summary: Ellora Buddhist Cave 6 in Maharashtra, India, attracts auspicious actions, arrangements and atmospheres through its architecturally auspicious arch.

"Tara in Cave VI," a panel in the shrine antechamber of Ellora Buddhist Cave 6, seems to depict Padmani, mother of compassionate bodhisattva Padmapani, overarched by a makara torana; sketch by Scottish archaeologist James Burgess (Aug. 14, 1832-Oct. 3, 1916), Report on the Elura Cave Temples (1883), Plate XIII: via Internet Archive

Ellora Buddhist Cave 6 in Maharashtra state, western peninsular India, anchors auspicious actions, arrangements and atmospheres through its architecturally auspicious arch, makara torana, for acting auspiciously and for activating and attracting auspiciousness.

Itinerant artisans under Kalachuri (from Sanskrit कलचुरि) dynasts, 550?-before 687 C.E.?, blended Hindu (from Sanskrit सिन्धु, "river, stream") architecture and mythology in the makara torana arch. Makara torana (from Sanskrit मकर, "monster fish" and तोरण "bird perch") consists of a fabulous sea animal, conceptualized from crocodiles or sharks, carved onto a crosspiece. Its depiction denotes the auspiciousness of makara as divine emblem of the god of desire and divine vehicle for a river goddess and the sea god.

Traditional Hindu architecture established the torana arch as a ceremonial, festive, free-standing, ornamental, sculpted, stone or wood gateway of a projecting crosspiece atop two upright posts.

Ellora Buddhist Cave 6 perhaps features a makara torana from religious freedom flourishing under Kalachuri dynasts whose Hindu faith favored and fostered religious and spiritual tolerance.

One of the beautiful dancing, singing apsara (from Sanskrit अप्सरा, "fairy") water nymphs goes about with the red banner of her lord, the god of desire. Kama (from Sanskrit कमा, "desire, loveliness"), handsomest of gods, has as emblem Makara, wife Rati (from Sanskrit रति, "delight") and friend Vasanta (from Sanskrit वसन्त, "spring"). He itinerates on a parrot member of the Psittacidae (from Greek ψιττακός, "parrot" and -ειδής, "-like") parakeet and parrot family, instead of a makara, as vehicle.

River goddess Ganga (from Sanskrit गङ्गा, "swift-goer") and Varuna (from Sanskrit वरुण, "surround"), regent of the compass's western quarter and sea god, journey on makara vehicles.

Perhaps Shaivite (from Sanskrit शिव, "auspicious") and Vaishnavite (from Sanskrit विष्णु, "all-pervasive") traditions kindled Hindu itinerant artisans keeping the makara torana in Ellora Buddhist Cave 6.

Shiva, whose dances launch world destructions for world recreations, let his bull mount, Nandi (from Sanskrit नन्दि, "joy"), live as a shark, perhaps as a makara. He missed his consort, Parvati (from Sanskrit पर्वती, "rock"), after making her into an earthly fisherwoman for not minding his musing aloud over obscure scriptural points. He nestled as an earthly fisherman into her fishing village to net the makara or shark, the reward for which was marrying, and retransforming with, Parvati.

Preserver god Vishnu, as Narmada (from Sanskrit नर्मदा, "pleasure-causing") river goddess personified, ousted Gandharva (from Sanskrit गंधर्व, "song") birdmen from Naga (from Sanskrit नाग, "serpent") homelands.

Perhaps river goddess Narmada piloting Makara as her vehicle and Vishnu preserving Patala (from Sanskrit पाताल, "underfoot") netherlands prompted the Ellora Buddhist Cave 6 makara torana.

Perhaps itinerant merchants and traders queued up as resident pilgrims because the makara torana quietened anxieties over Buddhist litany carvings in Buddhist Caves 3 and 4. Compassionate bodhisattva Padmapani (from Sanskrit बोधि, "enlightenment" and सत्त्व, "sentient being"; and from पद्म, "lotus" and पाणि, "hand-held") receives the Buddhist litany of merchant-related, trader-relevant perils. Itinerant merchants and traders survived, or not, bandits, demons, elephants, enslavers, fires, floods, lions and snakes; and avarice, delusions, desire, fanaticism, hatred, ignorance, jealousy and pride.

Perhaps itinerant artisans and traders, troubled by perilous thoughts, trekked to Ellora Buddhist Cave 6 and trekked out tranquil with auspicious thoughts from the makara torana.

"On the Left Side of the Shrine Cave VI" depicts an elaborately headdressed male presenting an offering (right) and attended by a chauri (fly whisk) bearing female, a female, in a pose of adoration, with an attending female dwarf and a bird, and a genuflecting male, with Brahmanical cord, next to an elephant; 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:

"Tara in Cave VI," a panel in the shrine antechamber of Ellora Buddhist Cave 6, seems to depict Padmani, mother of compassionate bodhisattva Padmapani, overarched by a makara torana; sketch by Scottish archaeologist James Burgess (Aug. 14, 1832-Oct. 3, 1916), Report on the Elura Cave Temples (1883), Plate XIII: via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.1544/page/n125/mode/1up

"On the Left Side of the Shrine Cave VI" depicts an elaborately headdressed male presenting an offering (right) and attended by a chauri (fly whisk) bearing female, a female, in a pose of adoration, with an attending female dwarf and a bird, and a genuflecting male, with Brahmanical cord, next to an elephant; 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/n126/mode/1up

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