Ellora Buddhist Cave 1 Ages Attractively as a Cavern Temple Monastery

Summary: Ellora Buddhist Cave 1 archives cave adorational architecture and art in the most accessible cavern temple monastery at Ellora Caves, Maharashtra, India.

view of six of Ellora Buddhist Cave 1's eight cells; Saturday, March 4, 2017, 22:36: Photo Dharma from Sadao, Thailand, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

Ellora Buddhist Cave 1 acquaints appreciative audiences of cave adorational architecture and art with the most accessible, not the most ancient, cavern temple monastery in Ellora Caves, Maharashtra state, western peninsular India.

The first cave brandishes the building basics of cavern temple monastery cells that perhaps borrow from Ajanta Caves vihara (from Sanskrit विहार, "walking [hall]") monastery blocks. Cardinal countdowns from 1 through 34 for the Buddhist, Hindu and Jain Ellora Caves clarify consecutive checkpoints, not chronological construction, from southerly commencements through northerly conclusions. Perhaps collateral and direct descendants of the itinerant artisans who developed Ajanta Caves 1,300 to 2,300 years ago designed Ellora Caves 800 to 1,600 years ago.

Easy elaboration of Ellora Buddhist Cave 1 as an establishment erected for grain storage and for itinerant artisans, merchants and monks perhaps encourages early excavation estimates.

Ellora Buddhist Cave 1 features eight monastery cells and fits with first-phase formulations of cavern temple monastery cells 2,000 to 2,300 years ago at Ajanta Caves.

Ellora Buddhist Cave 1, from the seventh century onward, perhaps gave itinerant artisans, merchants and monks good meals from area-gathered grains and sleepovers in stone-carved beds.The Buddhist Ajanta Caves 60 miles (96.59 kilometers) away have cavern temple monastery cells, cavern temple prayer halls and combination cavern temple monastery and prayer halls. Ellora Buddhist Caves 1 through 9, 11 and 12 identify with cavern temple monasteries even as Ellora Buddhist Cave 10 is a cavern temple prayer hall.

Itinerant artisans, merchants and monks perhaps journeyed daily between Ellora Buddhist Cave 1, until judged a full-time granary, and Ellora Buddhist Cave 10 for prayer-hall meditations.

Perhaps Ellora Buddhist Cave 1 kept grain stores for the bigger, more important Ellora Buddhist Cave 5, Ellora Buddhist Cave 10 and Ellora Buddhist Cave 12.

Itinerant artisans, merchants and monks likewise loaded Waghora (from Sanskrit व्याघ्र, "tiger") River grains, through a floor-level, sealable opening, into Ajanta cavern granary's subfloor storage chamber. They managed meal times for meditators maintained in cavern temple monastery cells and chaityagriha (from Sanskrit चैत्य, "devotional" and गृह, "abode") combination monasteries and prayer-halls. Their collateral and direct descendants nestled into spiritually nourishing niches in Buddhist Ajanta (from Sanskrit अजित, "invincible") Caves from the fifth to perhaps the eighth centuries.

Ellora Buddhist Cave 1 operated as a cavern temple monastery and a cavern temple storehouse during and after political obstacles obstructed Buddhist Ajanta Caves' grain-storing operations.

Sahyadri (from Sanskrit सह्याद्रि, "benevolent") Range grains passed through Ellora Buddhist Cave 1 even as political problems prevented grains and pilgrims passing through Ajanta cavern granaries.

Itinerant artisans, merchants and monks as questors of Buddhist, Hindu and Jain cavern adorational architecture and art never quit queuing up past Ellora Buddhist Cave 1. Second-phase Ajanta Caves revealed Mahayana and perhaps Hinayana and Theravada Buddhism (from Sanskrit महायान, "great vehicle"; हीनयान, "little vehicle"; स्थविरवाद, "elders' doctrine"; and बुद्ध, "awakened") communities. Concurrent and subsequent Ellora Buddhist Caves such as Ellora Buddhist Cave 1 supported Mahayana Buddhist communities for mass enlightenment, not Hinayana and Theravada Buddhist self-enlightening individuals.

Perhaps community networks and prime location turned Ellora Buddhist Cave 1 far less temporarily than Ajanta cavern granaries from cavern temple monastery into cavern temple storehouse.

View of Ellora Buddhist Caves 1 to 6 (right to left), southward from near Cave 8, captures the first Ellora Buddhist Cave's dark, rectangular opening (far right); 2002: G41m8, 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:

view of six of Ellora Buddhist Cave 1's eight cells; Saturday, March 4, 2017, 22:36: Photo Dharma from Sadao, Thailand, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:113_Cave_1,_Vihara_Interior_(33769897570).jpg; Anandajoti Bhikkhu (Anandajoti), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/anandajoti/33769897570/

View of Ellora Buddhist Caves 1 to 6 (right to left), southward from Cave 8, captures the first Ellora Buddhist Cave's dark, rectangular opening (far right); 2002: G41m8, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ellora_si0200.jpg

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