Earth and Space News: Ellora Caves UNESCO World Heritage Centre site

Showing posts with label Ellora Caves UNESCO World Heritage Centre site. Show all posts

Friday, May 1, 2020

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.

Image credits:

"About Ellora Caves." Yatra > Monuments of India > Monuments in Aurangabad. Copyrighted 2019.
Available @ https://www.yatra.com/indian-monuments/aurangabad/ellora-caves

Anh-Huong, Nguyen; and Thich Nhat Hanh. 2019. Walking Meditation. Boulder CO: Sounds True.

Barrett, Douglas. "Wall Painting (Second to Sixteenth Century)." Pages 17-48. In: Douglas Barrett and Basil Gray. Paintings of India. Treasures of Asia. Distributed in the United States by The World Publishing Company, Cleveland OH. Geneva, Switzerlnd: Editions d'Art Albert Skira, 1963.

Berkson, Carmel. Ellora Concept and Style. First Edition, 1992. Second Edition, 2004. New Delhi, India: Abhinav Publications.
Available via Google Books @ https://books.google.com/books/about/Ellora_Concept_and_Style.html?id=tH7KRNqIin4C

Burgess, Jas. (James). Report on the Elura Cave Temples and the Brahmanical and Jain Caves of Western India. The Results of the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Seasons' Operations of the Archaeological Survey 1877-78, 1878-79, 1879-80. Supplementary to the Volume on "The Cave Temples of India." London [UK]: Trübner & Co., 1883.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.1544/page/n5/mode/1up

Cartwright, Mark. 8 March 2016. "Ellora Caves." Ancient History Encyclopedia > Article.
Available @ https://www.ancient.eu/article/874/ellora-caves/

"Cave 22 to 28." Trawell > Maharashtra > Ellora Caves > Places to Visit in Ellora Caves."
Available @ https://www.trawell.in/maharashtra/ellora-caves/cave-22-to-28

"Cave 27." The Ellora Caves.
Available @ https://elloracaves.org/caves.php?cmd=search&words=&image_ID=&cave_ID=27&plan_floor=1

"Cave 27 (Milkmaid Cave), Ellora." Virtual Museum of Images & Sounds > Collections > Monuments > Special Collections > World Heritage Sites > Ellora Caves, Aurangabad, Maharashtra.
Available @ https://vmis.in/ArchiveCategories/collection_gallery_parent?id=921&siteid=0&minrange=0&maxrange=0&count=24

Durdin-Robertson, Lawrence. 1976. The Goddesses of India, Tibet, China and Japan. With illustrations by Anna Durdin-Robertson. Huntington Castle, Clonegal, Enniscorthy, Eire: Cesara Publications.
Available @ http://www.fellowshipofisis.com/ldr_india_tibet_china_japan.pdf

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. 7 March 2019. "Ellora Caves." Encyclopædia Britannica > Geography & Travel > Historical Places. Chicago IL: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Available @ https://www.britannica.com/place/Ellora-Caves

"Elapura, aka: Elpāra; 6 Definition(s)." Wisdom Library.
Available @ https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/elapura

"Ellora." Exotic Journeys International > India City Details.
Available @ http://www.ejiusa.com/india_city_details/Ellora.html

"Ellora Caves." Atlas Obscura > Places > Verul, India. Copyrighted 2020.
Available @ https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ellora-caves

"Ellora Caves." UNESCO > Culture > World Heritage Centre > The List > World Heritage List.
Available @ https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/243/

Fergusson, James; and James Burgess. 1880. The Cave Temples of India. London [United Kingdom]: W.H. Allen @ Co., Trübner & Co. E. Stanford and W. Briggs.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/cavetemplesofind00ferguoft

Huntington, John C.; and Dina Bangdel. "Glossary M-Y." The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art.
Available @ https://huntingtonarchive.org/resources/downloads/COBGlossaryM-Y.pdf

"Interview with Shrikant Ganvir, Pune, January 2016." Sahapedia > Ellora Caves > Buddhist Caves of Ellora. Published 9 November 2016.
Available @ https://www.sahapedia.org/buddhist-caves-of-ellora

Ions, Veronica. 1967. Indian Mythology. London UK: Paul Hamlyn Limited.

Kannal, Deepak. 25 September 2017. "A Riddle Called Ellora." Sahapedia > Overview.
Available @ https://www.sahapedia.org/riddle-called-ellora

Lee, Eva. 17 February 2014. "Ellora Caves: Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain Coexistence." Eva Lee Studio.
Available @ http://www.evaleestudio.com/2014/02/12/ellora-caves-buddhist-hindu-and-jain-coexistence/

Malandra, Geri H. 1993. Unfolding a Mandala: The Buddhist Cave Temples at Ellora. Albany NY: State University of New York Press.
Available via Google Books @ https://books.google.com/books?id=MU44LPu3mbUC

Marriner, Derdriu. 24 April 2020. "Ellora Hindu Cave 28 Accesses Waterfall Rainbows Over Ellora Caves." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/04/ellora-hindu-cave-28-accesses-waterfall.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 17 April 2020. "Ellora Caves Are Arranged as Buddhist, Hindu and Jain Cave Temples." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/04/ellora-caves-are-arranged-as-buddhist.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 10 April 2020. "Are Indian Ring-Necked Rose-Ringed Parakeets Still at Ellora Caves?" Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/04/are-indian-ring-necked-rose-ringed.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 3 April 2020. "Indian Three-Striped Palm Squirrels Augur the Hindu Ellora Caves." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/04/indian-three-striped-palm-squirrels.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 27 March 2020. "Ellora Caves Accept Walking Meditations Advocated by Thich Nhat Hanh." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/03/ellora-caves-accept-walking-meditations.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 20 March 2020. "Ellora Caves Ally With Ajanta Caves and Thich Nhat Hanh in Indra's Net." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/03/ellora-caves-ally-with-ajanta-caves-and.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 13 March 2020. "Ellora Caves Are Painted, Sculpted Temples Like and Unlike Ajanta Caves." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/03/ellora-caves-are-painted-sculpted.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 6 March 2020. "Ailing Ellora Caves Are Among Ameliorable World Heritage Centre Sites." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/03/ailing-ellora-caves-are-among.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 28 February 2020. "Schneider's Leaf-Nosed Bats Are Artful Annihilators at Ellora Caves." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/02/schneiders-leaf-nosed-bats-are-artful.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 21 February 2020. "Greater Indian False Vampire Bats Are Artful Assassins at Ellora Caves." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/02/greater-indian-false-vampire-bats-are.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 14 February 2020. "Are Grey Junglefowl Avoiding Artful Areas Around Ellora Caves? Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/02/are-grey-junglefowl-avoiding-artful.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 7 February 2020. "Blue Indian Peafowl No Longer Prettify the Artistic Ellora Caves." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/02/blue-indian-peafowl-no-longer-prettify.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 31 January 2020. "Ellora Caves Sanctuary Gardens Artfully Adjoin Ellora Caves Artistry." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/01/ellora-caves-sanctuary-gardens-artfully.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 24 January 2020. "Ellora Caves Teak Forest Trees Anchor Ellora Caves Rain Gardens." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/01/ellora-caves-teak-forest-trees-anchor.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 17 January 2020. "Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings and Gardens and Bhimbetka Sanctuary Gardens." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/01/ajanta-cave-wall-paintings-and-gardens.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 10 January 2020. "Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings, Ajanta Rain Gardens, Bhimbetka Rain Gardens." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/01/ajanta-cave-wall-paintings-ajanta-rain.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 31 May 2019. "Thich Nhat Hanh, Indra's Net at Bat Nha and Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/05/thich-nhat-hanh-indras-net-at-bat-nha.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 5 April 2019. "Thich Nhat Hanh, Tu Hieu Temple Walks and Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/04/thich-nhat-hanh-tu-hieu-temple-walks.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 29 March 2019. "Thich Nhat Hanh, Walking Meditations and Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/03/thich-nhat-hanh-walking-meditations-and.html

Narayana, Hari. 25 November 2012. "The Ellora Caves - An Introduction." India That Was: A Legacy Unfolded.
Available @ http://indiathatwas.com/2012/11/the-ellora-caves-an-introduction/

Nhat Hanh, Thich. September/October 2009. "Indra's Net." Resurgence Issue 256: Exploring Consciousness.
Available @ https://www.resurgence.org/magazine/issue256-exploring-consciousness.html

Owen, Lisa N. 2012. Carving Devotion in the Jain Caves at Ellora. Leiden, The Netherlands; and Boston MA: Brill.
Available via Google Books @ https://books.google.com/books?id=vHK2WE8xAzYC

Padhye, A.D. (Anand Dhananjay); and H.V. Ghate. March 2002. "An Overview of Amphibian Fauna of Maharashtra State." Zoos' Print Journal 17(3): 735-740. Available online February 2002. DOI: 10.11609/JoTT.ZPJ.17.3.735-40.
Available via ResearchGate @ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268399240_An_overview_of_amphibian_fauna_of_Maharashtra_State/link/54bde5560cf218da9391d0d8/download

Pereira, José. 1977. Monolithic Jinas: The Iconography of the Jain Temples of Ellora. Delhi, Varanasi and Patna, India: Motilal Banarsidass.
Available via Google Books @ https://books.google.com/books/about/Monolithic_Jinas.html?id=LMTgiygj4-oC

Poduval, Jayaram. 21 November 2018. "The Architecture of Ellora Caves." Sahapedia > Article.
Available @ https://www.sahapedia.org/the-architecture-of-ellora-caves

Rawson, Philip. "Eastern Art." Pages 256-299. In: David Piper. The Illustrated History of Art. London, England: Chancellor Press (Bounty Books), 2000.

Revire, Nicolas. 2011. "Some Reconsiderations of Pendant-Legged Buddha Images in the Dvāravatī Artistic Tradition." Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 31: 37-49.
Available via Academia @ https://www.academia.edu/5735422/Some_Reconsiderations_on_Pendant-Legged_Buddha_Images_in_the_Dv%C4%81ravat%C4%AB_Artistic_Tradition

Singh, Rajesh Kumar. 26 November 2019. "Obituary: Walter M. Spink (Feb 16, 1928 - Nov 24, 2019)." Caves of India > Walter Spink.
Available @ https://cavesofindia.org/2019/11/26/prof-spink/

Spink, Walter M. 1967. Ajanta to Ellora. Mumbai, India: Marg Publications.

Spink, Walter M. 1967. "Ellora's Earliest Phase." Off Print of the Bulletin of the American Academy of Benares 1: 11-22.

"Tibetan + Sanskrit Words." Madhyamaka Introduction to the Middle Way > Study.
Available @ https://madhyamaka.com/study/tibetan-sanskrit/

Friday, April 24, 2020

Ellora Hindu Cave 28 Accesses Waterfall Rainbows Over Ellora Caves

Summary: Ellora Hindu Cave 28 affords waterfall rainbows as most ancient cavern centrally anchored under a basalt cliff in the Ellora Caves of Maharashtra, India.

the waterfall that rainbows Ellora Hindu Cave 28 (behind waterfall; lower left center); Ellora Caves, Maharashtra state, western peninsular India; Monday, Sep. 12, 2016, 14:54: Ms Sarah Welch, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Ellora Hindu Cave 28 allows waterfall rainbows for cave architecture and art admirers at the adorned entry to the most ancient cave temple in the Ellora Caves, Maharashtra state, western peninsular India.

Ellora Hindu Cave 28, one of 34 cave temples and of 100-plus burrowed caverns built into basalt cliffs, boasts a beautiful base beneath a clifftop stream. The 1.24-mile (2-kilometer-) long basaltic scarp in the Sahyadri Hills (from Sanskrit सह्याद्रि, "benevolent") contains a freshwater stream that cascades downward past Ellora Hindu Cave 28. Ellora Hindu Cave 28 perhaps develops the highest humidity and moisture levels in the 800 to 1,600-year-old Ellora Caves dedicated to Buddhist, Hindu and Jain devotees.

The clifftop stream entertains Ellora Hindu Cave 28 visitors with any wildlife that still exists around the fifth through thirteenth-century cave temples of the Ellora Caves.

Ellora Hindu Cave 28, with 1,400-year-old cave temple architecture and sculptures from no later than the mid-seventh century, furnishes neither water nor wildlife fancies and functions.

The cave numbers to the Ellora Caves locationally guide the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Centre (WHC) site staff and visitors. They help with pedestrian traffic heading from southerly Buddhist caves 1 through 12, central Hindu caves 13 through 29 and northerly Jain caves 30 through 34. They indicate nothing of initial through terminal cave temple excavations, paintings and sculptures even as they integrate Buddhist, Hindu and Jain meditation in their installation order.

Buddhist, Hindu and Jain meditators journey from and to their spiritual centers even as itinerant artisans journeyed to the physical center of the subsequent Ellora Caves.

Itinerant artisans knew subsequent Ellora Hindu Cave 28 as physical center of the basalt cliff and perhaps also of the clifftop stream that kindled rainbow waterfalls.

Buddhist, Hindu and Jain itinerant artisans and merchants and itinerant and resident monks lodged in their religion's respectively painted, sculpted cave temples in the Ellora Caves. The Hindu rulers of the sixth through seventh-century Kalachuri dynasty, from their capital north of modern Maharashtra state, made the first Ellora Caves Hindu cave temples. From their royal niches at Manishmati, somewhere on the Narmada River banks between nowaday Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra states, Kalachuri rulers perhaps nurtured Hindu itinerant artisans.

Ellora Hindu Cave 28 anciently offered simple, stark organizations of vestibule, dormitory cells and shrine for itinerant merchants and monks to occupy and observe daily devotions.

Ellora Hindu Cave 28 preserves a square altar's stone base and two sets of religious statues as earliest Hindu sculpted sacred objects in the Ellora Caves.

Itinerant artisans queued up one dvarapala (from Sanskrit द्वारपाला, "guard [of god Kubera's wealth]") guardian on each side of the Ellora Hindu Cave 28 shrine door. The door statues perhaps revere Vaishnava (from Sanskrit वैष्णव) representatives as traditional respecters of Vishnu (from Sanskrit विष्णु, "all-pervader") as Ekadeva (from Sanskrit एकदेव, "Supreme Lord"). The front wall shelters a sculpted Mahadevi (from Sanskrit महादेवी, "great goddess"), eight-armed deity synonymous with Parvati, spouse of Mahadeva (from Sanskrit महादेव, "great god") Shiva.

Ellora Hindu Cave 28 perhaps tells most truly, with cliffside waterfall rainbows and clifftop stream, whether amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles travel around the Ellora Caves.

entrance to Ellora Hindu Cave 28; Ellora Caves, Maharashtra state, western peninsular India; Wikimedia Commons page created Tuesday, Sep. 6, 2016, 05:33, via UploadWizard: Anupamg, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons