Taking advantage of this current bounty of insomnia to tie up some 'loose ends.' Timewarp back to January...we had just left Bombay/Mumbai by train to Aurangabad where adam immediately succumbed to a nasty viral something. On a tight schedule (we had committed our indian departure date a few days prior in bombay) our central indian tour was winding down. i proceeded to check out the ellora cave/temple complex while he recuperated. This is my story.

This would have been more impressive had we not already spoiled you with Angkor, but they are still very cool - and centuries older.

Located in central Maharashtra, the cave temple complexes of Ellora and Ajanta were "rediscovered" by the Brits and recognized as "world heritage sites" by UNESCO. While the strictly buddhist caves of Ajanta have received the most attention and restoration efforts (buddhism...japanese...money) the caves at Ellora were far more unique and interesting. Perhaps it was the unregulated freedom to explore and undocumented discoveries to be made - at Ajanta we were required to stick to a limited area and observe unnecessary rules. Certainly not what one becomes accustomed to in India.

What is fascinating about Ellora is that it is comprised of three different groups representing three different religions. The coexistance and non-desecration of the Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain cave temples are monuments to tolerance as much as any spirituality. The buddhist were the oldest followed by the Hindu, however the periods of construction overlapped each other.

Hindu families touring the buddhist portion. The majority of visitors were Indians.

Many of the buddhist caves were monastic complexes - housing and instruction area for monks.

one of the cell interiors - note the stone pillow. austerity

little women

the caves have experienced some art looting as well. i'm sure that head looks real nice in the lobby of some tokyo zaibatsu.

at its height the exteriors were certainly impressive

in the dark heart of each temple: the obligatory seated-buddha-surrounded-by-relevant-others

the temples were all carved out of the natural rock

a little lintel for you

...in an alcove

i made sure no japanese were around before posing in the buddhas lap. my accomplice did her best with the focus.

the exterior of the Vishvakarma chaitya (worship) hall

the interior of the Vishvakarma. the stone carved to appear a wood vaulted roof...one of those times i should have included a human in the photo to illustrate the enormity of scale. good thing they didn't build these things in what is now afghanistan, the talibs could have gone nuts for weeks with these.

huge three story galleries carved entirely from stone

large stone pillars left for support

buddhas lined up in the Teen Tal

Near the end of the buddha era the hindus began building their own temples.

great lord ganesha appears to be getting his peanut snack on with his trunk (y probably dates)

shiva busts out of the lingam that created him (created is probably not the right word)

another representation of the busty sita being shanghai'd by Ravana - the ramayana was reproduced here well before banteay srei in cambodia

the "highlight" according to the 20 rupee guidebook (pamphlet) i bought. Kailasha temple, as in Mt. Kailasha where shiva lived. It was indeed impressive but required the $5 UNESCO fee. I opted to hike around the cliff ledge surrounding it. they cut directly down into this massive stone bedrock, melting it away into this perfectly symettrical temple. its the sort of endeavor that leaves zero room for screwing up - you cant go back and redo anything, meaning it would be impossible to reproduce by contemporary standards of workmanship.

Angkor's Banteay Srei is considered one of the more "Indian" temples...his somewhat validates that sentiment.

some detail from the main tower

you can get an idea of how it was cut out of the stone, none of "built" as much as "excavated"

northwest court

up on the cliff edge i discovered some other faint trails leading off away from the primary road. as is my nature, i took one, expecting to find some "cool shit"

and i did...a small waterfall (currently dry) entered from the top right pouring into and filling stone pools of this small temple before sluicing out to create another waterfall below. it would be awesome to come here during the wet season (er just after)

where do those stairs go?

the evidence of the waterfall implied a stream which my conscious mind quickly dismissed as artificial. knowing that there were no electric pumps, i climbed above the temple and began traveling along and up the dry stream bed. i figured where there was water, there was usually worship.

after ten minutes of hiking i came across some small "lost" temples along the edge of the sometimes-a-stream

hard to get to as there was no traffic and thus no path through the brush

most were relatively simple shrines with lingam fountains

the numerous heads suggest vishnu; in the broken neck area it appeared that a channel of water, perhaps naturally occuring, once issued forth from a little hole in the neck chakra

continuing up the streambed i came to the summit/plateau and a barbed wire fence about a kilometre away from the main temples and any people. a distant figure on the other side waved his arms and shouted for my attention. By pointing he directed me to where i could find a hole in the fence. not knowing what to expect and entirely isolated in the countryside, i went to see what he wanted.

he was a very mellow, very bored muslim herdsman. we chatted awhile in sign language and my pathetic hindi, smoked some bidis and i took a picture

well sort of

thanking him, i hiked down to check out the remaining temples in the hindu group. as i did not bring the laptop i had finite space on the camera, so limited myself to a couple of pictures of interesting details

i have seen copious quantities of hindu scenes, idols, statues, shrines, reliefs, art, etc. etc. more than most hindus. this was the first time i had seen a representation like this, the skeletal figures have something of a mexican Dia De Los Muertos aspect to them

the only erotica i found in the entire site, it was not in very good condition

further along the trail i came to this large waterfall basin. a path halfway up connected temple to the north and south on both sides, and in its day must have been total fantasy with the waterfall cascading beside it and everything shiny and new

given my previous success in tracing the water source i found a goat trail that led up to the rim and a unique scene

some primordial terrain, i expected neanderthals to stumble out of the caves in the curved rock cut by millenia of running water. along the edges numerous small ancient cave shrines that definitely predated any of the larger sites below. probably the original sites that inspired the later excavations.

along the small valley these large green pools of radiance

some men who appeared to live in these caves offered to make me some chai...boiled or not i didn't want to drink the mosquito water from the pool

i eventually hiked down and thirty minutes of goat trails later rejoined the main circuit at the Jain caves

this group of Indians were students from Tamil Nadu enjoying a holiday after completing their Masters degrees. more indian engineers. i hope they kept my card as i lost the email address they gave me (never tell people you will send pictures unless you really will, regardless of the moment's intent)

i had to delete some pics to make room for a few of the Jain sites

the thirteen jain thirkanters (holy men/prophets) are always represented in a distinctive manner.

a little detail