Five Centuries in the Making - The Ellora Caves

M suffering on our bus ride

After Udaipur we made our way to Aurangabad, the launching point to see India’s famous Ellora and Ajanta caves.  Before we tell you about these masterpieces we have to tell you about our terrible bout of traveler diarrhea (also known as Udaipur Belly taking its name from the famous Delhi Belly or Calcutta kaki’s - Thanks Miki for this gem).   For the faint of heart, please skip to the next paragraph.  The story starts in Udaipur where S’s sickness began. We think the source was cappuccino’s we had (while they used fresh milk to make our coffee, our guess is that there was old milk in the machine) as right after the little cup, S spent the rest of night in the bathroom purging the nastiness from all holes.  Gross we know.  The next day we traveled 24 hours by bus to get to the shit hole of Aurangabad (our view may be tainted by the illness) and during our second bus trip the milk caught up with M -- so he let it all out the bus window and both of us came down with a fever.  To add to our misery the bus broke down for an hour and a half.  Good times.  By the time we reached Aurangabad in the morning, we had eaten a few crackers and bananas and were weak and delirious.  We had not booked a place in advance as we were arriving in the morning and wanted to see a few places before committing.  Normally a good idea but not in our state.  We had the rickshaw driver take us from one shit hole to the next (without the aid of a guidebook - bad idea) before we gave up and just settled down.  While the place may have been nice centuries ago it was a true shit hole - dirty, falling apart and infested with cockroaches.   We pulled out our sleep sheets, ordered water and plain rice and spent the next two days sleeping and sh**ing some nasty stuff.  By day 5 (or 4 for M) we were almost back to 50% of our strength and decided to get out of our hell hole and see the Ellora caves armed with water and plain crackers.
 

Magnificant Hindu Kailasa Temple

Aurangabad is a launching point for visiting the nearby Ellora and Ajanta caves, though the city has its own often overlooked group of Buddhist caves 2km north which were carved out of the hillside around the 6th or 7th century.  The World Heritage listed cave temples, monasteries and chapels of Ellora are about 30km from Aurangabad and were cut out from a 2km long escarpment over 5 centuries by generations of Buddhist, Hindu and Jain monks.  Once you get up close and see the intricate carvings everywhere which were all done by hand, of course, it is easy to see why a majority of the caves took so long to complete! There are a total of 34 caves: 12 Buddhist (600-800AD), 17 Hindu (600-900AD) and 5 Jain (800-1000AD) and their co-existence at one site evidences a prolonged period of religious tolerance which mostly continues to exist throughout most of India (sadly, aside from Kashmir).   The Hindu caves were very ornate and dramatic compared to the simpler and calmer Buddhist caves, with the masterpiece at Ellora being the astonishing massive Kailasa Temple. This temple is in the middle of the 2km stretch and is dedicated to Shiva and is the world’s largest monolithic sculpture cut from rock by 7000 labourers over a 150 year period.   The 30 Buddhist caves of Ajanta, 166km north-east of Aurangabad (better reached from Jalgaon which is only 60km away) date back from around 200 BC to 650 AD, therefore predating those at Ellora.  As Ellora developed and Buddhism gradually declined the Ajanta caves were abandoned.   These caves are also listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). 

rock stars in the making :)

While we had the intention of visiting all three sets of caves, because of our illness and resulting irritation with the city and nasty hotel, we wanted to get the hell out of there and only ended up visiting only the Ellora caves. We have heard that the Ajanta caves are extraordinary to see and we look forward to visiting them on our next trip to India!   The trip to Ellora will take you the greater part of a day and make sure to bring with you lots of water and your picture perfect smiles because if your experience is like ours you’ll be getting your picture taken with school kids all day long.  We felt like movie stars!  We spent the greater part of an hour at the Kailasa Temple posing with various groups of kids or families (most wanted individual pictures and then group shots).  LOL.  Pretty funny but tiring as you finish one set of photos, are ready to walk away when the next group or family gets their courage up to ask you if you can pose with them. 

We have to give a special thank you for the creators of a wonderful website we found that allowed us to book our bus out of Aurangabad: www.redbus.in.  This website not only allows you to book your own bus rather than going through a travel agent but it also provides you with pictures of the buses and user reviews.  A fantastic tool for those traveling in India!

For more pictures of this amazing place please click HERE (password: caves1).

view of some of the smaller Hindu caves

incredible detail inside one of the Hindu caves

not a stone left un-chiseled - check out the lotus flower on the ceiling!

walking towards the Buddhist caves

from the inside looking out at the serene surroundings

tuk tuk's waiting patiently at some of the farther away caves

one of the more unique carvings

chilling at a temple entrance in one of the caves

another beautiful mural on a cave wall

one of the more ornate Buddhist caves - the ceiling is mind blowing in person

a little burnt out and low energy half-way through the day