11/17/11
From Mumbai, we flew NE for 45 minutes to Aurangabad, a town of 1.7 million. Our hotel for the next two nights was pleasant and comfortable….a change from the opulence of Udaipur and Mumbai. Our purpose for coming to this town was to be within driving distance of two sets of caves, both UNESCO World Heritage sites–Ellora, 15 miles to the northwest and Ajanta, 65 miles to the north east. I had read about the caves and thought they would be interesting to visit and they were…even better than I hoped.
We make the news in Aurangabad
On the morning of November 14 we started out heading for Ellora. Before getting out of Aurangabad, we saw a group of people in front of a statue of Nehru. Our Sikh guide, Tedu, told us it was Nehru’s birthday aw well as Children’s Day. We stopped to take a photo of the scene and the next thing we know we were part of it. Everyone insisted we get into the center of the image. I was handed a rose, Nehru’s favorite flower, and soon many cameras were clicking away. Then the professional photographer arrived and we all posed again for him. Men and women were raising their hands and shouting “Long live the spirit of Nehru”. Why not? I had no objection to his spirit. Then the photographer asked for our names and said we might be in the paper the next day. We laughed, shook hands with everyone and resumed our trip to Ellora.
Mark and several Ellora Caves
There are 34 hand hewn caves at Ellora dating from 500AD to 1100AD. The volcanic basalt rock foothill they are carved from is in roughly a wavy line facing south over a distance of 3 kilometers. They were carved with only chisels and hammers by Mahayan Buddhists (idol worshipers who carved images of Buddha), 5-700AD, Hindus, 757-900AD and Jains, 9-1100AD.
Hindu Cave 16, the largest and all out of one monolithic stone
All the sculptures were created by carving from the top down. Tremendous skill and team work was needed to layout the architecture and cut the stone to create rooms, columns, arches, sculptures and firezes so that every temple and carving was done perfectly to scale and balance from one monolithic stone. Nothing was carved separately and added later. Hard to believe when you look at the angel shown here.
Relief of angel in Hindu Cave 16
Several of the caves are only partially finished, but the handful of finished temples and dwellings are awesome. The work would be difficult to accomplish today let alone centuries ago with so few tools. These incredible edifices make the carved churches we have seen in Lalibella, Ethiopia look like child’s play.
Temple inside Cave 16. Elephants appear to be holding it up.
The caves were located on ancient trade routes which had connections with countries like Afghanistan, Iran, Greece and Rome. The impact of architectural styles from these countries can be found in some of the cave structures.
Cave 10, Buddhist. Ceiling carved to look like wooden beams.
Ellora is particularly known for its detailed sculpture panels. Some of the caves are carved to look like they were made with wooden beams. These caves were always known and occupied by local tribes, even after the monks abandoned the site in about 1100AD.
Children on field trip to Caves
While there we encountered several school groups on field trips and could not resist taking numerous photos of the children. The kids and other Indian tourists, combined with the impressive sculptures to result in our planned two hour visit turning into nearly four hours. Even Mark thought it was worth the time.
Back at the hotel, we went for a swim, cleaned up and joined our local agent, Mahendra, for dinner and a ride in his new Nano. He chose the restaurant, but the food was not very good. Thankfully, we did not get sick. We did have a nice conversation with him about Indian and American politics. He was quite passionate about the subject and very pro Obama, as are most of the Indians with whom we have talked on the subject. It was fun to ride in the Nano, although I would not want to own one—it felt a little too small and fragile
Typical traffic scene in rural India
The next day, Teju met us at 8am so we could get an early start on the 64 mile, two hour drive to Ajanta. The roads are so badly rutted and full of trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, animals and pedestrians that 30 klicks per hour is about top speed everywhere in the country. On this ride we asked Teju, a Sikh man, to tell us about his religion as we knew nothing except that all Sikhs wear turbans. He told us a many things and the time flew by.
Mark and Teju, our cave guide
The first Sikh prophet, Guru Nanak, was born in 1469 in Punjab, an area that is now in Pakistan. He was spiritual from an early age, gave much food to the poor, became an early reformist against the caste system and promoted equality for all people including women. He gradually developed a small following through his preachings: there is only one god and the best way to serve God is to serve other human beings; always remember the divine in everything you do; earn an honest living; and share your earnings with your neighbor. He wanted to do away with the many Hindu rituals as they did not help people, but cost a lot of time and money. He died in 1539 at the age of 70.
One of his followers became the 2nd prophet and slowly the sect grew in numbers. The 10th prophet, Guru Govind, lived during the 17th century. He gathered his followers, about 100,000 by then, and gave them all a new middle name, “Singh”, which means “lion”, and told them to defend thair faith with the strength of a lion. He announced that he was to be the final prophet and wanted them all to be like him both spiritually and physically as much as possible. That, he told them, was the wish of the divine soul or Akal Purakh, which means “A being beyond time”. So all Sikhs have 5 “K”s or things they must have with them always: Kash–long hair and beard; Kanga–a small wooden comb; Kara–an iron bracelet on the right wrist to remind you of God; Kirpan–a small dagger for defense and protection of the weak and oppressed; and Kuccha–an undergarment that goes to the knees. They are also supposed to pray 5 times a day, but not in a formal way as the Muslims do. Teju considers himself a moderate follower. He does not carry the dagger, wear the undergarment or pray except once a day.
The Guru also revised and updated the holy book that had been compiled over the years from the teachings of the 10 prophets and a few Hindu and Islamic saints and gave it to his followers with instructions that this book was to be their spiritual guide and that they should not worship any of the prophets. The book is treated like a living soul. It has 1430 pages printed in Gurmukhi script.
Sikhs believe in reincarnation. Once a being is born human, that is expected to be his last incarnation. He must live a life of good deeds and be without sin to achieve “eternal happiness” when he dies. If he dies in sin, he must relive life as every creature on earth, over 8.4 billion, before being reborn a human again.
Although Sikhs do not have any holy days, they do congregate in their temples on Sunday mornings for 1 1/2 hours to pray, read from the book and sing hymns. Their temples have a dome and a tall, slender mast that is covered in saffron colored fabric. The interiors are unadorned except for the center where the holy book is kept. Today only 2 % of the Indian population is Sikh and most of them are in Punjab. Teju had no idea how many live abroad.
Ajanta's horseshoe cave complex above the Waghora River
Finally, we arrived at Ajanta. Here the 29 caves were made only by Buddhists from the 2nd century BC to the 6th Century AD. Both sects, Hinayan (who do not believe in idol worship) and Mahayan, made separate temples and monasteries. These caves are set in the middle of a steep horseshoe shaped rock and are continuous within one kilometer. Below the caves is the Waghora River that follows the bend in the rock and provided water for the dwellers and workers.
Bodhisatva Padmapani, a world famous painting
Here too, not all the caves are finished, but the finished ones are splendid with remarkably preserved frescos as well as sculptures. This cave system was lost for many centuries and only “discovered” in 1819, when a British captain, John Smith, glimpsed one of the caves while on a hunting trip.
Painting of drunk couple with watchers in the window, Cave 17
As no one had defaced them, the only damage was due to debris built up over time while the Ellora caves were damaged by people living in them. The frescos in four of the caves really captured our attention.
Sleeping Buddha in Ajanta Cave 26
They are all kept in the dark and no flash is allowed so it was difficult to see and photograph the scenes, but I tried and have a few images that show the beautiful, artistic creations. Hopefully these images will give you a sense of the places.
Adventures with Julia 