1. AJANTA AND ELLORA
My partner and I left Dharamsala and traveled south to the interior Indian state of Maharashtra to visit the man-made caves of Ajanta and Ellora, which are architectural marvels of the world. The resident caves were carved into the side of a 250 foot high volcanic rock cliff which is horseshoe shaped around the Waghora River gorge. It was possible to imagine myself as a 2nd Century BC merchant welcoming the opportunity to stay in one of the cave temple monasteries while on my trading ventures. I would have been happy to support the Buddhist monks who took up residence there.
Those travelers had the opportunity to observe the artists painting the frescos on the worship hall walls (as we had in Dharamsala) and perhaps gain merit as they walked around the carvers of the columns, stupas and sculptures in the numerous niches and alcoves. The art of many centuries was preserved there: each of the 26 caves housed a representation of the Buddha, either in painting or carving.
We studied seated Buddhas with hands positioned in teaching mudras, hair in a topknot, which was often jeweled (a “cranial bump” representing expanded wisdom). There were images of the spiritual rebirths of the Buddha, but also a profusion of secular motifs: beautiful murals which portrayed well-formed, uninhibited females with elongated eyes and ample adornment. On the ceilings were decorative floral and ornamental motifs, flying figures of celestial beings, deer, pigeons, hawks, peacocks, golden geese, pink elephants and fighting bulls. Around one corner was a monkey, around another, a mad elephant: so many symbols with so many meanings to fuel my imagination (or better still, enhance spiritual vigor).
Protected from the monsoon rains and sharing the cool darkness of the cave interior, the frescos that the monks painted and the images they sculpted are preserved and maintained at this UNESCO Heritage Site. As I look at today’s websites revealing the magic of this site (which was discovered accidentally in 1819), I can only marvel that at the time we visited in 1992, we were practically alone in the caves, without fences, without guards, without kiosks – silent and spacious. The whole ambiance was reverent. It felt right to go deep into the caves and walk through the chambers, praying and hearing the echo of our voices as we chanted “Om mani padme hum.”
“It’s colossal! Incredible!” was all I could say as we entered Cave 26 and saw the seven meter (23 foot) sculpted reclining Buddha. His head, which was bigger than my entire adult body curled in a fetal position, was resting on a pillow with his eyes closed. As a rendition of his last illness, the esteemed one, about to enter Parinirvana, was surrounded by a group of kings, queens and monks who mourned while celestials rejoiced. It was recorded as being carved between 600-800 AD.
Equally incredible was how Cave 26 was aligned to the East. As we moved into the enclosure, I attempted to visualize what it would be like to be standing there at dawn of the summer solstice when the sculpture of the seated Buddha within an elevated stupa would be illuminated by the rising sun. Cave 19 contained another stupa and Buddha statue, this one aligned with the rising sun of the winter solstice. Imagine the whole cave illuminated at these two times of the year (as if our present experience wasn’t enough of a wonder of the world!).
Satiated, almost overwhelmed with it all, we ended our visit at the mouth of Cave 16, famous for its ceiling which carried the contour of beams and rafters which were rock-cut so as to appear wooden. After getting a good view of the river from this vantage point, we headed down the slope to the entrance gate. I let Joe know how much I appreciated his taking me there and introducing me to the beauty of the antiquities.
“And there is more,” Joe said, as he hinted at another temple near Ellora we were yet to visit.
The next day was even more intriguing. Was I really there? Was I so blessed? The most dramatic of all was the Kailasa Temple, the “greatest excavated architectural wonder of the world.” Rock-cut, life-sized, three dimensional elephants greeted us on either side of the entrance of the Kailasa Temple, which was almost twice the area and height of the Athens Parthenon. Perhaps we should have flown over the wondrous monument dedicated to Lord Shiva first, as it was said to be visible even from space.
Was this free-standing Hindu temple created by a culture more evolved than modern society (or perhaps one aided by aliens)? I could only imagine the advanced skills and more “know-how” than chisels, hammers, pickaxes and shovels necessary to carve this perfectly engineered two story structure from the top down out of a solid volcanic rock hillside. How did they carry away the 400,000 tons of cut-off rock?
From the tour book, I read this: “Kailasa is a monolithic temple, unsurpassed as the largest and most grandiose of such monuments in India. It is an imitation of a constructed building, complete in its external elevation, from basement to tower, and consisting of sequences of internal spaces, from triple open porches and connecting bridges to enclosed shrines. In an inversion of structural practice, it had to be cut out of solid rock from top to bottom, which demanded a deep trench on four sides to expose the massive block of solid rock no less than 33 meters high, which was then chiseled into a semblance of architectural form.”
Sculpture is my art form of choice and I couldn’t have been happier with this day’s exploration of the interior of the temple as well. The guardians of the four directions and the river goddesses appeared at the gateway to the complex. Durga greeted me on the right with Ganesha on the left in the passageway. On one of the panels, elephants were busy bathing Lakshmi, who was seated in a lotus pool. Narrative friezes revealed the gods and goddesses battling with buffalo and elephant demons and monkey armies, along with plenty of attendant maidens and lounging amorous couples. A dancing eight-armed Shiva was carved on a ceiling. A lingam rested on a circular pedestal. Ravana shook Mount Kailash. Shiva and Parvati played dice.
We came back the next day to explore as much as we could of the 34 other caves. Always recognized as a holy spot, these mountainside sites extended in a north-south line and were representative of three religions: Caves 1-12 were Buddhist, Caves 13-29 were Hindu monuments, and Caves 30-33 were Jain excavations. I spent a great deal of time in front of a wonderful sculpture of the Buddha under the banyan tree, vowing to myself that I would get to Bodhgaya to visit the site of that representation of his enlightenment experience. We ended our visit outside the caves, resting in the monsoon greenery, delighting in the waterfalls and rock pools, thrilled with what we had shared.
Excerpt from the Laurel Ann Francis memoir – Bourgeois To Buddha : My Trials and Errors Across Four Continents – available online at all the usual locations including Ebay, Barnes&Noble and https://tinyurl.com/yrud63tf
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