Winter 2006: Ellora And Ajanta

The inspiration for this one was my insistence for a getaway, having seen my parents travel more than me after many years. This trip too was planned and put in place by my dad like all other trips. I have had this urge to knock off as many sites from the list of "India's World Heritage Sites". Didnt know what to expect of these places, so started of with a satisfaction that I was going to have one site less at the end of 2006(and happy to be boarding Karnataka Express again). But as it turned out, Ellora just got added to the list of places I want to keep coming back.

Getting down at Manmad we reached Aurangabad at night. Aurangabad was much bigger than I expected. Being driven around in the city I couldnt stop my mind from going back to the kind of news I had been reading about this place. Very close to our guesthouse was a circle with a Sambhaji Raje bust capturing the often reproduced tale of him slaying the tiger. But as our driver pointed out, Aurangabad is overlooked by the same hills where he was tortured for 40 harrowing days.

Our site seeing began the next day. Grushneshwar, our first stop, is probably the least visited jyotir-linga. Almost a twin brother of Bhima-shanker in architecture and atmosphere. Standing right next to Ellora, we headed there next only to be told that it was closed on Tuesdays. After some fenetic phone-calls it was confirmed that Ajanta didnt close on any weekday. For a moment I thought if this was deliberately so, afterall the place had been forgotten for a thousand years.



It was past 12 in midday when we reached Ajanta. Tucked away remotely, the caves are almost at the vertical-centre of the hills. Hot in november, not even half the tourists to this place were indian. We unintentionally followed a few sinic tourists who reminded me of what I had seen in their countries - the remainings of the buddhist forays into Japan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia etc. Ajanta is completely buddhist without being monotonous. Its beyond me to fathom the devotion of the hundreds who built it. Working in these gorges for centuries they must have lived life for a higher reason. Though most of the work is attributed to monks, it is quite impossible that it was only them. There must have been other people working, with family and children. I thought of them in disbelief. Disbelief for the kind of sway buddhism held during those times. Buddhism, which was to be reasoned out by Adi Shankara and slaughtered out by Islam.

Headed to Ellora the next day. Ellora with its equal share of Buddhist, Hindu and Jain caves has lost all its cave paintings. Just when the Bodhisattavas, Vajrapani's and Padmapani's were getting a little excessive came the Hindu pantheon in full glory. Ravana lifting Kailas (bhu-kailas), Mahishasura Mardhini, Varahavatara, Narasimhavatara form the massive, frequent depictions.



But the zenith of the genius of these builders is the Kailasnath Temple. The world's biggest rock monolith. The very sight of this massive temple had a stupefying effect on me. The rock or should I say the hill itself parts way to become the temple of the lord. The massive unsupported roof, the biggest of its kind in the world, lends shelter to the pradakshina-patha. The glory of the planning and design can be visaualized when one finds that the shiva-linga in the main garbha-griha is not a separate sculpture brought in but the part of the same hill which has been cut top-down.

Next day, 24th Nov, was my father's birthday. We travelled to Traimbakeshwar, another jyotir ling, and the birthplace of Godavari. A typical Hindu religious township, the food and lodging was most satisfying here. The temple in the backdrop of the Brahmagiri is serene. We trekked up the hill which by itself is considered as Lord Shiva, to a place where a stream bustles. Along the way down, mom asked a few Marathi ladies to sing something for us. Sitting atop the Vindhyas, listening to the folklore, I tried to imagine Shiva unleashing Ganga here. Looking at the crowd of devotees visible even from the hill top, I guess even I would have chosen this place for the river if I had the chance.