Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India

encyclopedia

ARCHITECTURE

(with about 29 caves) are major achievements of architecture,

sculpture and painting provide insight into Buddhist theory, prac-

tice and religious expression in art. The early caves date from the

2nd century B.C. to the 2nd century A.D, while the later caves are

from the 4th century to the 6th century A.D. Cave 19 is fairly se-

curely dated. The elaborate facade of the

chaitya

consists of a

number of sculptures of the Buddha, delicately posed and beauti-

fully carved which are the highest achievements of art. Among the

paintings is the famous Buddha with his begging bowl standing

before Yashodara and Rahula who asks for his inheritance. The

most impressive sculpture is the figure of Buddha's decease, Par-

inirvana, on the left side wall of cave 26.

There are other subsidiary sculptures in the cave. Some are 15

to 18 feet high. The most outstanding one is the depiction of Shiva

as Ardhanari or half-woman. The right half of the figure represents

Parvati and has its wide hip and full breast emphasized. One of her

hands holds up a mirror. The left side represents Shiva and is

straight-bodied with one hand resting on the bull Nandi. Surround-

ing the figure are various gods, each on their characteristic animal

mounts and above, them are to be seen flying gandharvas and

apsaras.

Another panel depicts the marriage of Shiva and Parvati. A third

depicts Shiva as Gangadhara or he who upheld the river Ganga.

Another portrays Shiva in an aggressive mood destroying the de-

mon Andhaka.

Around the perimeter of the cave, are a number of large reliefs

depicting aspects of Saivite iconography all set in a programmatic

way, depicting qualities of Shiva.

ELLORA

Like the

Chaitya,

the Viharas were transformed during the

Vakataka period by the creation of shrine areas at the rear of the

viharas and they were elaborately painted which is described in the

chapter on painting. Other important sites of Buddhist caves are

those at Bagh, Kanheri, Aurangabad and Ellora.

Cave architecture was especially suitable to the needs of the

Buddhist

sangha

and among the 1200 cave temples in India, 900

are Buddhist, 100 Hindu and the rest Jaina. One of the early Hindu

rock-cut caves is found at Elephanta (near Bombay) carved during

the early Kalacuri dynasty (540-555 A.D) after the collapse of

Vakatakas. The most notable is the great cave whose grandeur,

scale, sculpture and architectural conception rank it among the most

impressive of South Asian art. The cave temple on Elephanta

island is cut from a chocolate brown fine-grained sandstone, a

material that can be carved with precision and details. Three great

pillared entrances allow light to flood into the pillared interior. The

shrine, which contains a Shivalinga, also has entrances on all four

sides so that light enters the interior of the sanctum. The four en-

trances are guarded by huge sculpted door keepers.

This triple conception presents

Tatpurusha

or the supreme form

of Shiva as the central of the three faces. To the left in profile is the

skull-crowned head of Aghora-Bhairava, or Shiva in his form of

Destroyer. Balancing it on the right is the face of Parvati, the

beautiful consort of Shiva. The heads emerge from the rock within a

niche 10‘/

ft. deep. The head and shoulders rise to a height of

almost 18 ft. above a moulded base that is 3 ft. high. Like the

doorways of the main shrine, the Trinity too is flanked by guardians

measuring 13 ft. in height.

The three gigantic heads convey perfectly the impassiveness

and serenity of the supreme form of Shiva, the scowling mood of the

angry Aghora-Bhairava and the youth and peace of the face of

Parvati.

The culmination of rock-cut architecture

in South Asia is found at Ellora in cave 16,

the Kailasa temple, which is a complex with

all the essential elements of contempora-

neous free standing Southern type temple

units including a Nandi shrine, gateway,

surrounding

cloisters

and

subsidiary

shrines. General conceptual relations with

the Virupaksha temple at Pattadakal may

be observed (as well as the Kalugumalai

temple). The two stories are varied in plan

(lower one is solid). The whole temple has

been quarried, out of the hillside. The

scheme of the temple is divided into four

parts, the body of the temple itself, the en-

trance gateway, an intermediary shrine for

Shiva's bull Nandi and the pillared caves cut

into the walls of the surrounding quarry. The

lofty substantial base on which the temple

is carved has, at first sight, the appearance

of a ground storey. The deeply carved pan-

els of this base are one of the most striking

features of the temple. They consist of lions

and elephants.

The temple proper consists of a shrine preceded by a spacious

pillared hall, with further pillared hills, giving the temple a roughly

cross-like plan.

Around the sanctum are carved 5 subsidiary shrines. Over the

whole rises the stately shrine tower, reaching upto a total height of

95 ft. The Nandi shrine reaches upto a height of 50 ft. and has a pa-

vilion 20 ft. square.

On each side of the Nandi shrine is a free standing pillar 51ft.

high. The walls of the Kailasa temple are entirely covered with

scenes from

Shaiva

mythology and from the

Ramayana.

The Kailasa temple at Ellora is one of the last examples, and

probably the greatest of the rock-cut architecture of India. The

richness of carving with depiction of Shaivite and considerable

number of Vaishnavite subjects lend dramatic effect to the temple

in addition to the temple being enclosed within the mountain itself.

One of the most remarkable reliefs shows Ravana shaking Mount