The Kailasa Temple at the Ellora Caves - Possibly the most stunning site in India

 


The Kailasa Temple at the Ellora Caves, in my opinion, is the most stunning temple in India. It is remarkably big in size and it all had been carved out of a single piece of rock. All along the long rocky hill-side you'll find many other caves and monolithic buildings - in fact, too many to publish them all in one post. Geographically, the Kailasa Temple divides the caves into two big groups, one consisting mostly of Buddhist sites (caves 1-15), the other being Hindu and Jain (caves 17-34). (You can also group them according to religion, as in the list below.) It's a rather big area and you can take electric shuttles (at extra cost) between the different points. If you walked all along the long ridge from the first to the last temples, it is convenient to get back. 

This post presents the Kailasa Temple, which is right in front of the main entrance area. I thought you were not supposed to walk up the cliff above the temple, and first I didn't, but later when I saw crowds of people do it, I joined them. I walked up on the right (south) and walked down on the left (north). 

In 1992, when I first visited Ellora, there were no ticket office or any infrastructure and I was alone in the whole site. But I didn't realise then how extensive the whole site was, how many caves there were altogether. 

Map of Ellora Caves


I. Entrance and Kailasa Temple (cave 16); II. Buddhist sites (caves 1-15 ); III. Hindu and Jain sites (caves 17-34).

Buddhist Caves (Caves 1–12)
A series of monastic viharas and chaitya halls, dating from the 5th–8th centuries CE, primarily Mahayana:

Cave 1 – Early vihara
Cave 2 – Vihara
Cave 3–9 – Viharas (smaller monastery cells)
Cave 10 – Visvakarma (“Carpenter’s Cave”), notable chaitya hall
Cave 11 – Vihara
Cave 12 – Teen-tala (“Three-storey vihara”), largest Buddhist cave

Hindu Caves (Caves 13–29)
Constructed between the 7th–10th centuries CE under Rashtrakuta patrons, these feature both temple-shrines and pillared halls:

Cave 13 – Smaller Shiva shrine
Cave 14 – “Ravana-ki-khai” (Smaller Shiva shrine)
Cave 15 – Dashavatara (Ten Incarnations of Vishnu)
Cave 16 – Kailasa Temple, the largest monolithic temple dedicated to Shiva
Caves 17–29 – Other numbered caves and several minor shrines, including:
Cave 21 – Ramesvara
Cave 29 – Dumar Lena

Jain Caves (Caves 30–34)
Later caves (9th–11th centuries CE), representing exquisite Jain craftsmanship:

Cave 30 – Chhota Kailash
Cave 31 – Unfinished four-pillared hall
Cave 32 – Indra Sabha (temple hall reminiscent of Kailasa scale)
Cave 33 – Jagannatha Sabha (two-storey shrine with five sanctuaries)
Cave 34 – Final cave with small Tirthankara shrine





















































































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