Author: Benoy K. Behl
Publication: Frontline
Date: February 2-15, 2008
URL: http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20080215250306500.htm
Ellora, near Aurangabad in Maharashtra, witnessed
the culmination of more than a thousand years of the rock-cutting tradition.
The rock-cut caves of India are one of the
most magnificent traditions in art. In ancient times, palaces of kings and
buildings made in the service of ephemeral personalities were made of perishable
materials such as wood. That which was made for the Eternal within us, to
aid us on our journey towards self-realisation, was carved out of the heart
of the mountain.
In the 3rd century B.C., Emperor Asoka and
his grandson Dasratha made caves near Barabar in Bihar for the Ajivikas, a
deeply ascetic sect. Thus began a great tradition that lasted up to the 10th
century A.D. Hundreds of magnificent rock-cut caves were chiselled out of
the hills of the Western Ghats, the Krishna Valley, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and
other places. The site of Ellora, on the outskirts of the city of Aurangabad
in Maharashtra, witnessed the grand culmination of more than a thousand years
of the rock-cutting tradition. From the 6th century A.D. up to the 10th century
A.D., the last caves to be made for the Buddhist, Hindu and Jaina faiths were
created here. Thirty-five caves were cut out of the western face of an outcrop
of the Sahyadari hills.
The caves of the three faiths were made in
overlapping periods, and as everywhere in ancient India, this demonstrates
the generous attitude of rulers towards the worship of all divinities. As
with other sites, the caves at Ellora were created on a trade route, in this
case one heading from nearby Paithan to Ujjain in central India.
One of Ellora's earliest excavations is Cave
21, a Brahmanical cave - called the Ramesavara - of the second half of the
6th century. Nandi, the bull Siva rides, sits devotedly outside with its gaze
fixed on the Siva Linga in the sanctum inside. The cave has some of the most
refined sculptures of Ellora. These include shalabhanjikas as bracket figures
inside the cave and river goddesses on the outside. These represent the fertility
and abundance of nature and continue the earliest themes of Indic art.
On panels upon the walls are larger-than-life
scenes depicting Siva. These include a fine one that shows Siva and Parvati
engaged in a game of dice. In the Indian tradition, deities are made like
human beings. There are depictions of their family life and their emotions.
This makes it easy for devotees to relate to them. The deities are, after
all, personifications of the ideas and qualities in each of us. There are
ganas rollicking and playing at Siva's feet. They are mischievous, and one
of them is even shown biting the tail of Nandi. These depictions create a
sense of the entirety of the world. Even as we look upon Siva, we are not
to forget frolicsome creatures, which are a part of the rich tapestry of life.
The cave has one of the finest depictions
of Nataraja, Siva in his cosmic dance. With both knees bent, the figure is
imbued with dynamic movement and yet is fluid and graceful. And even with
all the movement, the face conveys a sense of stillness and sublime peace.
Cave 29 of the late 6th century is similar
in plan to the great Siva cave at Elephanta and, as in that cave, Siva is
presented in a grand setting. The scale of the excavation is truly breathtaking,
and the sculpted panels of Siva are the most dramatic. The human being is
dwarfed by the colossal representations of the deity. In the same period,
the earliest Brhad, or colossal, Buddha figures were made. These began in
the Buddhist tradition at Kanheri and Ajanta.
The Buddhist caves at Ellora were made in
the 7th century. These are the largest Buddhist excavations to be carried
out in India. They also reflect the developments that had been taking place
in iconography. From the simple ethical messages of the original teachings,
the doctrine had become much more complex. The qualities required for enlightenment
had been studied in great detail and personified in a large number of deities.
A graded path towards the Truth was evolved through deities who personified
the attributes of the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha. The devotee meditated
upon these to imbibe fully the quality personified and become the deity himself.
He would then proceed further on the illumined path towards the peace at the
centre.
Cave 10 is the last Buddhist chaitya-griha
with a stupa to be excavated at Ellora. The stupa has all but disappeared
behind the figure of the Buddha, which has become much larger than it was
at Ajanta in the 5th century. The traditional large window of the chaitya
has also undergone considerable change. It has become smaller and more decorative.
Meditation and worship were now conducted
in the vast interior of Buddhist viharas. The caves were larger and more elaborate
than ever undertaken before. Cave 12 has three vast storeys, each larger than
any Buddhist excavation at earlier caves at Ajanta. The caves have many representations
of previous Buddhas, called Manushi Buddhas, and also of Dhyani Buddhas, who
represent qualities of the Enlightened One. Bodhisattvas are also depicted
in these caves. They are beings on their way to enlightenment, who help others
on the path.
With Cave 14, there is a move into the realm
of Brahmanical deities. There are magnificent panels depicting Siva, Durga,
Vishnu and Lakshmi carved on the walls of this 8th century cave. Cave 15,
of the middle of the 8th century, has some of the finest and most expressive
carvings to be found at Ellora. The cave has two floors, of which the upper
one has magnificent sculptures. The left wall has depictions of Siva made
with a dramatic intensity.
In a magnificent depiction on a wall panel,
Siva is shown killing the demon Andhakasura. On another panel, Siva as Nataraja
holds us spellbound as he performs the cosmic dance. The twist of the waist
and the swing of the arm convey the vigour and dynamic energy of the divinity,
beyond the world of mortal forms. There are also depictions of Vishnu, such
as the scene where, as part man and part lion, he kills the demon Hiranyakashyapa
The grand climax of rock-cut architecture
in India is in Cave 16, the Kailasanatha temple. This was excavated during
the reign of the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I, who ruled from A.D. 757 to A.D.
793 and had his capital at Paithan. This is the largest and most magnificent
monolithic excavation in the world. The entire hillside has been transformed
into a great temple, with structures carved on both the inside and the outside.
The scale is breathtaking: from the courtyard the temple rises over a hundred
feet (30 metres).
In concept, the Kailasanatha temple is similar
to the smaller, unfinished Vattuvankovil temple of the Pandyas at Kalugumalai
in southern Tamil Nadu. The two are roughly contemporaneous. The Kailasanatha
temple is made in the South Indian style and has many similarities with the
Virupaksha temple at Pattadakkal, which was made a few decades earlier.
The Kailasanatha temple is surely one of the
great wonders of the world. It replicates a vast, multi-storey structure,
all of it carved out of a single piece of rock. Several hundred thousand tonnes
of rock would have been carefully cut out of the heart of the mountain and
removed, all of it with precision and detailed planning. It is a wondrous
feat and possible to believe only because the result is before us.
The courtyard goes 276 feet (84.1 m) into
the heart of the rock and is 154 feet (47 m) wide. At the back, the vertical
drop from the top of the hill is 120 feet (36.6 m). The planning of the excavation
had to have been extremely sophisticated as it depended on what was cut and
removed rather than on what was added, which is the case in conventional architecture.
The art historian and scientist Sharada Srinivasan
writes: "They would probably have begun by clearing out a vast field
at the top of the cliff side, where the top of the vimana was to be. There
they would have laid out, in quite elaborate detail, all the measurements
and plans for the temple, on this vast level field. Then they would have probably
progressed by taking certain grids, perhaps of about six feet cube at each
time so that the excavators could just stand and carve out the various portions
without any need for scaffolding. As they worked, they would have used rock
bridges along the way to connect and to clear out the debris. They would have
progressed from the back of the conceived monument to the front and simultaneously
from the top to the bottom."
By now, the form of the South Indian temple
had developed considerably. According to the established norms, the Kailasanatha
temple was made in four basic units. There is a high entrance gate, or gopuram,
which screens the sacred space from the outside world. Next is a shrine of
the bull Nandi. Here at Ellora, there are also two monolithic towers flanking
the Nandi shrine. They would have originally carried the trident symbols of
Siva. On both sides, there are life-sized elephants.
In keeping with well-established tradition,
as one enters the temple, one can see a depiction of the goddess Lakshmi being
lustrated by elephants. She signifies the fertility and prosperity of the
natural world and has been seen in religious edifices in India since the 2nd
century B.C.
Beyond the Nandi shrine is the vast and looming
volume of rock that contains the large mandapa, or hall, of the temple and
the main shrine. The tower, made over the sanctum, rises to a height of 96
feet (29.3 m) from the courtyard floor. At its base, the shrine is supported
on the backs of life-sized elephants. This is a tradition that began in the
Buddhist caves of Pitalkhora in the 2nd century B.C.
The temple is made on two levels. The Nandi
mandapa, the main hall and the shrine are elevated above the floor of the
courtyard. This level is reached by stairways on either side of the assembly
hall. This heightens in devotees a sense of the wonder of the sacred. Coming
into a world created out of the heart of the mountain, they now ascend to
a more sanctified height.
The main temple complex is so magnificent
that the excavations and sculptures of the side walls do not receive the attention
they deserve. Among the masterpieces of Kailasanatha sculpture is the depiction
of Ravana shaking Mount Kailasa. He is made fully in the round and is shown
in a dramatic, deeply shadowed setting. With his multiple arms spread dynamically
about him, he attempts to shake the mountain violently.
Above the depiction of Ravana, the emotion
of Parvati, Siva's consort, is expressed by showing her fearfully clutching
Siva's arm. Her maid is seen fleeing into the background, creating an effect
of expanding space though there is actually only rock behind. Calmly and fully
in control, Siva merely presses down his toe to imprison Ravana under the
mountain below. The scene expresses the unlimited power of true knowledge.
The entire temple was originally plastered
and painted on the inside and the outside. Today, only a few paintings survive
on the ceiling of the mandapa to display traditions that continued from earlier
western Indian caves. Fragments of plaster and colour on the outer surfaces
show that there were at least three layers of paint over the centuries. A
contemporaneous copper-plate inscription states that the architect of the
temple stood before its grandeur in amazement and said, "Was it indeed
I who built this?" The record goes on to say that the gods who passed
above the temple in their celestial chariots could not believe it was the
work of mere mortals.
The 9th century saw the making of Jaina caves
at Ellora. Cave 32 is called Chota Kailasa as it is a much smaller version
of the grand Kailasanatha temple. The profusely decorated pillars are among
the finest seen anywhere. Purnaghatas, or the vases of plenty, out of which
the pillars rise, are a continuing motif in Indian art from the 1st century
A.D. caves of Bedsa onwards. The veranda has the figures of Matanga, who represents
prosperity, and Siddhaika, who represents abundance and generosity. The figures
are made in fine detail.
The cave has representations of the Jaina
tirthankaras: Mahavira, Parsvanatha and Gomatesvara. Gomatesvara is believed
to have stood still in penance and meditation for so long that creepers grew
around his legs and body. In the 10th century, a colossal statue of Gomatesvara
was made out of a large rock at Shravanabelagola in present-day Karnataka.
Surviving murals on the ceiling of the Caves 32 and 33 are very valuable as
they mark the beginnings of the stylised medieval idiom in Indian paintings.
Cave 33, known as the Jagannatha Sabha, is similar in style to Cave 32.
These caves mark the end of the great tradition
of rock-cut temples in India. For 1,200 years, sanctuaries were hewn out of
the rock. These took us far from the clamour and anxieties of the material
world. Deep in the heart of the mountain, the devotee could meditate upon
the symbols and personifications of the finest qualities within each of us.
The aim was to come out of oneself, with the realisation of the grace that
is in all of creation.
