Elephanta Caves are the great tourist attraction in the vicinity of the large Mumbai metropolis. The Elephanta Island is located 10 km away from the Gateway of India at Mumbai city. These caves have rock cut temples dating back to the 5th century. The Elephanta Island can be accessed only by boat. Ferry rides are available from the Gateway of India and it takes just 15 mins to reach the Elephanta Island. It is one of the most thrilling ride as the boat cruise up and down the wavy sea making it a life time experience.
The Elephanta Island was so named by the Portuguese, after the statue of an elephant close to the landing area of the island. These rock cut temples dedicated to Shiva Mahadeva are rich in its exotic sculptural content. There are 3 entrances provided to this temple. The eastern and the western entrances denote the axis of the temple. There is a 20 pillared hall that lines the axis, and on its western end is a chamber in which a Shivalingam enshrined. Along with this image there are splendid sculptured images of Kalyanasundara, Gangadhara, Ardhanariswara and Uma Maheswara on the southern wall. Other sculptured images of Nataraja and andhakaasuravadamoorthy are to the west of the northern entrance and the images of Yogishwara and Ravanaanugrahamurthy are to its east. Motorboats pickup passengers from Appollo Bunder near the Gateway of India.
Once known as Puri - later Gharapuri - this island was the proud capital of a coastal kingdom and the great cave shrine in praise of Shiva, excavated in the sixth century, added to the ruling dynasty. Several centuries later the Portugese took control of the island. They discovered the monolithic stone elephant at the place where they landed and also named this as ilha do elephanta, island of the elephant. There was a stone horse too, a little further, which has vanished without any clue.
These rock cut temples were created by carving out rock, and creating the columns, the internal spaces and the images. The entire temple is similar to a gigantic sculpture, through whose corridors and chambers one can walk. The whole structure was created through a process of rock removal. Some of the rock surfaces are highly finished while some are unprocessed bare rock.
The cave temple, which is the pride of Elephanta caves, sprawled over an area of about 5000 square meters, is reached by hiking a flight of more than 100 steps, to the top of a hill. Inside the temple, is a large pillared hall that appears to hold up the roof of the cave.
The Cross beams complete the illusion of a ceiling. One's attention is immediately drawn to the series of stunning sculptured panels, nine in all, which are set like tableaux on the walls. Only little facts are known about the architects and sculptors, who worked on this gem of ancient architecture. Each of the panel captures the volatility of Shiva's essentially ironic nature, and the magical interplay of light and shade, only intensifies the overall effect.
Cheers,
The Techmechanic
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