We group of 10 travelled to Aurangabad. Dec 27 to Dec 30.....Ajanta caves were a long drive. The mini bus was very jerky. the roads were bad...about 125 km from aurangabad. We started climbing up at about 1 pm. some of the people in our group got exhausted. but some of us continued. Some caves were important. luckily for a few caves we got a guide. The mahanaya branch of buddhism where they worship the idol of Buddha was evident in these caves. This must have been before the 7th century when buddhism was florishing, before the hindu wave squashed the buddhist movement. The statue of Buddha was evident in many of the caves. there were meditation rooms for the buddhist monks. Buddha's hands were in pravachan or preaching mudra, or bhoomi mudra or meditation mudra. or blessing mudra. the caves were abandoned and rediscovered in 19th century by the british. who excavated and cleaned them up for tourists.
The Ajanta caves are truly marvelous in their intricacy. its truly amazing how the buddhist monks carved these sculptures. Cave 26 had a 24 feet sleeping buddha. There was a cave with the visuals of the jataka tales, stories of the different incarnations of Buddha as a monkey, elephant, etc. One cave had painting of these beautiful jewelry worn by women. These paintings are iconic and popular as arts in cloth for adorning homes.
The next day we went to the Ellora caves, which are closer to Aurangabad. The highlight of the Ellora caves is a beautiful monolith, carved from top downwards. Its a hindu temple of Shiva. The linga broke and was cemented back but because of that it cannot be used as a temple for pooja, any more. Pictoral depiction of the Ramayana and Mahabharatha were there. Hindu caves are not used for meditation or staying, unlike the Ajanta caves, where the monks lived.
the Ellora caves consist of buddhist, hindu and jain caves. We visited the hindu caves, mainly.
The caves we visited had Shiva and Parvati, Gajalakshmi...Natraja....
On the second day, apart from the Ellora caves we also visited Daulatabad fort and the Grishneswar temple ( Jothirlinga temple)
On the final day we visited panchakki, bibi ka maqbara (Mini Tajmahal) and some temples.
Panchakki- A sufi saint built a earthen pipe to bring water to this place from 6 km away. The water runs a turbine to make a flour chakki rotate. the first chakki ground 80 kgs atta per day. the later one 160 kgs of atta. The place has a dining hall to feed people which is cooled by water on the roof. Now abandoned
The people in our group had a tough time walking to all the places.
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