{"id":97460,"date":"2026-11-04T08:31:12","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T00:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=97460"},"modified":"2026-11-04T08:31:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T00:31:12","slug":"ellora-and-ajanta-the-history-and-mystery-of-indias-ancient-cave-temples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=97460","title":{"rendered":"Ellora and Ajanta: the history and mystery of India\u2019s ancient cave-temples"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The view of the Kailasa Temple from above takes my breath away \u2013 and I am not referring just to the huffing and puffing of the climb to the top of the hillock that overlooks this 8th century marvel.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Its sheer scale and significance seen from on high make me literally gasp in wonder. In an archaeological complex strewn with ancient Buddhist, Jain and Hindu temples, this one \u2013 dedicated to the Hindu destroyer god, Shiva \u2013 is the show-stopper.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">It\u2019s the middle of the monsoon season in central India and I have plodded along the rough stone pathways elsewhere at the Ellora Caves complex in incessant, if mild, morning showers. But any discomfort is forgotten when I look down upon this 1,200-year-old temple that was carved top-down out of solid basalt rock.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-d3pq8q e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-bjn8wh e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The Kailasa Temple, at the Ellora complex. Photo: Getty Images\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/10\/26\/5375a9c0-da6e-4589-af9a-2ef723333e04_c0fcd250.jpg\" title=\"The Kailasa Temple, at the Ellora complex. Photo: Getty Images\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1bj5zno e1gf69pb1\">The Kailasa Temple, at the Ellora complex. Photo: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">That\u2019s worth repeating; this temple \u2013 with its central shrine, multi-storey gateway, assembly halls, free-standing pillars, life-size elephant statues and surrounding side galleries \u2013 was not built from the ground up, but hewn into shape from the top, slowly, painstakingly over the course of many years. It is estimated that more than 200,000 tonnes of rock were chiselled by hand to create the basic shapes, to which carvings and flourishes were later added. Measuring 30 metres in height, 90 metres in length and 53 metres in width, this is the world\u2019s largest monolithic structure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/postmag\/travel\/article\/3372148\/ellora-and-ajanta-history-and-mystery-indias-ancient-cave-temples\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><br \/>\n<center><script>\n  atOptions = {\n    'key' : 'ab8cc34fbebd96e6c135978b4baca540',\n    'format' : 'iframe',\n    'height' : 90,\n    'width' : 728,\n    'params' : {}\n  };\n<\/script><br \/>\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highrevenueformat.com\/ab8cc34fbebd96e6c135978b4baca540\/invoke.js\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The view of the Kailasa Temple from above takes my breath away \u2013 and I am not referring just to the huffing and puffing of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4840],"tags":[32398,5434,32399,32397,2284,12315,2388],"class_list":["post-97460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-globetrotting","tag-ajanta","tag-ancient","tag-cavetemples","tag-ellora","tag-history","tag-indias","tag-mystery","wpcat-4840-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/97461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}