Elephanta Caves
The Elephanta Caves form a collection of cave temples predominantly dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva; UNESCO has designated them as a World Heritage Site. They are located on Elephanta Island, or Gharapuri, in Mumbai Harbour, east of Mumbai in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The island, about west of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port, features five Hindu caves, a few Buddhist stupa mounds that date back to the 2nd century BCE, and two Buddhist caves with water tanks.
The Elephanta Caves contain rock-cut stone sculptures, mostly in high relief, that show a syncretism of Hindu—Buddhist ideas and iconography. The caves are hewn from solid basalt rock. Apart from a few exceptions, much of the artwork has been defaced and damaged. The main temple's orientation as well as the relative location of other temples form a mandala pattern. The carvings narrate Hindu legends, with the large monolithic Trimurti Sadashiva, Nataraja and Yogishvara being the most celebrated.
These date to the between the 5th and 9th centuries CE, and scholars attribute them to various Hindu dynasties. They are most commonly placed between the 5th and 7th centuries. Many scholars consider them to have been completed by about 550 CE.
They were named Elefante—which morphed to "Elephanta"—by the colonial Portuguese who found elephant statues in the caves. The Portuguese, established a base on the island. The main cave was a Hindu place of worship until the Portuguese arrived, whereupon the island ceased to be an active place of worship. The earliest attempts to prevent further damage to the caves were started by British India officials in 1909. The Indian government restored the monuments in the 1970s., the site is maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India.
Geography
, or Gharapuri, is about east of the Gateway of India in the Mumbai Harbour, and less than west of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port. The island covers about at high tide, and about at low tide. The island has volcanic origins and was formed during an eruptive sequence of the Deccan Traps volcanic province during the latest Cretaceous or earliest Paleocene. Gharapuri is a small village on the south side of the island. The Elephanta Caves are connected by ferry services from the Gateway of India, Mumbai, between 9 a.m. and 2 a.m. daily, except Monday, when the Caves are closed. Mumbai has a major domestic and international airport, as well as being connected to the Indian Railways.The island is in length with two hills that rise to a height of about. A narrow, deep ravine separates the two hills and runs from north to south. On the west, the hill rises gently from the sea and stretches east across the ravine and rises gradually to the extreme east to a height of. Forest growth, with clusters of mango, tamarind, and karanj trees cover the hills with scattered palm trees. The foreshore is made up of sand and mud with mangrove bushes on the fringe. Landing quays sit near three small hamlets known as Set Bunder in the north-west, Mora Bunder in the northeast, and Gharapuri or Raj Bunder in the south.
There are five rock-cut caves on the western hill and a brick stupa on the eastern hill. The eastern hill has two Buddhist mounds and is called the Stupa Hill. Close to the five western hill caves, are Cave 6 and 7 on the eastern hill. The most visited and significant cave is on the western hill and is called Cave 1 or the Great Cave, located about a kilometre walk up a steep graded uphill. The Elephanta island is a protected monument area as per the requirements of UNESCO. A notification was issued by the Government of India in 1985 declaring a buffer zone that outlines "a prohibited area" that stretches from the shoreline.
Description
The island has two groups of rock-cut caves, hewn from solid basalt rock. The larger group of caves, which consists of five caves on the western hill of the island, is well-known for its Hindu sculptures. The primary cave, numbered as Cave 1, is about up a hillside, facing the Mumbai harbour. Caves 2 through 5 are next to Cave 1 further southeast, arranged in a row. Cave 6 and 7 are about northeast of Cave 1 and 2, but geologically on the edge of the eastern hill.The two hills are connected by a walkway. The eastern hill is also called the Stupa Hill, while the western hill is called the Canon Hill, reflecting their historic colonial-era names, the ancient Stupa and the Portuguese era firing Canons they host respectively.
All the caves are rock-cut temples that together have an area of. At their most elaborate, they have a main chamber, two lateral chambers, courtyards, and subsidiary shrines, but not all are so fully developed. Cave 1 is the largest and is deep from the front entrance to the back. The temple complex is primarily the abode of Shiva, depicted in widely celebrated carvings, which narrate legends and theologies of Shaivism. However, the artwork reverentially displays themes from the Shaktism and Vaishnavism traditions of Hinduism as well.
Cave 1: Main, Great Cave
The main cave, also called Cave 1, Grand Cave, or the Great Cave, is square in plan with a hall. The basic plan of the cave can be traced back to the plan of the ancient Buddhist viharas, consisting of a square court surrounded by cells, built about 500 to 600 years earlier in India. The Cave has several entrances, the main entrance is unassumingly small and hides the grand hall inside. The main entrance faces north, while two side entrances face east and west. The cave's main entrance is aligned with the north–south axis, unusual for a Shiva shrine. However, inside is an integrated square plan Linga shrine that is aligned east–west, opening to the sunrise.Layout:
1. Ravananugraha
2. Shiva-Parvati, Mount Kailash
3. Ardhanarishvara
4. Sadashiva Trimurti
5. Gangadhara
6. Wedding of Shiva
7. Shiva slaying Andhaka
8. Nataraja
9. Yogishvara
16. Linga
East Wing Shrine
10. Kartikeya
11. Matrikas
12. Ganesha
13. Dvarapala
West Wing Shrine
14. Yogishvara
15. Nataraja
To reach the main cave, a visitor or pilgrim has to walk up 120 steep steps from the ticket counter, which can be reached from the pier/beach by walking on a footpath or by taking the tourist toy train. At the main entrance are four pillars, with three open porticoes and an aisle at the back. Pillars, six in each row, divide the hall into a series of smaller chambers. The roof of the hall has concealed beams supported by stone columns joined together by capitals.
The temple is enclosed in the cave, it has interior walls but no exterior wall. The pillars create space and symmetric rhythm as they support the weight of the hill above. The main mandapa recesses into a pillared vestibule on the south side, while a pillared portico connects it to the main entrance. Embedded within the Great Cave are dedicated shrines, the largest of which is the square plan Linga shrine. It is a square garbha-griya with four entrances, located in the right section of the main hall. Steps lead from the four doorways into the sanctum, which has a linga in the mulavigraha style. Each doorway is guarded by a dvarapala on each side, for a total of eight dvarapalas, their heights spanning floor to the ceiling. These were badly damaged when the Portuguese ceded control of this region to the British. The linga shrine is surrounded by a mandapa and circumambulation path as in other Hindu temples. The pillars are similarly aligned east–west to this shrine and have an east entrance. Overlaid, as if fused, on the architecture of this temple is another open temple aligned to the north–south direction with three faced Sadashiva as its focal centre. One features the abstract, unmanifest, aniconic symbol of Shiva, the other anthropomorphic, manifest, iconic symbol of Shiva. The mandapa pillars of the two align up.
The northern entrance to the cave is flanked by two panels of Shiva dated to the Gupta period, both damaged. The left panel depicts Yogishvara and the right shows Nataraja. The Sadashiva is flanked by two large friezes, one of Ardhanarishvara and the other of Gangadhara. The walls of the mandapa feature other Shaivism legends. All the friezes, states Stella Kramrisch, feature the concept of Samkhya, where the state of spiritual existence transitions between the unmanifest-manifest, the figures leap out of the cave walls towards the spectator as if trying to greet the narrative. Even the manifested Sadashiva is shown to be rising out of the rocks.
Each wall has large carvings of Shiva-related legends, each more than in height. The central Shiva relief Trimurti is located on the south wall opposite the main entrance. Also called the Sadashiva, it is the iconic form of a pancamukha linga is set in a mandala pattern with the abstract linga form of Shiva. The Sadashiva is a colossal carving, a bit over, depicting Tatpurusha, Aghora, Vamadeva and Sadyojata. The carving is unusual because the standard ancient Hindu texts for murti design state that the Tatpursha should face east, but in Elephanta it is the north face.
Smaller shrines are located at the east and west ends of the caves. The eastern sanctuary serves as a ceremonial entrance, and its shrine shows iconography of Shaktism tradition.
Sadashiva: Trimurti
The Trimurti is considered a masterpiece and the most important sculpture in the caves. It is carved in relief on the south wall of the cave facing the north entrance, along the north–south axis. It is also known as Sadashiva and Maheshmurti. The image, in height, depicts a three-headed Shiva, representing Panchamukha Shiva.The three heads represent three essential aspects of Shiva: creation, protection, and destruction. As per another version, the three heads symbolise compassion and wisdom. The right half-face shows him holding a lotus bud, depicting the promise of life and creativity. This face is symbolism for Brahma, the creator or Uma or Vamadeva, the feminine side of Shiva and creator. The left half-face is that of a moustached young man. This is Shiva as the terrifying Aghora or Bhairava, the chaos creator and destroyer. This is also known as Rudra-Shiva, the Destroyer. The central face, benign and meditative Tatpurusha, resembles the preserver Vishnu. This is the Shiva form as the "master of positive and negative principles of existence and preserver of their harmony". The three-headed Shiva are his creator, preserver and destroyer aspects in Shaivism. They are equivalently symbolism for Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma, they being equivalent of the three aspects found in Shaivism.