Caves of India: Ajanta, Ellora & Elephanta

Destination: Aurangabad & Mumbai, India

Travel guidebook summary

Built by Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain monks as mountain retreats, India’s magnificent rock-cut sanctuaries, monasteries, and temples offer travelers an unrivaled cultural experience, transporting them back to the formative stage of art and architecture for India’s indigenous religions.

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★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Excellent guidebook
This guide selects the best 9 caves from Ajanta and the best 8 from Ellora for wonderfully clear, succinct commentary with highlighted diagrams, closeup photographs, and author’s tips to get the most from your visit. This guide was truly invaluable to helping me locate and appreciate the highlights of these beautiful and inspiring spiritual places. Bravo!

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Message from the author

“While the physical endeavor showcased in these caves — carving artistic and architectural forms out of solid rock — is difficult even to contemplate, the experience of seeing it first hand is indelible. For this guidebook, we chose to focus on the most striking features of the unfamiliar rock-cut aesthetic, pointing out similarities and differences among the three world-class sites.”

David Raezer | Founder & Author, Approach Guides

Ajanta, Ellora & Elephanta: About this Guidebook

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Guidebook Description

Built by Buddhist, Hindu and Jain monks as mountain retreats, India’s magnificent rock-cut sanctuaries, monasteries and temples offer travelers an unrivaled cultural experience, transporting them back to the formative stage of art and architecture for India’s indigenous religions.

This Approach Guide serves as an ideal companion for travelers seeking a deeper understanding of this fantastic landscape, profiling India’s three premier rock-cut religious sites: Ajanta (Buddhist), Elephanta (Hindu) and Ellora (a mixture of Buddhist, Hindu and Jain).

What’s in this guidebook

Comprehensive look at rock-cut art and architecture. We provide an overview of India’s rock-cut art and architecture, isolating trademark features that you will see again and again as you make your way through Ajanta, Elephanta and Ellora. To make things come alive, we have packed our review with high-resolution images.
A tour that goes deeper on the most important sites. Following our tradition of being the most valuable resource for culture-focused travelers, we offer detailed tours of the most impressive and representative caves at Ajanta, Elephanta and Ellora, walking step-by-step through their distinctive artistic and architectural highlights. For each, we present information on its history, a detailed plan that highlights its most important architectural and artistic features, high-resolution images and a discussion that ties it all together.
Advice for getting the best cultural experience. To help you plan your visit, this guidebook supplies logistical advice, maps and links to online resources. Plus, we give our personal tips for getting the most from your experience while on location.
Information the way you like it. As with all of our guides, this book is optimized for intuitive, quick navigation; information is organized into bullet points to make absorption easy; and images are marked up with text that explains important features.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Rock-Cut Architecture in India

TOURING ITINERARY

AJANTA

Background

Architecture Overview

Chaityas
Chaitya Stupas
Viharas
Paintings
Reliefs

Ajanta Map
Itinerary
Cave 1 *
Cave 2 *
Cave 4
Cave 9
Cave 10 *
Cave 16 *
Cave 17 *
Cave 19 *
Cave 26 *

ELEPHANTA

Background
Map and Itinerary
The Cave’s Layout
Reliefs Overview

Reliefs Style

Featured Reliefs

1. Ravana Shakes Mount Kailasa
2. Shiva and Parvati Gambling
3. Androgyne
4. Sadashiva *
5. Ganges Descends to Earth *
6. Marriage of Shiva and Parvati *
7. Shiva Slays Andhaka *
8. Nataraja *
9. Lord of Yogis

ELLORA

Background

Ellora Map

Itinerary

Buddhist Caves

Cave 5 – Maharwada
Cave 10 – Vishvakarma *
Cave 12 – Tin Tal

Hindu Caves

Cave 15 – Dashavatara *
Cave 16 – Kailasa *
Cave 21 – Rameshvara *
Cave 29 – Dhumar Lena

Jain Caves

Cave 32 – Indra Sabha *

LEGACY CONTINUES: CHINA

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