Kailash Temple – Ellora Temple

The depiction of the demon Ravana shaking Mount Kailash is a masterpiece, contains the scenes of semi-mythological history, the royal court and popular life of the ancient times, as told in romances and plays. Some pictures recall the Greek and Roman compositions and proportions, few late resemble to Chinese manners to some extent. But majority belongs to a phase which is purely Indian as they are found nowhere else. These monuments were constructed during two different periods of time separated by a long interval of four centuries. The older ones were the product of last to centuries before Christ and belongs to Hinayana period of Buddhism in later part of 2nd century AD when Buddhism was divided into two sections, after the conduct of the fourth general council under another great king, Kanishka.

The new feature of Mahayana Buddhism was the concept of future Buddha’s. The Buddha, himself probably thought that he was the last of the long succession of earlier Buddha’s who lived before him. According to the Buddhist traditions, these former Buddhas were revered even in the historical Buddha’s lifetime. By the time king Ashoka, their cult was widespread and was patronized by Ashoka. Later, when the stupas were constructed and beautified, the carvings were executed in a symbolic way. An inspired sculptor began to carve images of Buddha himself and within the few generations, all the Buddhist sects took to worshipping images. The universe of Mahayana contains numerous Bodhisattava, the chief of whom is Avalokitesvara with attributes of compassion. He is also called Padmapani or the lotus bearer. The Manjushri with a naked sword in one hand, stimulates the understanding. The sterner Bodhisattava who is a foe of the sin and evil and bearing a thunderbolt in the hand is Vajrapani. The future Buddha, Maitreya will take birth to save the world.

The world famous Kailashnath temple is a marvellous example of Rashtrakuta architecture. The Kailashnath temple at Ellora, near Aurangabad in Maharashtra was built by Krishna I (757-783 A.D.) of the Rashtrakuta dynasty. It is a rock-cut temple and has four parts- the body of the temple, the entrance gate, the Nandi shrine and a group of five shrines surrounding the courtyard. The main body of the temple occupies a parallelogram, 45 metres by 33 metres, with sections of its sites projecting at intervals. It stands on a high plinth which is carved with sculptures of elephants and lions. The larger halls of the temples are decorated with images of Brahmanical Gods. The tower of the temple is in three diminishing tiers and is crowned by a cupola. The whole tower is 28.5 metres high.

The gateway of the temple is double-storeyed. On either side of the shrine of Nandi are two columns each having a Trishul, the ensigns of Lord Shiva. Each of these columns is 15.6 metres high. Historians consider these temples as one of the architectural marvels of the world.
The Kailash temple resemble the Chalukya temples at Pattadakal but it is far more refined in its design than the temples at Pattadakal. It was considered to be the model for all the temples in South India. The temple has many sculptural designs depicting events from the Ramayana and Mahabharata. There is a scene in a relief of Ravana trying to shake Mount Kailash and Shiva pressing Ravana into the cavern of the mountain with his feet.
The special features of the temple are:
1. It is more of a monument of sculpture than of architecture as it was made by cutting down of rocks by sculpturing it rather than building up the temple by an architectural design.
2. It is the largest rock cut temple.
3. Above the sanctuary there is a pyramidal tower which is about 30 metres high.
4. Around the base of the tower there are five shrines dedicated respectively to Ganesha, Rudra, Parvati, Chand and Saptamatri.
5. It stands on a high plinth (7.5 metres high) carved with sculptures of elephants and lions.