Overview
Ellora is located 29 kilometres from Aurangabad in Maharashtra, India. Its 34 rock-cut caves — numbered 1 to 34 — span roughly eight centuries of continuous construction from approximately the 1st century BCE to the 11th century CE, representing three religious traditions: 12 Buddhist caves (1–12, roughly 1st–7th century CE), 17 Hindu caves (13–29, roughly 5th–9th century CE), and 5 Jain caves (30–34, roughly 9th–11th century CE). The coexistence of these traditions at a single site reflects the religious pluralism of the Deccan plateau over this long period.
The Kailasa Temple (Cave 16) is the undisputed centrepiece. Commissioned by the Rashtrakuta king Dantidurga in the 8th century CE and completed under his successor Krishna I, it represents Mount Kailash — the cosmic abode of Shiva — carved directly from the living rock. Quarrymen excavated approximately 400,000 tonnes of rock (working from the top down rather than the inside out) to create a freestanding temple complex 84 metres long, 47 metres wide, and 30 metres tall — larger than the Parthenon and hewn from a single outcrop of basalt without separate building blocks. The temple is adorned with relief sculptures of extraordinary quality, including massive panels showing Ravana shaking Mount Kailash and Shiva and Parvati playing dice.
The Buddhist caves include some of the most refined vihara (monastery) architecture in India. Cave 1 is a simple hall; Cave 12 (Tin Thal) is a three-storey monastery with shrines to the Buddha and Bodhisattvas. The earliest Buddhist caves predate the Kailasa Temple by several centuries and show the evolution of cave temple architecture from austere Hinayana halls to elaborately sculpted Mahayana shrines.
The Jain caves, concentrated at the northern end of the cliff, are noted for their intricate ceiling carvings. Cave 32 (Indra Sabha) contains some of the finest Jain sculptures at the site. Ellora was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.