Hello fellow hivians, how are you doing?
I welcome you to a new Series - Incredible India, where I will be presenting something special, something incredible from my country India.
But, Why?
When asked about what you know about India, most people think of very few places, some might instantly get the picture of "Taj Mahal", others might just picture a country with spicy foods etc. But I want to take you on a journey showing you the full beauty of this country.
What will be the content?
I will try to post at least one post per week. You can expect anything and everything from incredible places to slums, from epic battles to peaceful cultures, from Bollywood's hits to folk songs, etc etc. India has so much to offer and so many stories to be told.
KAILASA TEMPLE: World's largest monolithic structure
There are 32 caves in Ellora, 30 Km from Aurangabad, Maharastra, numbered according to their age. Cave temples 1 to 12 on the southern side are the Buddhist caves, 13-29 are the Hindu caves, and on the northern side are the Jain temples. These caves are carved along a hill covering well over 2 kilometres. Temple 16 is the Kailasa Temple, a temple devoted to Lord Shiva.
View from cave 29, Ms Sarah Welch, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Forget the 7 wonders of the world. For me, this should be on that list for sure. Carve upside down (a rare and difficult method, requiring extreme precision), from a single rock on the side of a basalt hill in the 8th century presumably with only hammers and chisels.
Ms Sarah Welch, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Archaeologists estimate says that around 200,000 tonnes of rock had to be removed from the site which cannot be found anywhere near the structure.
Y.Shishido, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsSome scientists estimate that it should have taken around 100 years to complete but was surprisingly completed only in 18 years.
Aurangzeb, a Mughal emperor, in the 17th century attempted to vandalise the temple but failed to do it and only managed to do minor damages to some structures and couldn't do anything with the main structure.
There are large elephants carved at the base of the structure making it look like elephants are carrying the temple on their backs.
© Vyacheslav Argenberg / http://www.vascoplanet.com/, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At the base of the temple hall, there are magnificent carvings of the scenes from the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata.
Depiction of scenes from Ramayana, Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Depiction of scenes from Mahabharata, Ms Sarah Welch, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At the top of the main structure, there is a mandapa where four mythical lions are carved, pointing at four directions encompassing a beautifully carved lotus placed in the centre of the flat surface of mandapa.
Mandap on the temple roof, Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Partially visible from outside, Udaykumar PR, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Do let me tell whether you like the idea of this #incredibleIndia series and what do you think about this "Kailasa temple" or the whole cave complex in Ellora. Wonders like these always mesmerise me.
Side note: I had plans of going there but had to cancel due to corona lockdowns and never made new plans. I should make new plans soon. Can't wait to see this marvel from my own eyes.
Note:
- Page dividers from @cryptosharan.
- Thanks @queenstarr, for the idea of this series. Forever Grateful...
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