Another day of travel: Goa via Mumbai and on to Aurangabad. The flight is delayed, delayed again, and we're concerned we'll miss our connection, but with a tick of luck, it turns out that the plane we're on will also be our connecting flight, so we get to just stay on board! Phew.
Aurangabad lies in dusty, drought stricken Maharastra, indistinguishable from other Indian cities of about one million inhabitants, except for its surprisingly modern roads. We settle in to our hotel, head out into the street in hopes of finding some reasonable eating establishment, and hit the jackpot a couple of blocks on. The streets are alive with food stalls, mobile phone shops and hordes of people getting a start on their evening. We scrounge up a couple of sandwiches along with a very excited waitstaff, and then melt back into the shadows and back to the hotel, doing a little background reading on the site we'll be visiting the next day, Ellora Caves.
The site lies about 40 km from Aurangabad, and it's a quick drive. These particular caves were carved out of the basalt rock cliffs in the area, date from the 6th through 10th centuries, and are divided into Hindu, Buddhist and Jain groups. The crown jewel of the lot is cave 16 (Hindu), the Kailasha temple, which was excavated from one immense solid rock, but today shows off free-standing covered corridors, phenomenal numbers of carvings, and a several story high temple in the center of the site with beautifully adorned internal pillars. It is dedicated to the god Shiva. We climb in and out of the many temples, visiting all the sites that are accessible, and walk the couple of kilometers to the more remote ones. Pictures tell the story best, so check the link below.
The following day we're off to the other world heritage site, the Ajanta Caves, which lie about 100 km from Aurangabad, on one of the absolute worst roads we've been on during the trip. Even the driver says we'll probably need a massage after this 5 hour back and forth in the car! The caves here differ from those at Ellora in that for the most part they weren't excavated out of solid rock, although there is some rock carving internally as well as externally. The caves lie all together in a great horseshoe shape above a dribble of a river, and they are all Buddhist. The earlier caves date from about 200 B.C., while the later ones are from about the 4th century A.D. The most striking element here is the fabulous amount of murals and paintings that have survived in reasonable condition. They're often underlit, and the passage of time has eaten away at the art, but the paintings are still wonderfully evocative of these ancient worlds and stories of the Buddha's life, despite the lack of clarity in many of our photos. The crowning piece is a large reclining Buddha. Again, pictures do the place more justice than words.
This brings us to the end of our travels in India. We head to Delhi for our connecting flight on to Amsterdam, where we'll undergo a whole different kind of culture shock after our two fascinating months in India.
Ellora Caves: https://photos.app.goo.gl/wEmNQTbRC4VL2FF76
Ajanta Caves: https://photos.app.goo.gl/AfunEr9gwqCaNtBL7
Aurangabad lies in dusty, drought stricken Maharastra, indistinguishable from other Indian cities of about one million inhabitants, except for its surprisingly modern roads. We settle in to our hotel, head out into the street in hopes of finding some reasonable eating establishment, and hit the jackpot a couple of blocks on. The streets are alive with food stalls, mobile phone shops and hordes of people getting a start on their evening. We scrounge up a couple of sandwiches along with a very excited waitstaff, and then melt back into the shadows and back to the hotel, doing a little background reading on the site we'll be visiting the next day, Ellora Caves.
The site lies about 40 km from Aurangabad, and it's a quick drive. These particular caves were carved out of the basalt rock cliffs in the area, date from the 6th through 10th centuries, and are divided into Hindu, Buddhist and Jain groups. The crown jewel of the lot is cave 16 (Hindu), the Kailasha temple, which was excavated from one immense solid rock, but today shows off free-standing covered corridors, phenomenal numbers of carvings, and a several story high temple in the center of the site with beautifully adorned internal pillars. It is dedicated to the god Shiva. We climb in and out of the many temples, visiting all the sites that are accessible, and walk the couple of kilometers to the more remote ones. Pictures tell the story best, so check the link below.
The following day we're off to the other world heritage site, the Ajanta Caves, which lie about 100 km from Aurangabad, on one of the absolute worst roads we've been on during the trip. Even the driver says we'll probably need a massage after this 5 hour back and forth in the car! The caves here differ from those at Ellora in that for the most part they weren't excavated out of solid rock, although there is some rock carving internally as well as externally. The caves lie all together in a great horseshoe shape above a dribble of a river, and they are all Buddhist. The earlier caves date from about 200 B.C., while the later ones are from about the 4th century A.D. The most striking element here is the fabulous amount of murals and paintings that have survived in reasonable condition. They're often underlit, and the passage of time has eaten away at the art, but the paintings are still wonderfully evocative of these ancient worlds and stories of the Buddha's life, despite the lack of clarity in many of our photos. The crowning piece is a large reclining Buddha. Again, pictures do the place more justice than words.
This brings us to the end of our travels in India. We head to Delhi for our connecting flight on to Amsterdam, where we'll undergo a whole different kind of culture shock after our two fascinating months in India.
Ellora Caves: https://photos.app.goo.gl/wEmNQTbRC4VL2FF76
Ajanta Caves: https://photos.app.goo.gl/AfunEr9gwqCaNtBL7
No comments:
Post a Comment