The Elephanta Caves , located on Elephanta Island, or Gharapuri, about 11 Km off the coast of the Gateway of India, Mumbai, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A visit to these caves, excavated probably in the 6 th century CE, is awe-inspiring, and also thought-provoking. Over the years, I have visited the caves a number of times, and also attended a number of talks by experts in the fields of art, history and archaeology on the caves. Together, they help me understand these caves, their art, and the people they were created for, just a little bit better. Every new visit, every new talk, every new article I read about the caves, fleshes out the image of what the island and the caves would have been like, at their peak. I last wrote about the caves on this blog, in 2011, almost exactly 11 years ago. Since then, my understanding of the caves has, I would like to think, marginally improved. Hence this attempt to write a new and updated post, trying to bring to life, the caves of Elephan
A bull which drove away
invaders, three buffaloes said to be demons, a lake once said to have been
filled with ghee and a temple once covered in lime to protect it – we couldn’t
help but smile as we listened to these stories about Achalgarh. We had a day
free at Mount Abu and were in the mood to explore, so we headed out for the
tourist circuit, trusting our driver to take us to some interesting places.
Achalgarh turned out to
be the first on his list, and as we headed along roads with farms interspersed
between the mountains, with scarcely a person to be seen anywhere, I wondered
about the place we were going to. I had heard a bit about Achalgarh before we
started, and knew that it had once been the capital of the area. The name
indicated the presence of a fort, but our driver told me that there was no fort
there. “Bas, mandir hai, Madam” he
said. ”There is only a temple there.” I felt my enthusiasm droop at the idea of
visiting yet another temple, but we had already turned on the road to
Achalgarh, so there was no turning back.
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This article was published on Spice Flair. To read all my articles on the site, click here.
This article was published on Spice Flair. To read all my articles on the site, click here.
interesting.. we had gone to mount abu too but i think i forgot about this temple. i loved mount abu trip
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ReplyDeleteYes, it was, Niranjan! surprisingly interesting :D
ReplyDeleteThanks
ReplyDeleteThanks Meena! Its a beautiful place, but isnt well promoted, so easy to forget!
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