Kailasa temple, Ellora

Also called: Kailasa temple of Ellora, Cave 16, Kailasanatha temple, Ellora, Kailasa temple, Kailashanatha temple, Ellora Cave 16, Kailashnatha temple at Ellora · Topic: Early Indian Art and Architecture: Stupas, Rock-cut Caves, Temples · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 3 "Empires and Kingdoms: 6th to 10th Centuries"; Class 12, Ch 4 "Thinkers, Beliefs and Buildings"

Meaning

The Kailasa temple at Ellora (Cave 16) is an 8th-century temple to Shiva. It was carved out of a single rock in a basalt hillside near Aurangabad, Maharashtra. Work on it began under the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I (c. 756–773 CE). [4][5]

It is the high point of about a thousand years of rock-cut work in India. The tradition began with plain cave cells at Barabar and ended with a whole temple standing in the open air. The temple also shows a new kind of royal power: a regional state that could organise skilled labour on a huge scale.

Explanation

Background: from caves to a temple

• Rock-cut means the building was not built up from blocks. Workers cut into a hill and removed stone until a building was left behind. There is no joint, no mortar and no brick.
• The tradition before Kailasa:
• Barabar (Bihar), 3rd century BCE: plain caves cut on Asoka's orders for the Ajivikas.
• Karla and Pitalkhora (Satavahana period): Buddhist prayer halls with a rock-cut stupa.

• Ajanta (Vakataka phase, 5th–6th centuries CE): painted caves, and a stupa from which a seated Buddha emerges. [2]

• All these were dug horizontally into a cliff face, so they sit behind a dark cave mouth.

• By the 8th century, Brahmanical temple worship had grown strong. Kailasa is the main Brahmanical (Hindu) cave at Ellora. [4]
• Kailashnatha is a name of Shiva. It means "lord of Mount Kailasha", Shiva's home.

How it was made: cutting from the top down

• The method is the key point. Kailasa was cut downward from the top of the slope. It was not dug sideways into the cliff. [4]
• Workers first cut deep trenches around a huge block of rock.
• They then shaped that block, from top to bottom, into a temple.

• Because of this, the temple stands in open sunlight, inside a pit cut into the hill. It is not in a dark cave.

• There was no room for mistakes.

• In a built temple, a bad block can be taken out and replaced.

• Here, a wrong cut could never be undone.

• About 150,000–200,000 tons of solid rock had to be removed. [4]

Main features

• Size: about 50 m long, 33 m wide and 30 m high, with four levels. [4]
• It is the largest monolithic temple at Ellora. Monolithic means made from one single stone. [4]
• It looks like a normal built temple. It has a tower, a hall, a gateway and side shrines. But nothing was ever placed. Every part is what was left when the rock around it was chipped away.
• Most art historians say its tower follows the southern (Dravida) temple style.
• The most famous panel shows Ravana trying to lift Mount Kailasha, Shiva's home. [4]

Results and meaning

• A change in religion: Buddhist and Jaina caves gave way to a large Hindu temple to Shiva.
• A change in technique: a dark cave hall gave way to an open-air temple carved in one piece.
• A change in who paid: the patron was a regional dynasty, the Rashtrakutas. It was not a pan-Indian emperor like Asoka, and it was not a group of traders or monks.
• A rare voice of the artist: a copperplate records the chief sculptor's cry when he saw the finished work: "Oh how did I make it!"

Time, place and evidence

• Period: 8th century CE. Work began in the reign of Krishna I (c. 756–773 CE). [4][5]
• Dynasty: Rashtrakuta, a dynasty of the Deccan.
• Place: Ellora, near Aurangabad, Maharashtra. The site is cut into the wall of a high basalt cliff and runs for more than 2 km. [3][4]
• The wider site: Ellora has 34 monasteries and temples. It has Buddhist, Hindu and Jaina caves side by side. Kailasa is Cave 16. [3][4]
• Heritage status: Ellora became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. [3][4]
• How we know:
• The monument itself is the main evidence: its size, its top-down method and its sculpture panels.

• A copperplate inscription keeps the chief sculptor's words, "Oh how did I make it!" (NCERT). Copperplates were usually royal land-grant records cut on copper sheets.

• NCERT: Class 7, Ch 3 "Empires and Kingdoms: 6th to 10th Centuries"; Class 12, Ch 4 "Thinkers, Beliefs and Buildings".

Don't confuse with

• Ajanta Cave 16: Ellora Cave 16 is the Rashtrakuta Kailasa temple to Shiva. Ajanta Cave 16 is a Buddhist cave given to the Sangha by Varahadeva, minister of the Vakataka king Harishena (c. 475–500 CE). [2]
• Kailasanatha temple, Kanchipuram (Tamil Nadu): this is also a Shiva temple with almost the same name. But it was built up from stone blocks under the Pallavas. The Ellora temple was cut out of one rock under the Rashtrakutas.
• Barabar caves (Bihar): these are the earliest artificial caves, cut in the 3rd century BCE for the Ajivikas under Asoka. Kailasa is the culmination of the tradition, about a thousand years later, and it is Hindu.
• Other Ellora and Ajanta caves: these were dug horizontally into the cliff. Kailasa was cut from the top downward and stands in the open. [4]

Prelims Hooks

• Kailasa temple, Ellora: Cave 16. It is a Shiva temple carved from a single rock in the 8th century. [4]
• Patron: work began under the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I (c. 756–773 CE). [4][5]
• Method: cut from the top of the slope downward, not horizontally. About 150,000–200,000 tons of rock were removed. Size is about 50 × 33 × 30 m, with four levels. [4]
• Ellora: 34 caves of three faiths near Aurangabad, Maharashtra, cut in basalt. UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983. [3][4]
• Famous panel: Ravana lifting Mount Kailasha. Copperplate line of the chief sculptor: "Oh how did I make it!" [4]
• Trap: "Cave 16" can mean Ellora (Rashtrakuta, Hindu) or Ajanta (Vakataka, Buddhist). Check which site the question names.

Mains Points

• Kailasa marks a change in technique, religion and state power.
• Cutting downward into a basalt slope turned a dark cave into an open-air temple. [4]
• It shows the move from Buddhist prayer halls to Brahmanical temple worship by the 8th century.

• Removing 150,000–200,000 tons of rock under Krishna I [4] shows a regional state that could plan and pay for labour, engineering and time on a huge scale.

• Continuity and change in the rock-cut tradition:

• Who it served changed: Ajivikas (Barabar), then Buddhists and Jainas (Karla, Ajanta, Udayagiri), then Hindus (Ellora Kailasa).
• Who paid changed: an emperor, then traders, craftsmen and local kings, then regional dynasties like the Vakatakas and Rashtrakutas.

• What stayed the same was the skill of cutting a building out of living rock. Kailasa takes that skill to its limit: a whole free-standing temple.

• The sculptor's words are evidence of artistic pride.

• "Oh how did I make it!" shows an artist who was amazed by his own work, not only devoted to the god.
• It belongs with other rare named makers, such as Kanhadasa, the goldsmith at Pitalkhora. These show that Indian art was not entirely anonymous.

Related concepts

• Rock-cut architecture
• Barabar caves
• Lomas Rishi cave
• Nagarjuni caves
• Rock-cut monasteries
• Chaitya and vihara
• Bhaja caves
• Karla caves
• Kanheri caves
• Nasik caves

Read more

• The rock-cut tradition