Ellora caves, Mumbai-Maharashtra

Ellora Caves are a multi-religious rock-cut cave complex with inscriptions dating from the period 6th century CE onwards, located in the Aurangabad District of Maharashtra, India. They are also called verul caves.

There are over 100 caves at the site, all excavated from the basalt cliffs in the Charanandri Hills, 34 of which are open to public.

These consist of 17 Hindu (caves 13–29), 12 Buddhist (caves 1–12) and 5 Jain (caves 30–34) caves. Each group represents deities and mythologies prevalent in the 1st millennium CE, as well as monasteries of each respective religion. They were built close to one another and illustrate the religious harmony that existed in ancient India. Because of their exceptional architecture of ancient India, the Ellora Caves were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1983.

All of the Ellora monuments were built during the Satavahana period, which constructed part of the Vedic Dynasty and much later Buddhist caves and the Jain caves, were named .

Although the caves served as temples and a rest stop for pilgrims the site’s location on an ancient South Asian trade route also made it an important commercial centre in the Deccan region.

Ellora Caves are situated 29 kilometres (18 miles) north-west of Aurangabad, and about 300 kilometres (190 miles) east-northeast of Mumbai. Today, the Ellora Caves, along with the nearby Ajanta Caves, are a major tourist attraction in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra and a are a protected monument under the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

Etymology
Ellora, also called Verul or Elura, is the short form of the ancient name Elloorpuram. The older form of the name has been found in ancient references such as the Baroda inscription of 812 CE which mentions “the greatness of this edifice” and that “this great edifice was built on a hill by Krishnaraja at Elapura, the edifice in the inscription being the Kailasa temple. In the Indian tradition, each cave is named and has a suffix Guha (Sanskrit), Lena or Leni (Marathi), meaning cave.

It is also thought to be derived from Ilvalapuram, named after the asura Ilvala who ruled this region who was vanquished by Sage Agastya.

Location

Ellora Caves, general map (the rock is depicted as dark green)
The Ellora caves are situated in state of Maharashtra about 29 kilometres (18 miles) northwest of the city of Sambhaji Nagar, 300 kilometres (190 miles) east-northeast of Mumbai, 235 kilometres (146 miles) from Pune and about 100 kilometres (62 miles) west of the Ajanta Caves, 2.3 kilometres (1.42 miles) from Grishneshwar Temple (India).

Ellora occupies a relatively flat rocky region of the Western Ghats, where ancient volcanic activity had created multilayered basalt formations, known as the Deccan Traps. The volcanic activity that formed the west-facing cliff that houses the Ellora caves occurred during the Cretaceous period. The resulting vertical face made access to many layers of rock formations easier, enabling architects to pick basalt with finer grains for more detailed sculpting