1/27/06: Between a Rock and Heart Place

Behold the 8th wonder of the world, the unbelievable Ellora and Ajanta cave temples. After a day marveling at these architectural masterpieces, we now understand why Indian engineers are taking over the world. If the ancient Indians’ ingenuity, engineering, craftsmanship, and workmanship had been as devoted to technology and commerce rather than religion, no doubt the airplane would have been invented in the 14th century invention. We’d read about the cave temples of Ellora and Ajanta countless times, but none of the guidebooks did even remote justice to these remarkable accomplishments. Under the expert guidance of our walking, talking history book, Aleem, we explored these two sets of cave temples, in shock and in awe.

Starting almost twenty-five hundred years ago, a group of Buddhist (and, later Jain and Hindu monks) carved their temples out of the canyon walls. Imagine sculpting an open-air temple out of a 1 million square foot slab or rock on the side of a hill. Seven generations of Hindus labored for more than 100 years to create the beyond-our-wildest-imagination cave #16 at Elora, almost 1,500 years ago, with Ramayana friezes, life-size stone elephants, depictions of Hindu gods, and 75 meter towers covered with intricate carvings, all protected by giant lions on their rooftops. Imagine, starting at the top and working your way down, 6 feet at a time through solid rock, architects designing the monuments, stonecutters chiseling out the rough outlines, and artisans sculpting the statues, carvings, and monuments.

Even more remarkably, almost 800 years earlier and 100km away, Bhuddist monks broke ground on the 24 Ajanta caves. Whereas the cave-builders at Ellora were more engineering-driven, working from the top down, my personal preference is for the obviously market-driven Ajanta cave-builders who built from the outside-in☺. Amazingly, the 1,600- to 2,200-year-old paintings in these ancient temples incorporate three-dimensional perspectives almost two millennia before Da Vinci.

Along the way, we passed the seven-walled mountain fort, and plan to develop a video game based on the Indiana Jones-type feats of daring required to circumvent the blind alleys, alligators, mazes, and burning oil and ultimately enter the fortress. Now, all we need is a set of Indian programmers to write the software!

On our trips to the caves Aleem enlightened us with an introduction to the similarities and differences between Jains, Hindus, and Bhuddists. The wandering nudist monks of the Jain faith held a particular fashion for our intrepid travelers.

And, finally, to close a near-perfect day of sightseeing, we’d like to thank India Airlines for helping us develop an appreciation for the not-so-friendly skies of United, as our flight to Delhi included a 3-hour departure delay, and a last-minute equipment change.