Elephanta Caves

In Elephanta caves, Indian art has found one of its most perfect expressions in form of beautiful reliefs, sculptures, and temples dedicated to the Lord Shiva. Elephanta anciently known as Gharapuri, the island capital of Konkan Mauryas, is celebrated for its colossal image of lord Shiva, with three heads each representing a different form. Located 10 km away from the Gateway of India at Mumbai, these caves house rock cut temples dating back to the 5th century CE.

Design & Construction
This rock cut temples were created by carving out rock, and creating the columns, the internal spaces and the images. The entire temple is akin to a huge sculpture, through whose corridors and chambers one can walk. The entire complex was created through a process of rock removal. Some of the rock surfaces are highly finished while some are untreated bare rock.

The Inside Look
On entering the caves you can see heavy pillars carved from the rock. Slowly, once's your eyes become accustomed to the dim light; then you can make out marvelous representations from Indian mythology carved on the walls. Here towers an image of the deity: a three-headed form, depicted from the chest up, growing out of the rock, three times the size of a human being. It portrays Siva as the creator, the preserver, and the destroyer of the world, and at the same time as the savior and bestower of blessings. It has stood there like this for perhaps a thousand years.

Also on the southern wall are grand sculptured images of Kalyanasundara, Gangadhara, Ardhanariswara and Uma Maheswara. To the west of the northern entrance are sculptured images of Nataraja and Andhakaasuravadamoorthy, and to its east are images of Yogiswara and Ravanaanugrahamurthy.