Ellora by ACC Art Books

GILLES BÉGUIN

GILLES BÉGUIN photographs by

I AG O CO R A Z Z A Ellora, the largest cave site in India, is one of the pinnacles in the art of the sub-continent and embraces places of worship belonging to all three of India’s main religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. Caves with lavishly sculpted intecolossal complex of Kailāsanātha, also carved from the rock. From an aesthetic standpoint, Ellora boasts some of the finest sculptures in Asia’s artistic heritage.

ELLORA

riors stand alongside the stunning

E L L O R A B U D D H I S T,

H I N D U ,

A N D

J A I N

S A N C T U A R I E S

$ 80.00 | Can. $ 108.00 € 70.00 | £ 55.00

CHRISTOPHE HIOCO | LUCA POGGI

PREFACE

Ellora, one of the major glories in India’s archaeological heritage, is the largest of its cave sites, extending across over two kilometers. Furthermore, it is the only one to accommodate the country’s three main religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. By the time work on the caves finally came to an end (probably in the mid-ninth century), stone-built architecture had reached the height of its development, making the creation of cave shrines obsolete. This emblematic place finds itself in a paradoxical position. Unanimously regarded as one of the pinnacles of the world’s artistic heritage and a United Nations World Heritage Site since 1983, unfailingly mentioned in guidebooks and any book on Indian art for the general public, dependably represented in glossy coffee-table books by a few instantly recognizable photos, this extraordinary site has nonetheless failed to attract the serious publications in the numbers that Ajaṇṭā, its great rival and near neighbor, has. Even so, Ellora’s caves have never been totally neglected and innumerable articles and incomplete monographs have explored its secrets. This paucity can be partly explained by the difficulty of photographing the dimly lit interior of these caves. Today, thanks to an extremely light-sensitive camera, Iago Corazza has been able to overcome this obstacle to produce the most complete and most visually seductive work on this subject to date. This book has no scientific pretensions. It merely seeks to provide a summary of our current knowledge so as to encourage the curious or the educated reader to visit this unique site, or as an aide-mémoire of a trip to this unforgettable marvel. However, unassuming as it might be, this book does aim to familiarize the reader with numerous terms and concepts that are current among scholars of Indian culture. On first acquaintance, this obscure terminology can put the reader off. Therefore, some terms remain in Sanskrit, while others have been translated and still others appear in both forms, gradually leading the non-expert reader into a world that may at first seem a minefield of jargon. But this highly precise lexicon is in fact an essential corollary of the discipline and provides a way for the reader to acquire a firm grasp of the topic. The same applies to the iconography associated with Indian religions—essential in identifying and understanding the role of the deities and myths described throughout the book. An exhaustive index that includes all the relevant the details regarding a given subject is also provided. Many of these entries are discussed more thoroughly in the books listed in the extensive bibliography. In the interests of readability, footnotes have been eschewed. Once again, the ample bibliography will enable the reader to track down sources easily enough. It has always been a dream of mine to write about Ellora. I was therefore overjoyed that Christophe Hioco and Luca Poggi suggested I take on this enterprise. As in the case of our previous book Khajuraho (2017), this project has been followed with the greatest attention and enthusiasm by the team at 5 Continents Editions, whose attention to detail and professionalism are second to none, as all lovers of fine books are well aware. I hope that this publication stands testimony to the debt of gratitude I owe to all those who helped bring it about. May this monograph help spread an understanding of Indian art, still too often neglected. Gilles Béguin

PREFACE

FOREWORD

The site of Ellora lies in the state of Mahārāṣṭra, in the Western Ghâts in the North-West Deccan, 27 kilometers North-East of Aurangabad. The thirty-four caves include Buddhist monasteries, Hindu shrines, and Jain temples and have been dug out of the basalt cliffs of Sahyādrī (Carandri), along a stretch running roughly 2.5 kilometers from South to North. The name Ellora comes from a nearby village once called Elāpura, from which its modern Marathi name of “Verul” is derived, the word “Ellora” being the anglicized version. There are a number of variants, such as Vellūra and Ilvalapura. These names may be associated with legends: Vellūra recalls Veḷuvana, the park close to Rājagṛha that King Bimbisāra gave to Buddha Śākyamuni, as the two words derive from “veḷu,” meaning bamboo. “Ilvola” (and not “Ilvala”) is the name of a rākṣasa who was the brother of the demon-king Vātāpi, killed by the wise Agastya and ruler from his eponymous capital, Vātāpi (Bādāmī). Several ancient texts mention Ellora. Vedic literature refers to a goddess called Īlā, protector of priests and kings, “Mother of Herds,” a deified river bringing prosperity and progeny to her followers. The Purāṇa mention a River Elā in the Deccan and the site occurs in a local legend as a place of veneration. Struck by an incurable disease, a king by the name of Elāpura bathed in a sacred pool (tīrtha) and was miraculously cured. In gratitude, his spouse, Queen Manikavatī decided to build a Śaivite temple nearby. It was to become one of the great holy shrines of Hinduism, places where the spiritual, holy world and the profane world meet, generally by a sacred ford. Nowadays, the waterfall near the Dumār Leṇa cave confirms the importance of water in rendering the site sacred. These literary references are joined by a few rare inscriptions from the period of the Cālukya and Rāṣṭrakūṭa dominion. Ellora is first mentioned in the year 734 of the Śaka period (812 AD) in association with a donation by the Cālukya king Vijayāditya (r. 696–733/734) and is described as “the city made of the halls of Elāpura.” The Arab traveller Al-Mas’ūdi visited the site in the tenth century, while the Lilacaritra, a compilation in Marathi, tells of the visit of the renowned religious figure Cakradhara Swami, the founder of the Mahnubhava sect. The holy man is believed to have lived there ten months in 1268. The thirteenth-century Jṅaneśwari, another Marathi work, mentions a donation to the Kailāsanātha (Cave 16). This extraordinary creation inspired Kṛṣṇa Yājṅavakki (circa 1470– 1535) to write a mythical history of its excavation, the Kathākalpataru. In order to save Queen Manikāvatī’s life following a vow, the craftsman Kokas, aided by seven thousand workmen, broke the temple free of its surrounding rock in under a week, completing the task before dawn on the seventh day and releasing the queen from her vow to sustain a complete fast. The shrine was given the name Mankeśvara and it displays aspects of the legend described. We know that the Persian historian Firishta (circa 1560–1620) also visited Ellora. An Urdu chronicle dating from 1352 describes the abduction of the princess Deval-devī by soldiers pursuing King Karan Rāi of Gujārat and mentions road repairs in the neighborhood of the caves, near the encampment of Sultan Hasan Gangu Bahamani. Later, an account of the reign of the Moghul emperor Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707), who passed through the area in 1683, contains a long passage expressing admiration for Ellora. However, in his youth, he was passing through after being nominated the viceroy of the Deccan, when the unruly mob of Moslem soldiers that were accompanying him are said to have mutilated several statues in an excess of 10

FOREWORD

< Cave 29, gaṇa atlas, architrave decorations, detail

Thomas and William Daniell, So-called Indra Sabhā Cave (Cave 32), aquatint, circa 1795 Thomas and William Daniell, The Kailāsanātha (Cave 16), aquatint, circa 1795

religious fervor. The site was of course later visited by a number of Western travellers: Jean de Thévenot (1633–1667) in 1666; Niccolao Manucci (1638–1717); Colonel J. B. Seely in 1701 and 1702; Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron (1731–1805) in 1758, and Sir Charles Warre Malet (1752–1815) in 1799. The British East India Company itself sent representatives on an official visit in 1825. The wonderful and frequently reproduced aquatints of Thomas Daniell (1749–1840) and his nephew William (1769–1837) record the discovery of the site by the forerunners of today’s tourists. Ellora lays in the territory of the Holkars of Indore, local potentates who made an income from the caves by charging an entry fee from worshippers coming from far and wide to pay their pious homage. Eventually, they were persuaded to exchange the village by the caves and the caves themselves for land close to Hyderābād. In this way the Nizām of Hyderābād came to be the new owner of the site. The Nizāms looked after Ellora before the Archaeological Survey of India was created in 1861. James Burgess lays the foundations of the literature on Ellora some twenty years later, in 1883, devoting volumes IV and V of the invaluable Reports of the Archaeological Survey of India to the site. James Burgess teamed up with James Fergusson to produce another key publication of the period, Cave Temples of India (1880). The reader will find references to more recent works that were consulted in drafting the present book in the bibliography at the end. 12

The most important caves have names given to them by the local people over the years and bear no relation to their original names, which have not survived, and are often unrelated to their decoration or even the religion to which they are affiliated. Nevertheless they are part of the site’s history and have been added to the headings of the appropriate descriptions in the second part of the book, as well as in the chronological table. The lie of the land, distinguished by cliffs that are in many places deeply recessed, has sometimes led the temples to diverge considerably from the ritually prescribed orientation of such structures. The descriptions in this book do not take into account these variations from the standard alignment. While there is broad agreement about the dating of other major cave sites in Mahārāṣṭra, such as Ajaṇṭā and Aurangabad, this does not extend to the Ellora caves, as the numerous variants that appear in the literature make plain. This thorny question will be addressed in the book’s concluding chapter.

NOTES FOR THE READER

• In order to facilitate reading and to avoid any repetition, “reign” has been abbreviated with “r.” • Words in Sanskrit have been transcribed in accordance with the system used by the École française d’Extrême-Orient. • In order to avoid misunderstandings, no attempt has been made in this work to make Asian terms agree. • Approximate dimensions are in meters. 13

< Cave 29, gaṇa atlas, architrave decorations, detail

Thomas and William Daniell, So-called Indra Sabhā Cave (Cave 32), aquatint, circa 1795 Thomas and William Daniell, The Kailāsanātha (Cave 16), aquatint, circa 1795

NOTES FOR THE READER

36 | Kailāsanātha, South face, Rāvaṇānugraha mūrti

even though the god is not depicted as a young country dweller as he is portrayed in Indian art over the past centuries. In the legend he provocatively tells his herdsman and milkmaid (gopī) friends to pay homage to Mount Govardhana, rather than worshipping Indra, the king of the gods. Enraged by this effrontery, Indra unleashes a torrential downpour. At this, Kṛṣṇa lifts Mount Govardhana up in the air to shelter his companions and their herds, holding it up with one hand for seven full days. As a result Indra has to acknowledge the supremacy of Viṣṇu of whom Kṛṣṇa is the descendant.

37 | Kailāsanātha, South bridge attachment 38 | Kailāsanātha, South projection, traces of painting

This three-sided portico is of modest interest from the aesthetic standpoint, especially the reliefs on the South side. The unevenness of the quality raises a number of questions. This side of the site lacks a proper iconographic scheme. The panels seem to have been sculpted at random, probably commissioned by a number of different donors. This variable treatment also hints at the presence of numerous workshops, which would probably have taken a long time to complete the project. It might not be too fanciful to suppose that the energy and commitment behind such an enormous undertaking, actively supported by the patronage of the sovereigns themselves, would come to be affected by the decline of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa Empire, the more skillful, and one assumes sought-after craftsmen leaving for perhaps better paid work elsewhere. Continuing round the precinct, these panels are followed by the imposing entrance to an unfinished cave (fig. 2, no 9) and a small deconsecrated cave, with a simple pedestal surviving in the shrine. On the floor above, two large caves have been created level with the maṇḍapa. The Northern one (fig. 3, no. 10) is called Lankeśvara and is reached from the courtyard by a small winding staircase that arrives at a modest sized room housing a sculpture of the bull Nandi, turned appropriately towards the East. The temple itself consists of an enormous hall and a shrine encircled by a circumambulatory passage. The hall contains twenty-seven columns, leaving free two broad aisles that meet at right angles forming the shape of a cross, as in the maṇḍapa in the main temple. These broad, squat columns range widely in style, those towards the center being more elaborately ornamented. Those in the middle of the second row to the South display an extraordinary decoration of finely carved foliated volutes, creating a decorative effect that makes them masterpieces of Indian art. Other examples found elsewhere in the site (Caves 32 and 33) do not exhibit the same expertly confident treatment and it would seem logical to presume the present sculptures were the prototypes and the others copies made with varying degrees of success. The pillars of the first Western row and those on the South face, overlooking the courtyard, are connected by a parapet isolating the maṇḍapa like a real building. The inner side of the South 36

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36 | Kailāsanātha, South face, Rāvaṇānugraha mūrti

37 | Kailāsanātha, South bridge attachment 38 | Kailāsanātha, South projection, traces of painting

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pillars is decorated with various deities, some of which are badly damaged. The first of these bears the image of Durgā Mahīśāsuramardinī, while the following show: Śiva as half-man and half-woman, resolving all contradictions within himself (Ardhanārīśvara); on the third, Bhairava, the fierce manifestation of Śiva; on the fourth, Śiva and Pārvatī, of which only the feet remain; on the fifth, Śiva with his left foot resting on the dwarf Apasmāra Puruṣa, symbolizing ignorance and evil, and the goddess Pārvatī; on the last, Śiva dancing. Charming mithuna couples in various languorous poses decorate the Western parapet, facing the Nandi pavilion. Their stances are borrowed from the eighty-four positions in the Kāmaśāstra.

39 | Kailāsanātha, South commemorative column 40 | Kailāsanātha, North commemorative column, detail 41 | Kailāsanātha, North-West corner of courtyard, entrance to cave dedicated to the river goddesses

The maṇḍapa is surrounded by reliefs. Starting from the North-West corner, we find a large Gaṇeśa, then Narasiṁha seated on some demons. In the center of the wall, a large niche contains a relief of the three supreme gods of Hinduism (trimūrti), Śiva in the middle, with Viṣṇu and Brahmā on either side, accompanied by attendants. The following panel shows Umā practising asceticism, seated between two fires. The next illustrates the episode when Viṣṇu, in his incarnation as a boar, rescues the goddess Pṛthvī from her captivity at the bottom of the ocean (Varāhāvatāra). The last panel on the North wall is devoted to Sūrya, the sun god. A relief to the left of the doorway leading to the circumambulatory passage depicts Śiva and Pārvatī playing dice and to the right of the door leading out of the passageway, a final panel once again portrays the myth of Rāvaṇa (Rāvaṇānugraha mūrti). There is a further panel on the East wall of the first bay depicting Śiva as the “King of Dance” (Nātarāja), performing a frenetic dance, one of the most stunning examples of the tāṇḍava in Indian art. While generally repeating the most frequently encountered scenes in Hindu iconography, these reliefs do display some novelties in the context of Ellora as a whole, such as Śiva in his androgynous, Ardhanārīśvara form, or Sūrya. Unfortunately, the condition of these works is too poor to enable them to be described in greater detail. Two goddesses frame the shrine’s doorway. It is not easy to identify them with confidence as river goddesses as they lack their usual animal-mounts, even though this seems a plausible conclusion. The shrine used to have a liṅga in its basin but little remains of it now. The far wall includes a rather clumsy relief depicting Śiva’s three monumental heads, showing him in his peaceful, female and wrathful (Mahādeva) aspects, in accordance with an iconography that is superbly handled at Elephanta. 41

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< 42 | Kailāsanātha, North-West corner of courtyard, entrance to cave dedicated to three river goddesses 43 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, interior of North portico 44 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, North portico, nine of Rāvaṇa’s heads encircling the liṅga 45 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, North portico, adoration of Viṣṇu 46 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, North portico, Śiva springing from the liṅga to defeat Yama 47 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, interior of East portico 48 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, East portico, marriage of Śiva and Pārvatī 49 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, East portico, Śiva impaling the demon Ratnāsura 50 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, East portico, Śiva on his chariot destroying the three cities (Tripurāntaka mūrti) 51 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, interior of South portico 52 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, South portico, Kṛṣṇa lifting Mount Govardhana 54

53 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, Brahmā trying to shake the liṅga 54 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, South portico, Śiva in androgynous form (Ardhanārīśvara) 55 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, South portico, Viṣṇu Nārāyaṇa

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Opposite the Lankeśvara, on the other side of the courtyard and above the unfinished cave (fig. 3, no. 11), is another, large cave, the Paralaṅkā, which covers two floors. A porch and a vestibule provide access to a large hall with four pillars. We are in the dark as to the precise purpose of the caves, even though the decoration was completed. A flying bridge, whose extremities are still fully visible, used to connect them to the main temple. This link implies that the added caves dug into the cliff around the courtyard were part of the original design, even though they appear, for stylistic reasons, to have been completed—or left unfinished—after work on the main temple was finished. This feature does not exist on the North face. The elephantomachia and the intricate moldings (vedībandha and grāsapaṭika) extend along the whole of the base (pābhāga) of the shrine. However, it is interrupted in the middle of the parapet on the upper floor that borders the projection acting as a pavilion, suggesting a wooden bridge once joined the central temple to the Lankeśvara.

56 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, Lankeśvara, central West-East aisle 57 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, Lankeśvara, Nandi

The vestibule of the Paralaṅkā communicates with the small shrine (fig. 3, no. 12) known in the literature as the “Sacrificial Hall” (Yajṅaśālā), probably on account of the small square hollows on the ground where offerings would have been placed. The shrine is dedicated to the Seven Mothers (Saptamātṛkā) and various other goddesses. These fierce and daunting minor deities make up a group sometimes comprising seven figures as here, but more frequently eight (Aṣṭamātṛkā). They surround the Great Goddess in their wrathful aspects, such as Durgā or Kālī. The Mothers are similar to the Yoginīs, sixty-four deities, which, as their name suggests, are skilled practitioners of the art of yoga. All the Mothers belong to the group of Yoginīs. This cave can also be reached directly from the courtyard. The sculptures are distributed all around, against the wall but completely detached from it and their appearance is particularly expressive, even dramatic. In many cases they cannot be identified from their individual features, but only thanks to the mounts depicted on their bases. Starting from the West wall, we find first the four-armed Vāgheśvarī, brandishing her trident, a tiger under her feet; then a similar deity; followed by the skeletal Kālī 57

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56 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, Lankeśvara, central West-East aisle 57 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, Lankeśvara, Nandi

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58 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, Lankeśvara, column on second row on South side, detail 59 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, Lankeśvara, first row on South side

> 60 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, Lankeśvara, North wall, the trimūrti: Brahmā, Śiva, and Viṣṇu 61 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, Lankeśvara, sanctum interior, Śiva Mahādeva 62 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, Lankeśvara, sanctum doorway 63 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, Lankeśvara, East wall, Śiva Nātarāja

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or Cāmuṇḍā, wrapped in a serpent and seated on two emaciated men. The South wall shows Gaṇeśa, then an extremely damaged goddess, possibly Varahī. These are followed by Indrānī, also in poor condition, identifiable from the elephant in front of the throne; Pārvatī, thanks to her buffalo; Vaiṣṇavi, on account of the bird Garuḍa; Kaumarī, with her peacock; Devī armed with a trident and a buffalo as her mount; Brahmāṇī holding a rosary; and lastly, a four-armed goddess, perhaps Pārvatī, wielding an unidentifiable attribute. Three other sculptures portraying voluptuous female figures holding fly-whisks, swathed in jewelry and accompanied by a smiling dwarf, occupy the East wall and are identified by some as goddesses, including Pārvatī, and by others, perhaps more credibly, as donor queens. Further into the courtyard, level with the Nandi pavilion, but on the Northern side, is another unfinished cave preceded by a porch. It is connected near the surrounding wall to an oratory that features a series of well-proportioned columns. It has been suggested against all probability that this area might have been used to store portable statues during a pause in processions. Lastly, another series of small, unfinished caves can be seen further up the cliff face. One includes an interesting vault copied from a real version made of wood. Its triple opening is not unlike the Venetian windows found in neo-classical Western architecture. The actual order in which the hugely ambitious endeavor of excavating the Kailāsanātha was tackled remains conjectural; nevertheless, it seems the temple itself was hacked out of the rock first, with the side shrines being added later.

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58 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, Lankeśvara, column on second row on South side, detail 59 | Courtyard of Kailāsanātha, Lankeśvara, first row on South side

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GILLES BÉGUIN

GILLES BÉGUIN photographs by

ELLORA

riors stand alongside the stunning

E L L O R A B U D D H I S T,

H I N D U ,

A N D

J A I N

S A N C T U A R I E S

$ 80.00 | Can. $ 108.00 € 70.00 | £ 55.00

CHRISTOPHE HIOCO | LUCA POGGI