Elephanta Caves, India
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This page is about the fascinating sculptures from the
Elephanta caves in India. Out of a
relatively small number of badly mutilated (due to gunshots and wholescale vandalism by Portugese sailors) sculptures that
have survived to this day, I will easily select the Andhakasura-badh
- the slaying of the demon Andhaka (epitomizing darkness and lack of knowledge) -- and Trimurti (Sadashiva), to be
among my top picks of sculptures I have personally seen. For completeness, among
others of my top pick sculptures there will certianly be Michaelangelo's
David and a few other masterpieices from him.
I must also include a few items of permanent beauty from
Rodin, in front of whose sculptures I have spent
long time in exhibition in Kolkata, India, as well as in the permanent collections in
Philadelphia,
Stanford University and, of course,
Paris. A few supremely beautiful creations
from more than 1500 years ago from the
Ellora caves in India
will also be mentioned.
These photos were taken with my old friend Minolta X-700 SLR film camera, the last non-autofocus SLR from Minolta, just before Maxxum 7000 was introduced. Of course there were no digital cameras in those days. There was no possibility of correcting exposure errors. Even then, as you can see the photos are not of high quality. I must admit, I was completely confounded by the intense daylight outside the caves and deep darkness within. Direct electronic flash was of no use, it steals the three-dimensionality of the sculptures and makes them unbearably flat. Therefore, it is almost pure luck that the photos came as good as they did. I nevertheless display the photos because I so much like the ambience of the caves, which, not in small part, is due to the sheer dynamic quality in these sculptures. I hope that despite my failure as a photographer, the viewers would be able to appreciate the artistic qualities in the sculptures. Needless to say I plan to return to Elephanta equipped with a digital camera.
A short description of the Elephanta caves:The elephanta caves are located in an island of the same name about 10 km from Mumbai (Bombay) in the state of Maharashtra, India. The local name of the island is Gharpuri. The name Elephanta was given by the Portugese and is attributed to the presence of a huge rock-cut monolith elephant in the island, which was later removed by the British and placed in the Victoria Gardens (Veermata Jijabai Bhonsle Udyan) at Mumbai. The sculptures of these caves are hewn straight out of solid dark basalt rock. The caves are dated between 5th and 8th centuries, but some confusion still remains about their artisitic creator or the king who funded them. As customary, the caves were all probably painted in the beginning, but only traces of paint remain today.There are two sets of caves in this complex, a larger set of five caves attributed to the supreme Hindu God Shiva, and two caves containing Buddhist themes. The main cave used to be an active place of worship until Portuguese rule began in 1534, when the caves suffered severe damage. After years of neglect the caves were renovated in the 1970s, and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 to preserve the artwork. It is currently maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Most of the descriptions I included in these pages are accumulated from the following books:
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