In this video you can see the two most famous cave sites in India- Ellora and Ajanta. These two areas are separated by about 70 km in distance but both located in Maharasthra State. The two sites are quite large and represent a range of religions in very close proximity (which is a testament to the religious tolerance that has prevailed for thousands of years in India). At each location there are many separate caves in various states of completion and decay. Check out the video, which unfortunately, does the real thing no justice.
Click Image Above For VideoSome carving are a thousand years old. The anthropologists still debate exactly how long the excavations and carvings took to complete and their estimates range from centuries to just a few decades. The thing I kept thinking about was the way in which these carvings emerged top down from the stone (they are all cut right into the cliffs and hillside). At some point, early into the cutting and high up on the hill, the stone-cutters must have been directed to start the top of the temple, then several meters lower make a dome, then below that design and carve sculptures of elephants, and pillars, etc, etc... It is fascinating because we always envision a building being constructed ground up, but for these ancient builders the plan was reversed and came to life from the top down. I wonder if there was ever a master plan, or if the temple just emerged piece by piece.
Let me know if the link doesn't work or if the video doesn't load up properly. It will take a while to load up because it is over 5 minutes long. I hope it works... Youtube wouldn't host it for me because I included (Copywrighted) Led Zepplin as a backing track. Bastards!!!
ReplyDeletelink works fine and comes through pretty quick here in spudville. Incredible. Of what you have shown us to date this post is my favorite. Just awesome. Makes Mt. Rushmore look like some frigging sand castle. Are there other areas where this was done? I had to watch this a couple times to let the affect settle in of what they built here. As u say top down design! thanks.
ReplyDeleteThese 2 cave complexes are the most famous and are the best examples of all the religious cave carvings in the country. The two complexes are massive and take at least half a day each to explore. I shot about 30 minutes of video and had to edit it down to the finished movie which was about 5 and a half minutes long- so there is a lot that I didn't show in the video.
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