Around Aurangabad

For the Christmas long weekend I travelled north to Aurangabad, which the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb made the capital for a time. He was not a nice emperor, but the UNESCO World Heritage sites of Ellora and Ajanta each lie a day trip outside of the city. Everyone else in India was visiting them too, which made me a celebrity as usual, and sometimes made the holy atmosphere a little strained.

The first day I travelled to Ellora, which has 34 caves of Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain temples which were carved between 400 and 900 CE. The immense central complex, Kailasa, dedicated to Shiva and still in use, is carved out of one rock, which makes it the largest monolithic sculpture in the world. The central temple some of the ancient painting still remains. Elephants face outward, and one monolithic elephant and a tall pillar stand in the courtyard. The cave temples in the three walls surrounding it have shrines to Ganesh, Shiva as Natraj, and scenes from the Ramayana. I'll include several photos in a Facebook album.

The Hindu and Jain cave temples to the north also have incredibly detailed carvings, and several very unique depictions which were new to me. Apparently it's just Mahavira who has something against me, because here I also banged my head in a Jain temple. Several of these temples were dedicated to the Digambara sect, which was not widely represented at Palitana. You can still see paint remaining on these sculptures too. Finally I explored the Buddhist caves, which I regretted saving for last because they were so beautiful, and the Hindu and Jain carvings had all started to look the same. These were also the oldest carvings. One chaitya cave was carved to imitate cathedral beams. I've included a photo of an unfinished carving to show the process.

My India travel guidebook recommends Ellora if you can only visit one site, probably because Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain temples were carved there. Ajanta consists of Buddhist temples alone, but I found it more beautiful. It stands out because of the paintings inside the caves. It was interesting to imagine the monks and nuns climbing to the temples before they built the wide stairs and pathways in the horseshoe shaped canyon. In Ellora and Ajanta I was delighted to see Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist pilgrims, and I paid my respects as well.

At the same time, it was often difficult to enjoy the artwork because of the mass of tourists, those who disregarded the requests for silence inside the caves, and some who ignored the prohibition against flash photography. Because I didn't use flash, my photos of the paintings didn't make the final cut, but you can take a look in the Facebook album. The seven metre carving of the Buddha reclining in Mahaparanirvana is one of the most famous. The chaitya where it was carved also looked very striking because of the lights illuminating the outer galleries.

The last day I spent in Aurangabad to visit the seventeenth century Bibi ka Maqbara which literally means "The Wife's Tomb" and was built for Aurangzeb's wife. It's also called "The Poor Man's Taj" because this tomb replicates on a smaller scale the famous Taj Mahal in Agra. Comparisons aside, the detailed carvings and stucco were stunning, especially the white marble latticework. My goal here was to capture a photo other than the one that everyone has seen of the Taj Mahal. Let me know if I was successful.

One Muslim family included a man in a coat and green turban which stood out, and later in the day I saw them again at the Panchakki. This reservoir and water wheel was built in the eighteenth century, and brings water into the city from six kilometres away. The mill still functions, and the fountain in the centre of the pool is powered by the same system that runs the mill and raises the water to the north-west pillar. In this photo you can see the water falling into the pool, a mosque across the road, and one of the many gates which characterize Aurangabad. I bought a necklace carved from camel bone, and a bidriware bangle, a traditional craft of silver wire designs inlaid in gunmetal.