Elephanta Caves: Difference between revisions

The '''Elephanta Caves''' are a collection of cave temples predominantly dedicated to the [[Hindu]] god [[Shiva]], which have been designated a [[UNESCO]] [[World Heritage Site]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Centre |first=UNESCO World Heritage |title=Elephanta Caves |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/244/ |access-date=30 March 2023 |website=UNESCO World Heritage Centre |language=en}}</ref><ref name="historic_places" /><ref name="berkson3">{{cite book |author1=Carmel Berkson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_RYqq7um0hcC |title=Elephanta: The Cave of Śiva |author2=Wendy Doniger |author3=George Michell |publisher=Princeton University Press (Motilal Banarsidass, Reprint) |year=1999 |isbn=978-81-208-1284-0 |pages=3–5}}</ref> They are on [[Elephanta Island]], or ''Gharapuri'' (literally meaning "the city of caves"),<ref name="EB1911"/> in [[Mumbai Harbour]], {{convert|10|km|mi}} east of [[Mumbai]] in the [[States of India|Indian state]] of [[Mahārāshtra]]. The island, about {{convert|2|km}} west of the [[Jawaharlal Nehru Port]], consists of five [[hinduism|Hindu]] caves, a few [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] stupa mounds that date back to the 2nd century BCE,<ref name="archive.org">{{cite book |last1=Dhavalikar |first1=M. K. (Madhukar Keshav) |title=Elephanta |date=2007 |publisher=Archaeological Survey of India |page=75 |isbn=9788190486606 |url=https://archive.org/stream/elephanta00dhav#page/74 |quote=There are remains of a brick built Buddhist stupa nearby which may belong to circa second century BC. Around it are seven smaller stupas, which may be votive.}}</ref><ref name=britelephanta>[https://www.britannica.com/place/Elephanta-Island Elephanta Island], Encyclopedia Britannica</ref><ref name=geo/> and two Buddhist caves with water tanks.<ref name="Encyclopedia of Sacred Places">{{cite book |last1=Brockman |first1=Norbert |title=Encyclopedia of Sacred Places |date=2011 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=9781598846546 |page=153 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JkSk4euA-TEC&pg=PA153 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Brunn |first1=Stanley D. |title=The Changing World Religion Map: Sacred Places, Identities, Practices and Politics |date=2015 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9789401793766 |page=514 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CGh-BgAAQBAJ}}</ref>

These date to between the 5th and 9th centuries, and scholars attribute them to various Hindu dynasties.<ref name="historic_places">{{cite book |author1=Trudy Ring |author2=Robert M. Salkin |author3=Sharon La Boda |title=International Dictionary of Historic Places: Asia and Oceania |publisher=Taylor & Francis |pages=252–5 |chapter=Elephanta Island |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vWLRxJEU49EC |isbn=978-1-884964-04-6 |year=1994}}</ref><ref name=britelephanta/> They are most commonly placed between the 5th and 7th centuries. Many scholars consider them to have been completed by about 550 CE.<ref name="berkson3"/><ref name="Michell2002"/><ref name="Spink2005p182">{{cite book |author=Walter M. Spink |title=Ajanta: The end of the Golden Age |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fjgq2OivwmkC |year=2005 |publisher=BRILL Academic |isbn=90-04-14832-9 |pages=182–183}}</ref>

===Cave 1: Main, Great Cave===

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Each wall has large carvings of Shiva-related legends, each more than {{convert|5|m|ft}} in height. The central Shiva relief ''Trimurti'' is located on the south wall opposite the main entrance. Also called the Sadashiva, it is the iconic form of a ''pancamukha linga'' is set in a mandala pattern with the abstract linga form of Shiva.<ref name="Kramrisch1988p445"/> The Sadashiva is a colossal carving, a bit over {{convert|6.27|m}}, depicting Tatpurusha (Mahadeva), Aghora (Bhairava), Vamadeva (Uma) and Sadyojata (Nandin).<ref name="Kramrisch1988p445"/> The carving is unusual because the standard ancient Hindu texts for [[murti]] design state that the Tatpursha should face east, but in Elephanta it is the north face (pointing towards the main entrance).<ref name="Kramrisch1988p445">{{cite book |author=Stella Kramrisch |title=The Presence of Siva |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cjqfkgD6YCAC&pg=PA445 |year=1988 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0491-3 |pages=445–447}}</ref>

====Sadashiva: Trimurti====

====Yogishvara: Lord of Yoga====

[[File:Yogishvara Lord of Yoga Shiva at Elephanta Cave 1.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Shiva as ''Yogishvara'', god of Yoga.]]

Shiva, states Stella Kramrisch, is the "primordial [[yogi]]" in this panel. He is the master of discipline, the teacher of Yoga arts, the master who shows how yoga and meditation leads to the realization of ultimate reality.<ref name=stella454yogi>{{cite book |author=Stella Kramrisch |title=The Presence of Siva |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cjqfkgD6YCAC |year=1988 |publisher=Princeton University Press (Reprint: Motilal Banarsidass) |isbn=978-81-208-0491-3 |pages=458–459 with footnotes}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Madhukar Keshav Dhavalikar |title=Elephanta |url=https://archive.org/details/elephanta00dhav |year=2007 |publisher=Archaeological Survey of India |isbn=978-81-904866-0-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/elephanta00dhav/page/29 29]}}</ref><ref name=michell34>{{cite book |author=George Michell |title=Elephanta |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2iExAQAAIAAJ |year=2015 |publisher=Jaico |isbn=978-8-184-95603-0 |pages=34–37}}</ref>

| footer = Location map of Elephanta's Stupa Hill with its Buddhist monuments: caves 6 and 7, stupas 1 and 2. Photograph of Cave 6, and plan of the cave.

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One is a large hall known as [[:Commons:Category:Elephanta Cave 6|Cave 6]], or Sitabai's temple cave ({{coord|18.963835|72.934125|display=inline}}). The portico has four pillars and two pilasters. The hall has 3 chambers at the back, the central one a shrine and the rest for monks or priests. The hall is devoid of any decoration, except for the door of the central shrine, which has pilasters and a frieze, with the threshold decorated with lion figures.<ref>For pictures of Cave 6, see [https://kevinstandagephotography.wordpress.com/2018/04/29/elephanta-caves-elephanta-island-mumbai/ this site]</ref> The sanctum has no remaining image. Cave 6 is historically significant because it was converted and used as a Christian church by the Portuguese in the later years when the island was a part of their colony (at some point between 1534 and 1682).<ref>{{cite book |author=George Michell |title=Elephanta |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2iExAQAAIAAJ |year=2015 |publisher=Jaico |isbn=978-8-184-95603-0 |pages=112}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=A Guide To Elephanta |date=1934 |page=10 |url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.279314/2015.279314.A-Guide#page/n21}}</ref>

==History==

[[File:Map of the Early Kalachuris.png|thumb|Map of the [[Kalachuri dynasty|Early Kalachuris]] circa 600 CE.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schwartzberg |first1=Joseph E. |title=A Historical atlas of South Asia |date=1978 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |page=146, map XIV.2 (b)|isbn=0226742210 |url=https://dsal.uchicago.edu/reference/schwartzberg/pager.html?object=183}}</ref>]]

According to Charles Collins, the significance of the Elephanta Caves is better understood by studying them in the context of ancient and early medieval Hindu literature, as well as in the context of other Buddhist, Hindu and Jain cave temples on the subcontinent. The historic Elephanta artwork was inspired by the mythology, concepts and spiritual ideas found in the Vedic texts on Rudra and later Shiva, the epics, the Puranas and the Pashupata Shaivism literature corpus of [[Hinduism]] composed by the 5th-century. The panels reflect the ideas and stories widely accepted and well known to the artists and cave architects of India by about 525 CE. The mythology varies significantly in these texts and has been much distorted by later interpolations, but the Elephanta Cave panels represent the narrative version most significant in the 6th century.<ref>{{cite book |author=Charles Dillard Collins |title=The Iconography and Ritual of Siva at Elephanta: On Life, Illumination, and Being |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pQNi6kAGJQ4C |year=1988 |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-0-88706-773-0 |pages=31–39}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Collins |first=Charles D. |title=Elephanta and the Ritual of the Lakulīśa-Pāśupatas |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |publisher=American Oriental Society |volume=102 |issue=4 |year=1982 |doi=10.2307/601969 |pages=605–609 |jstor=601969}}</ref> The panels and artwork express through their eclecticism, flux and motion the influence of Vedic and post-Vedic religious thought on Hindu culture in mid 1st millennium CE.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Carmel Berkson |author2=Wendy Doniger |author3=George Michell |title=Elephanta: The Cave of Shiva |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_RYqq7um0hcC |year=1999 |publisher=Princeton University Press (Motilal Banarsidass, Reprint) |isbn=978-81-208-1284-0 |pages=38–39}}</ref>

==In literature==