34 rock-cut temples, three religions, one extraordinary hillside
Ellora is a UNESCO World Heritage Site 30km from Aurangabad in Maharashtra — 34 monasteries and temples excavated directly into the Charanandri Hills between the 6th and 11th centuries AD. Unlike Ajanta (Buddhist only), Ellora represents three religions side by side: 12 Buddhist caves, 17 Hindu temples, and 5 Jain shrines, all carved from the same basalt cliff face in an extraordinary demonstration of religious coexistence. The centrepiece is the Kailasa Temple (Cave 16) — a single monolithic structure carved top-down from the cliff, bigger than the Parthenon, depicting Mount Kailash, home of…
Ellora flourished during the rule of the Rashtrakuta dynasty (8th–10th centuries AD), who commissioned the Kailasa Temple and much of the finest Hindu sculpture. The earlier Buddhist caves date to the Kalachuri and Chalukya periods. The site was gradually abandoned after the decline of these dynasties and rediscovered by Europeans in the early colonial period. Unlike Ajanta, Ellora was never completely unknown — local pilgrims continued visiting the Jain and Hindu shrines. UNESCO inscribed Ellora in 1983 as part of the Ajanta-Ellora World Heritage grouping.