Thursday, June 11, 2009

How tiny in comparison


It is impossible to capture the magnificence of the caves and temples at Ajanta and Ellora on camera. The Kailasanath Temple - pictured here - is so stunningly gorgeous, so massive and detailed that one could spend days wandering its compounds marveling at it. 

Carved out of a mound of rock from top to bottom, with a hammer and chisel, mounds and mounds of earth were scooped out as the temple gained a rough form and then finally assumed its embellished, carved state. Carvings from the Mahabharata and Ramayana, the different avataars of Visnu, scenes from the Shiva Purana, Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati, Kali, Durga, Lakshmi, Ganesh, Nandi, even Ravana - they are all here.

I think it's difficult to fathom what is meant when people talk about it being a rock cut temple - the grandiosity of the temple, the intricacy of design, the very feat of building the temple hit you only when you see it. 

5 comments:

km said...

Please, please more pics!

Szerelem said...

yes, yes. I am still sorting through them - and there are also these half planned SE Asia posts still waiting to be finished. Sigh.

Roxana said...

wow, waiting to be finished! :-)

but i see what you mean, i also (mostly) failed to capture the feeling of japanese temples, it's so difficult - even if the pics were lovely, i always felt something was missing... or perhaps i shouldn't compare them to what i felt being there...

s said...

an idea would be to upload all the snaps on flickr, good or not, no?

and link the ones you like to the blog?

Szerelem said...

s - I am terribly lazy about flickr honestly. I do have an account but I fail miserably to upload much or make any productive use of it!