Cataloguing the book Indian Art and the Art of Ceylon, Central and South-east Asia reminded me of the amazing Ellora Caves in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, which is a complex of some 32 Hindu, Buddhist and Jain caves.
This photograph, borrowed from WorldTourismPlace.com, shows just one of the caves, although this cave is probably the most spectacular of them. Minute details of the caves can be found on Wikipedia and in books, but it suffices to say that the Ellora complex is HUGE. 2 days are barely enough to cover them, much less scrutinise their every detail.
A teacher of mine once said his teacher spent 16 years studying the caves and was unable, after more than a decade, to figure them out. I don’t know what he was trying to figure out, really, but the caves certainly feel very mysterious.
Many new-age people say talk about vibrations, energy, etc etc etc – and most of the time these vibrations completely elude me. I sometimes get asked if I can feel the energy of the room, and other such questions, and I never know how to respond. But in the case of Ellora, you can literally feel the age of the place – it may have something to do with the giant statues reminiscent of Egypt, or the swarms of bats flying in every cave.
Or, it may be because Ellora was a spaceport built by aliens – as claimed by Zechariah Sitchin, author of The Lost Book of Enki (i was going to link this, but the book is not yet uploaded!).
