The rock-cut temples at Ellora amaze us with their ingenuity, architectural skill and artistic wonders. Yet this group of temples in western India, constructed over several hundred years, is only one such set of rock-cut sanctuaries created in ancient India. While the Buddhist caves of Ellora are considered the earliest, begun in the 6th century, Hindu and Jain temples soon followed and today these basalt cliffs are home to over 30 rock-cut shrines.
Rock-cut temples appeared much earlier. Ajanta, a well-known example, was mostly created during the late fourth century but with caves dating a few hundred years earlier. The Buddhist sanctuaries of Lomas Rsi (Rishi) and Sudama in the Barabar hills are much earlier still, created in the 3rd century BC. Large numbers of architects, artists, craftsmen and workers must have been involved in the process of carving out these immense spaces with hammer and chisel. They were certainly capable of building structures from wood and stone, and did so. So why the massive effort to sculpt elaborate shrines and sanctuaries from the “living rock”?
Sacred Mountains, Sacred Spaces
Upon looking at the dark entrances of rock-cut sanctuaries dotting a basalt cliff-face, one immediately asks: Why? Why go to all that trouble? Why did patrons—of whichever religious sect—choose these rocky or mountainous areas and why did they choose to have a sanctuary or temple carved from the rock-face rather than built up from the ground?
Mountains in India, as in many other places, have mythological significances. Mount Kailasa (Kailash) as the home of Shiva is the prime example in Indian religious tradition. Ethnography has demonstrated that, associated with height and the sky, mountains often have a sacred quality and are linked with spiritual forces or powers. Mountains and cliffs often inspire awe. As a natural dwelling-place of divinity, a mountainside would be a logical place to put a temple. We cannot discount such associations, even in a so-called Buddhist context. Overlap between what we think of as separate religions seems to have been considerable and Buddhism arose out of and in response to Vedic religions. Buddhist iconography also draws heavily on so-called “nature” deities and pre-Buddhist belief.
A mountainous or rocky landscape is usually also less accessible. This may have appealed to those religious people, like Buddhist monks, who were interested in separating themselves from the mundane world in order to gain spiritual merit or enlightenment. For those placing a Hindu temple, the separation of the deity (in his natural home) from the worshipper might highlight the experience of traveling into the divinity’s presence and make a pilgrimage that much more profound.
Nature Spirits and Gods in the Landscape
Sculpture in stone was a well-established art by the time of rock-cut architecture. One might consider sculpture a removal of stone to “release” the image within. In a similar way, we might think of rock-cut spaces as being “released” in the same way—the presence of divinity was always there, waiting to be revealed.
The 6th century text the Brhat Samita lists the types of places in which deities reside. These include places near rivers and lakes, peaceful places, towns with gardens and “the vicinity of forests, rivers, mountains and waterfalls….” The implication is that divinity already resides in such places and that temples should be built accordingly. The above-quoted passage in interesting in light of rock-cut sanctuaries’ placement on mountain- or hill-sides, often near rivers, such as the array of caves overlooking the bend of a river at Ajanta.
In the context of the Hindu temple, Stella Kramrisch discusses the temple as tirtha, literally a ford or crossing point of a river, but used to denote a sacred site. This liminal aspect of sacred sites—this crossing-point, the meeting places of humans and deities—is marked by the placement of rock-cut temples on cliff-faces, between earth and sky, and the boundary between the exterior of the mountain and the interior. Traveling into the realm of divinity and returning, as in pilgrimage and worship, can also be conceived of as a liminal experience, a rite of passage.
Kramrisch’s discussion of texts on temple-building presents the belief that a relationship with resident deities must be established in the process of temple construction. She cites an invocation from the Brhat Samita in which resident spirits are asked to depart in order to clear the way for the deity to whom the temple is to be dedicated. One way to read “subsidiary” images on temples is to see these “lesser” divinities as being taken into the service of the main deity. For example, as early as the 3rd century BC, at Bharhut, we see yakshas, yaskhis and nagas as guardians on the railing around the Buddhist stupa. Similarly at the 8th century Kailasanatha cave at Ellora, nagas and water goddesses adorn the entrance to the Buddhist sanctuary. Numerous other examples could be cited. What is clear is that a range of divinities were long associated with natural places and these continued to be envisaged as part of the new created landscape including rock-cut sanctuaries.
The sheer number of rock-cut sanctuaries across India, spanning multiple centuries, highlights the important role of such sacred places. They are a testament not only to the spiritual traditions of the country, but also to the creativity and skill of the ancient artisans who labored to create homes for divinity out of the "living rock."
Sources
Brhat Samita, by Varahamihira. Edited and translated by MR Bhatt, 1982. Motilal Banarsidass: Delhi.
Kramrisch, S. 1976. The Hindu Temple. Motilal Banarsidass: Delhi. Orig. publication 1946.
Spink, W. 1967. Ajanta to Ellora. Marg: Ann Arbor.
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