Elephanta Caves, Mumbai, Aug/2009

During my recent visit to Mumbai (Bombay) on a business trip, I took a day off to explore the caves of Elephanta. On the day of my visit I left from Lokhandwala around 9 PM (big mistake) by taxi. It took about 2 hours before I reached downtown Mumbai - the famed gateway of India and the Taj Hotel. Tourist were swarming  because of the recent terrorist attack on the hotel. I hopped into a boat to Elephanta caves (Rs 120 round trip). there were bunch of young French tourist group in the boat. It was cloudy as pulled out of the harbor and headed north-east towards the island of Gharapuri . 

The ferry took an hour to reach the island of Gharapuri, that is how it is locally called. The Portuguese named it Elephanta because of a huge Elephant stone statue that used be at the entrance of this island. If you are not familiar with Elephanta caves, these are a collection of rock cut cave temples in an island off of Mumbai. Most of them are incomplete temples but the first and the only completed cave temple is the most marvelous one. These are temples of Shiva and the most famous of the three-headed shiva sculpture (Trimurti) is in the most handsome carving of a Hindu god I have seen so far.

View Elephanta Caves Trip in a larger map

Rock Architecture in India

The concept of cutting through cliffs and hills sides to build temples and monasteries is not new around the world. India has about 1500 of such rock-cut caves out of which 1200 are located in the state of Maharashtra. Unlike stand-alone temples like Angkor Wat or other ancient Indian temples which are built by pieces of cut rocks, these rock-cut cave temples are chiseled out of existing caves or hill sides. Once finished they looked like large temples with large columns holding the roof, deities and other carvings. The most famous of Indian rock-cut cave temples are the Ajanta and Ellora caves. Which I am planning to visit in September with friends. Most of these cave temples are either Buddhist or Jain or Hindu. Fortunately, they have not been exposed any of the invading muslim armies which normally would desecrate or destroy them. The Ajanta caves remained unknown till 1800 when they discovered accidentally by a British soldier out hunting.

History of Elephanta Caves

Elephanta caves were excavated around 6th or 7th century AD when the island was capital of Konkan Maurya kingdom. This island is densely forested. It appears to have long history of ancient habitation. Ruins of Buddhist stupas were also found on this island. Along with the statue of an Elephant it is rumored to have a horse statue that was never found. An inscribed slab found on this island was  taken to Portugal by the viceroy Dom Joao de Castro in 1540 but nobody could trace it. Portuguese appropriated the Elephant island and surrounding areas from Bahadur Shah of Gujarat. Dom Castro found the carvings in the caves so impressive that he could not believe that it was the work of human hands and therefore it was thought to be the work of the demons (asuras). Portuguese rulers did their best to destroy them. Both the Portuguese soldiers and authorities were responsible for breaking the sculptures and defacing them. That is why you will see the lower halves of the sculptures are destroyed while the upper half are largely intact.

This is the first time I have come across Christian rulers defacing and mutilating religious symbols in India. I have come across such mutilation in Egypt by Christians who hid in the tombs of Valley of Kings while escaping the persecution of Romans. But the damage there was not as large. Here I found the statues badly damaged. I wonder how beautiful they should be had they been intact.

After Mumbai was given away to the British as part of dowry by the Portuguese, the Elephanta caves fell into the hands of the British. They did nothing to preserve till late 1800s. The famous Trimuti bust was said to be almost intact till 1865 when attempts were made to disfigure it. The king Edward VII was given a banquet in the cave in 1875. Since then attempts were made to preserve the cave. It is mentioned somewhere that the massive Elephant stone statue collapsed in 1814 and was relocated to Victoria gardens in Mumbai.

There is an excellent painting of the entrance of the cave by a British landscape artist Robert Melville Grindlay. It showed the cave in dilapitated state with broken columns. It has now been fully restored. The only thing missing in the cave are the lights. With such beautiful carvings they would be look very impressive if properly lit. I could not take any decent pictures because I didn't bring any camera stand and my flash was insufficient.

My Impressions.

After I got off the ferry, I walked for about 15 minutes or so before I reached the entrance. The first cave very impressive as it is the only one completed. It took about 3-4 hours just in this cave. The remaining six caves were incomplete but they had a beautiful look too. Some are just a hole in the rock wall, some have elaborate entrances but the interior was never completed. Many of the caves have the Siva lingas in them. When you step into one of these incomplete halls, perfectly chiseled and prepared to for the masterpiece, and you are engulfed by the silence, you feel certain awe. I wait for them to magically transform into a beautiful temple with the idols. There were very few tourists and these halls were silent. Outside the rain fell in drizzles and exterior filled with greenery of Monsoon showers. One would wonder how the artisans worked and lived in these caves about 1500 years back. What made them abandon the rest of the caves. Imagine how marvelous it would be if remaining 6 caves were made as beautiful as the first cave.

My Impressions of the first cave

The entrance to the first cave is very grand. You are greeted by large pillars chiselled out of the rock. They are perfectly aligned. The entrance faces the North. Soon after entering, the first thing that greets you is small temple containing a large Shiva Linga. Even more impressive are the large dwarapalakas standing like giants on either side of the four shiva temple entrances. They may be one of the largest carvings of divine beings that I have seen in India. Each of these are as large as the carving of Vishnu at Angkor Wat which I thought was humongous.

As you walk around there are panels of various stories of shiva chiseled like the story of Ravana lifting mount Kailash, Shiva and Parvati with their sons Ganesh and Karthikeya, etc. There are 10 such carvings including the famous Trimurti. The Trimurti is the carving of three-headed Shiva. With his eyes closed, the center figure looked so peaceful and deep in meditation. Fortunately this most beautiful and elegant piece is almost intact and one can enjoy the beauty of it.

On the eastern end of this hall there is another wing which is equally beautiful. It has no beautiful sculptures in it except a shiva linga temple but it looks beautiful from outside with a separate entrance. The perfect symmetry of the columns with a reddish glow is a nice sight to behold. There used to be a Nandi at the entrance but it is missing and only a large circle is left there.

Final thoughts

After visiting these caves, my interest in rock-cut temples has increased. I look forward to my visit to Ajanta and Ellora. It would be great to go hiking among the jungles surrounding these hills and caves, especially during the time of monsoons. There were plenty of monkeys around.  Walking through these halls in midst of monsoon rain was  beautiful experience. Once you step out of these caves you are surrounded by lush forest and monkeys. You feel like you are in a Indiana Jones movie. 

References:

• Book on Robert Melville Grindlay paintings on India
• Here is an excellent collection of sketches and engravings of Elephanta caves done by European travelers. I was amazed how dilapitated these caves were in those days. You will see that in some of those sketches many pillars were either broken or missing. 
• Another beautiful engraving from British library

Tips if you are traveling to Elephanta caves:

• Due to lack of proper lighting you need a good SLR camera to take pictures of the sculptures inside the caves.
• You need a good flash and a camera stand.
• Mumbai traffic is horrendous. Unless you are staying in Taj Hotel at Gateway of India, you will need 2+ hours to get to Gateway of India. So leave early for the boat ride.
• Do not buy any guide books once you reach the island. The one and the only good guide book is the one published by Archaeological Survey of India titled 'Elephanta'. It is part of World Heritage Series. It costs Rs 100.
• Tip the security guards (Rs 10-25/person). They don't make much salary but they are guarding some of the world's treasure.
• Do not take the services of local guides. They are not qualified nor knowledgeable. If you want to help them take the tour. I saw a well qualified guide who came from Mumbai with a foreign tourist. She was good. So try to find one in Mumbai.
  

Jodhpur, Rajasthan (Dec. 29, 2008)

We reached Jodhpur police guest house on the night of Dec. 28th. Sujani and my sister picked some dinner but it was no good. Next morning we got some good chai from the guest house cook. We left for Jodhpur fort (also called Mehrangarh fort). The fort looked very impressive. It was professionally maintained and organized for tourists with rates published everywhere and qualified guides.

The tour of the fort lasted about 3 hours and it was very impressive. The havelis inside the fort were converted into museums with dedicated rooms displaying, Howdahs (elephant carriers), cradles, Jodhpur miniature paintings, Pallakis (palanquins), and their war booty from their lootings of Ahmedabad.

Apparently this fort had many wars, one of which was with Jaipur and Bikaner which they claim was won by Jodhpur. The most impressive of all the royal rooms I saw was the durbar and the courtyard in front of it. The balconies in the courtyard are fully restored and looked beautiful. Their miniature painting collection is impressive.

After the tour, while my family took rest, my son, Bunti and I walked along the fort ramparts and good view of the Jodhpur city. They had a good collection of ancient cannons. On the way out, we stopped briefly at the place where the royalty are cremated. There is a beautiful temple built in marble in honor of Jaswant Singh called Jaswant Thada.


History:
Jodhpur is capital of a region in Rajasthan called Marwar. This region is famous for merchants all around India. Marwar was ruled by Rathore clan since 1400s. They initialy were from Kaunaj (near modern day Kanpur) and moved to Pali (near Jodhpur) after they lost to Mohammed Ghori in 1192. Rathore ruler Raja Jai Chand (is this the notorious father-in-law of Prithviraj Chauhan?). Raja Jai Chand drowned while crossing river Ganges. After wandering through Gujarat they settled down in Pali.

Rathore Saihaji married the sister of of the ruling dynasty. They took over Mandore the capital of Marwar. Eventually they moved their capital to present day Jodhpur in 1459. Like many stories behind ancient capitals of India, there is a sage behind choosing of Jodhpur as the new capital. It was built by Raja Jodha.

There was an incident in 1516 when during the rule of Sikander Lodi, a band of Pathans kidnapped 140 Rajput women during festival of Teej. To avenge Rajput honour, the raja of Jodhpur chased and fought with the Pathans but lost his life in process. His son was part of the last confederacy made by Rajputs for national independence containing one-eyed Rana Sanga of Mewar. This confederacy fought against Babur in the battle of Khanua in 1528 and lost.

When Humayun lost to Sher Shah Sur, he fled to Marwar for refuge and didn't get any. Sher Shah soon arrived with a large army and defeated Marwar. It was a narrow victory and Sher Shah was supposed to have said, "I nearly lost the empire of Hindustan for a handful of barley." That is one reason why you will find barley in the Jodhpur coat-of-arms.

Akbar invaded Marwar in 1561 as he had a score to settle for not helping his father while he was on run from Sher Shah. He captured Jodhpur and handed it to the raja of Bikaner. Eventually the eldest son, Udai Singh, of defeated Rajah of Jodhpur was able to please Akbar and get back Jodhpur. Thus Jodhpur became vassal state of Mughals. Jodha Bai, sister of Udai Singh was given in marriage to Akbar and that is how Akbar returned all possessions he had seized from Marwar except for Ajmer. (I wonder how many Jodhas Akbar is married to. One was Jaipur's princes and daughter of Man Singh).

Jodhpur assisted Mughals from then onwards. They helped Mughals conquer many parts of India including Gujarat and parts of Decan. When Shah Jahan was rebelling against his father, Jahangir, Jodhpur Rathores helped put down the rebellion.

Jodhpur's relationship with Mughals soured with coming of Aurangzeb. Jaswant Singh, the Rajah of Jodhpur, backed Aurangzeb brother Dara Shikoh against Aurangzeb in 1658 at Fatehbad (his wife was supposed to have locked the fort gates to prevent him from entering Jodhpur for losing in a battle). Dara lost and was killed.by Aurangzeb. Jaswant singh continued to opose Aurangzeb until he died fighting Afghans. Aurangzeb tried to assasinate Jaswant Singh's infant son but he was smuggled out of Jodhpur by Durga Das. Enraged Aurangzeb sacked Jodhpur, destroyed numerous temples and try converting Rajputs to Islam. This united the divided Rajputs. Soon after the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, the infant son, Ajit Singh reclaimed the throne of Jodhpur. (There is a beautiful painting of Durga Das in forest in front of a camp fire in Jodhpur palace. It was painted by a German painter and looks very european).

When Jodhpur formed an alliance with Udaipur and Jaipur to fight the Mughals after being vassals for Mughals for many decades, the regained the privilege of marrying Udaipur princessess, a privelege they lost when they allied with the Mughals (Udaipur was fiercely indepenent).

Ajit Singh turned out to be far greater ruler than his father. When he was forced to give one of his daughter to then Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyyar in marriage, his hatred for Mughals grew further. He schemed with some courtiers in Mughal court and had the emperor (his son-in-law) assasinated. After capturing Ajmer from Mughals again, he prohibited Koran in Marwar. That may explain why I didn't see any muslims or mosques in Marwar other than Ajmer's Dargah.

Story of Ajit Singh's sons is a tragic one. His son Abhay singh assasinated his father and became the ruler of Marwar. His brother Bukhta was given a piece of the kingdom but both never got along. Due to their rivalry, the rajputs lost a perfect opportunity to dislodge the Mughals from Delhi. Bukhta eventually took over the throne from Abhay singh's son and much happened between both the brothers' families. Jodhpur throne passes between the families of both sons of Ajit Singh many times. Meanwhile the Marathas replaced the Mughals as the dominant force and took over most of Marwar including Ajmer.

Eventually, the grandson of Ajit Singh through Bukhta, Vijay Singh became the king. After his death, his adapted son Man Singh fights against Vijay Singh's grandson and eventually becomes the king of Marwar. Soon after his coronation, the armies of Pokhran, Jaipur, Mewar and Ambar beseiged Jodhpur fort. You can still see the holes made on the fort outer wall by the cannons fired during the seige. With help of his general Mir Khan, Man Singh broke up the seige and defeated the Jaipur army.

With his only son dead, Man Singh suffered from melancholy mania and was deemed not fit to rule. The British arrived in 1818 and concluded a treaty that made Jodhpur their protectorate. This brought political stability, prosperity and good relationship with the British.

The ruler of Jodhpur in 1800s, Pratap Singh introduced the famous 'Jodhpurs' to western world and fought for British with his elite Jodhpur lancers to Boxer rebellion in China in 1899 and later in World War I.

The kingdom of Jodhpur was the third largest of Indian kingdoms, after Kashmir and Hyderabad, during colonial times.

Travel
After returning from our tour of the fort, we had lunch at a Rajasthani restaurant where I tasted for the first time a vegetable dish with stringy things in them. Very tasty. That evening, we left for the village of Sarawas, south-east of Jodhpur which is famous for cotton carpets called Dhurries. The place we went to was run by a father-son duo. More impressive than their dhurries is their joint family of uncles, father, son, daughter-in-law, monther, kids. We saw their collection of furniture. I wondered where they could get the wood to make such beautiful furniture in an arid place like Rajasthan.

Fort Khejarla, Rajasthan (Dec 28, 2008)

We were initially scheduled to be in Jodhpur on the night of Dec. 28th. Due to delays at Ajmer and Pushkar and some confusion, the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Jodhpur, Mr. Ramji, who was helping us see Jodhpur and vicinity arranged for us to stay at Bilada which is about 70 km from Jodhpur for that night. He promised that it will be an experience but never revealed what it was. We were expecting a typical police guest house or something like that. We reached Bilada police station around 9:00 PM. The police escorted us through a country road with nothing extraordinary. After about 15 minutes of drive north of Bilada we saw something shining in gold in the distance. I recognized it as an ancient fort in middle of nowhere. As we winded through the small village to get to the fort entrance I was spellbound. As we stepped out of our taxi in the courtyard of the elegantly lit fort, . While we stood in awe not knowing where we are, the hotel manager asked where we wished to stay for the night, the fort or the 'new' rooms. We obviously picked the fort. The rooms were another surprise. We slept in a room built 450 years back.

Next morning I went crazy taking pictures and filming the village from the top of the fort. After a not so exciting breakfast, I wanted to spend the day reading and drinking tea in the shaded lawn and in the night visiting the ancient temple that I saw from the fort terrace. Our plan was to proceed to Jodhpur that morning but the beauty of this place made us decide to stay till the evening.

I sat on the shaded lawn and painted the ancient hallways, read a book (Last Mughal), had lunch and and just lazed in the sun. While we were about to depart that evening, we met the Rajah of the fort, Mr. Dileep Singh (see his picture). He explained the history of the fort and where he lived until recently inside the fort. I also met the person who leased the fort and converting it to hotel. He is an interior designer and exports handicrafts overseas. He certainly had very good taste. I saw how dilapidated the fort looked from old pictures and saw how he transformed it into an artistic hotel.

History
The Fort was built by the ancestors of Rajah Dileep Singh. He claimed that they actually came from the royal family of Jaisalmer having descended from one of the younger son of Jaisalmer Rajah. This Rajah faught for Rajah of Jodhpur against the Mughal rulers and in honor of this service, this Rajah (Thakur Gopaldas) was granted few villages near Khajerla (jagir). The fort was built in 1611 AD.

The fort doesn't look anywhere like an Indian fort but as a medeival european fort. Steep fort walls, little ornamentation. The rajah showed me the room his father used (the royal suite), and the rooms that he, his brother, and his aunt lived in. The restoration is still in progress.

The Rajah said that every time the Mughal army rolled in to attack Jodhpur, they would destroy this fort and that it was destroyed 3-4 times and each time it was rebuilt.

Travel
We left for the temple in the evening around 5 PM. The temple is supposed to be 600 years old and that Aurangazeb was supposed to have destroyed it the last time. We walked up the top to watch the sunset. We got a good view of the landscape around. There are patches of green fields in the distance but rest of the land arid and dry. I wondered how the villagers made a living. We spent a good hour talking with the local police who was escorting us around and the tourist guide from the hotel who was escorting a family of French tourist to see the sunset. We were told that most people subsisted on little agriculture they can and rest worked at a local limestone factory. My sister observed that the village did not appear to be as poor as we thought. We found most had a brick and mortar house.

The country side is filled with the sound of many birds. The temple also spread out a large amount of seeds for the birds. It appears to be a tradition in Rajasthan to feed the birds like that. This place including Jodhpur that we will be visiting are in the province of Marwar in Rajasthan. People from this area have many unique qualities. They are reputed to be very entrepreneurial in India (Marwari Jains), they are also Rajput (fierce Hindu warriors), very artistic like most areas in Rajasthan.

I promise to return to this place one day and then we head for Jodhpur around 6 PM after the sun has set. We took one last look at the lighted Fort Khajerla before heading North-west for Jodhpur.

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Ajmer-Pushkar (Dec 27, 2008)

Travel:
We left for Ajmer from Gwalior on Dec. 26th in the evening. The train was delayed by few hours. The train was not full. Some of the best tea I had after coming to India is not in Hyderabad by in North India and in particular in the train station of Gwalior. This morning, we discovered 'Matka tea', tea in mud cups in this train station. I don't know if the clay cups imparted any special taste but the fact that you can drink from one of those environmentally friendly cups was thrilling for me. Using my old mud cup we had couple of cups of masala chai. The train travelled through Agra, Jaipur before it reaches Ajmer in the middle of the night. We met a friendly couple in the train. They gave us some useful tips.

It was freezing night when we reached Ajmer in the middle of the night. We reached the hotel and grabbed few hours of sleep before we are ready to visit Hazrat Moinuddin Chisty Dargah. This is the tomb of the a famous sufi saint in the eastern part of Rajasthan. Ajmer is very arid like rest of Rajasthan. The road leading to the Dargah is filled with shops selling many interesting stuff. My attention was on sweet stalls. My son, Bunti, bought a cap as men/boys have to have their heads covered before entering muslim tombs or mosques. I used one that I purchased during our visit to Egypt in 2005.

History:
Moinuddin Chisty was born in east Persia in 1100s AD. Around that time Persia was fighting against the Tartars who ransacked the country repeatedly killing many and destroying cities. Khawaja Moinuddin's family was in middle of this turmoil. He lost his parents in the process. He is said to be descendant of Hazrat Ali, son-in-law of Prophet Mohammed and due to whom the Shia division of Islam came into existence. So he is a Shia Sufi saint.

Khawaja Moninuddin had a spiritual experience at an early age and left to study at Bokhara and Samarkand. Baghdad and Nashapur (where he lived) had well known universitities too but were destroyed in Mongols invasions. He apparently traveled through much of what is middle-east including Mecca, Madina, modern day Iraq. While at Medina he had vision asking him to proceed to Ajmer in India. He travelled through Afghanistan, modern-day Pakistan, Delhi before reaching Ajmer in 1191 AD.

Interestingly he entered India around the time the Ghauris of Ghazni were waging wars with Prithviraj Chauhan the ruler of Delhi and Ajmer too. This was the same year that Prithviraj Chauhan defeated the Ghauris in the first battle (he eventually lost to them starting the spread of Islam in India). The legend goes that Prithviraj's mother prophesized about a fakir coming into the kingdom of her son and if he is attacked, his son would lose his kingdom. It is also said that Prithviraj went to confront Khawaja Moninuddin and his assistant tried to attack the sufi saint with his black magic but failed and in turn became diciple of the saint. He married twice and passed away at 92.

Khawaja Moninuddin may be one of the first islamic evangelist in India even before the Muslim invaders came into India. His tomb is visited by both Muslim and Hindu devotees. I have heard people say that that his dargah (tomb) is a very powerful place (powerful in the sense that whatever the devotee wishes will hapen).

Travel:
The visit to the dargah was uneventful. I didn't feel anything much inside the dargah. It was crowded, unorganized, many ecstatic devotees and zealous priest looking to make money. After returning to hotel for lunch, we left for Pushkar which is few kilometers from Ajmer. We reached Pushkar in late afternoon. This place was teaming with foreign tourists and hindu piligrims. There is a lake where devotees take bath but I found none doing as it was very cold. But the sernenity of the lake ringed with many temples was spiritually touching. I visited the famed one and only one Brahma temple. Did not find it least bit appealing.

This is first of my experiences with North Indian hindu temples. While south India temples are very eloborate, with the priest dressed in certain way and the idols are large and life-like, north Indian temples have small idols usually dressed in daily wear like kurta and Pajama. The purohit looks just like anybody else. But the temples are usually beautiful and the temples are not crowded like those in south.

After Pushkar we headed for Fort Khajerla not knowing what it is and where we will be staying for the night. In between we stopped for a tea break but found a Rajasthani sweet shop with a friendly owner. Tasted some good sweets.

Follow the link to see a map of our travel through Rajasthan.