Carvings

Carvings inside the Elephanta caves

Carvings on Pillars

Seems like the image of Buddha carved on one of the pillars.

Image of Lord ganesh - the elephant headed God carved on one of the pillars in the Elephanta caves.

Pillar closeup

A close up of the pillars 'holding up' the ceiling of the cave.

Main cave

The cave temple is the pride of Elephanta, sprawled over an area of approximately 5000 square metres. Inside the temple is a large pillared hall with rows of columns that appear to hold up the roof of the cave.

Carvings

More carvings at the entrance to the Elephanta Caves. All these date back to the 6th-7th century A.D.

At the entrance

This is the 1st carving that greets one at the entrance to the Elephanta caves.

Elephanta Caves

The Elephanta Caves! Once known as Puri - later Gharapuri - this island was the proud capital of a powerful coastal kingdom and the great cave shrine in praise of Shiva, excavated in the sixth century, added to the ruling dynasty. It seems, different dynasties held their sway over this island, namely, the Konkan-Mauryas, Trikutakas, Chalukyas of Badami, Silaharas, Rashtrakutas, Kalyani Chalukyas, Yadavas of Deogiri, Muslim rulers of Ahmedabad and then by the Portuguese. The Marathas also had this island under their control and from them it passed into the control of the British. When the Portugese took possession of the island, they found a monolithic stone elephant at the place where they landed and named this a ilha do elephanta, island of the elephant.