{"id":75692,"date":"2025-11-30T12:30:54","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T07:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=75692"},"modified":"2025-12-02T11:47:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T06:17:34","slug":"ellora-caves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/ellora-caves\/","title":{"rendered":"Ellora Caves"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Ellora Caves Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scottish historian William Dalrymple wants the Maharashtra government to showcase the lesser-known sites at Ellora, including the last Ottoman Caliph\u2019s empty tomb, Malik Ambar\u2019s tomb, the first Peshwa\u2019s tomb, and the Sufi and Naga traditions at the caves.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Ellora Caves<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are located near the village of Ellora in northwest-central <\/span><b>Maharashtra<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are located 30 km <\/span><b>northwest of Aurangabad <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>80 km southwest of the Ajanta Caves.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Inscribed as a <\/span><b>UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the Ellora Caves are an extraordinary <\/span><b>complex of 34 rock-cut monasteries and temples carved into a high basalt cliff.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Spanning over 2 km,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> these structures <\/span><b>date from the 6th to the 10th century CE<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>represent <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">three major religions\u2014<\/span><b>Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The caves are <\/span><b>adorned with sculptures <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that reflect the spiritual beliefs of the time.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The sculptures range from <\/span><b>depictions of deities, celestial beings,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>mythological scenes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to portraits of royalty and everyday life.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The architectural brilliance of Ellora is most evident in the <\/span><b>Kailasanatha Temple (Cave 16)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><b>site\u2019s grandest<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and most breathtaking <\/span><b>structure<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>one of the largest monolithic structures in the world.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The structure is <\/span><b>carved vertically from a single rock<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It <\/span><b>took 18 years<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to carve out the temple.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The temple features <\/span><b>ornate pillars, detailed sculptures, massive courtyards,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and elaborate carvings that <\/span><b>depict stories from Hindu epics like the Ramayana <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>Mahabharata<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The <b style=\"font-size: inherit;\">Buddhist caves include large chaityas (prayer halls)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b style=\"font-size: inherit;\">viharas (monasteries)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, while the <\/span><b style=\"font-size: inherit;\">Jain caves<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are known for their intricate detailing and <\/span><b style=\"font-size: inherit;\">depictions of Jain Tirthankaras.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/maharashtra\/dalrymple-urges-maharashtra-government-to-spotlight-unknown-treasures-at-ellora-caves\/article70339426.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> <strong>TH<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ellora Caves are an extraordinary complex of 34 rock-cut monasteries and temples carved into a high basalt cliff. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":75949,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3958,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-75692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-ellora-caves","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}