Bombay - Elephanta - Main Cave - a photo on Flickriver

Bombay - Elephanta - Main Cave

            The Postcard

A postally unused postcard bearing no publisher's name. The card, which has a divided back, was printed in Saxony.

The Elephanta Caves

Designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, the Elephanta Caves are a collection of cave temples predominantly dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. 

They are on Elephanta Island, or Gharapuri (literally 'The City of Caves'), in Mumbai Harbour, 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) east of Mumbai in the Indian state of Mahārāshtra. 

The island consists of five Hindu caves, a few Buddhist stupa mounds that date back to the 2nd. century BCE, and two Buddhist caves with water tanks.

The Elephanta Caves contain rock cut stone sculptures, mostly in high relief, that show the amalgamation of Hindu and Buddhist ideas and iconography. The caves are hewn from solid basalt rock. Except for a few exceptions, much of the artwork is defaced and damaged. 

The main temple's orientation as well as the relative location of other temples are placed in a mandala pattern. The carvings narrate Hindu mythologies, with the large monolithic 20 feet (6.1 m) Trimurti Sadashiva (Three-Faced Shiva), Nataraja (Lord of Dance) and Yogishvara (Lord of Yoga) being the most celebrated.

The carvings date to from the 5th. to the 7th. centuries, and scholars attribute them to various Hindu dynasties. 

They were named Elefante – which morphed to Elephanta – by the colonial Portuguese who found elephant statues in the caves. They established a base on the island. 

The Main Cave was a Hindu place of worship until the Portuguese arrived, whereupon the island ceased to be an active place of worship. 

The earliest attempts to prevent further damage to the caves were started by British India officials in 1909. The monuments were restored in the 1970's. 

In 1987, the restored Elephanta Caves were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is currently maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India.

Taken on: October 28, 2021

Tags:

postcard

old

nostalgia

nostalgic

Bombay

Mumbai

Elephanta

Main

Cave

printed

Saxony

divided

back

UNESCO

Hindu

god

Shiva

island

Buddhist

water

tanks

36BEM22 « less

Sets appears in: • Caves, Tunnels and Grottos • India

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