Ajanta, Ellora
It is difficult to know exactly what to marvel at the most when visiting Ajanta and Ellora, two large, old, ambitious rock-cut cave temples / monasteries.
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There are many such cave temple / monastery clusters across the Deccan plateau in India dating from roughly the 3rd-2nd centuries BC to the 7th-9th centuries AD. Some, like at Ajanta or Elephanta (near Bombay) are exclusively Buddhist or Hindu; others, like at Ellora or Badami, further south, have Buddhist, Hindu and Jain temples in the same cluster. The carvings and representations of deities - Buddha, Shiva, Vishnu, Mahavira - in these clusters are superb windows into the way these faiths have co-evolved, commingled and debated over the centuries, in theology, mythology and in daily social and cultural practice.
The frescoes at Ajanta, although badly damaged over the centuries, have held their colours remarkably well, are the main attraction at Ajanta. But the stone sculptures at both places and the stunning, quiet landscape, not to mention just thinking of the monks and artisans who created these structures, took my breath away.