Sunday, January 28, 2007

Curiosity

Someplace in the dusty corners of my mind, I knew that Ellora's Cave wasn't just the name of an erotic romance e-publisher. Curiosity took over when the brain connections failed to dredge up any remnants of history, geography or social studies lessons . . . forcing me to turn to the goddess known as the almighty Google. Here's what I found:

(India) The Ellora caves total 34 in number and have been carved into the sides of a hill of basalt. The Ellora caves are regarded as the finest specimen of cave-temple architecture anywhere in the world. The 12 caves to the south are Buddhist (AD 600-800), 17 in the centre belong to Hinduism (AD 900) and 5 caves to the north are dedicated to Jainism (AD 800-1000). The sculptures in the Buddhist caves are an attempt at depicting the nobility, grace and serenity inherent in the Buddha. The caves belonging to Hinduism are dedicated to Vishwakarma, the patron saint of Indian craftsmen. The Vishvakarma cave also has Buddha placed in the stupa. Its two-storied structure sports a colorful pageant of dwarfs, dancing and making music. The caves of Ajanta and Ellora are a marvel of rock art forms in caves. A visit to the caves would be an enchanting experience.

Isn't that interesting? I wonder if the good people of India know about the erotic name-sake??

4 comments:

Vicky said...

Wow Wylie! I found that extremely fascinating.

Okay don't hate me and I know just about every historical romance authoer is going to cringe, but I'm not the castle or mountain kind of girl. I'm spoiled rotten, in Slovakia we have WAY too many of both and I'm just not interested...
but for some reason this kind of subject pulls at me. I love hearing stories that go back to something you have been familiar with.

Unknown said...

That is very cool. It's nice to know that we now belong to the dancing, musical dwarf band. Err...

Wylie Kinson said...

Yeah,... like I need any further affirmation that I'm short!!

Amy Ruttan said...

Very cool. I wonder do the Ellora's Cave have any depiction of the Kama Sutra. It would be fitting.