Treknic to the world of Rock and Caves (Ajanta and Ellora)
After my trek to Har Ki Dun, I wanted to do some Treknic or
some small trip. Then I got mail from Chaitanya
telling “Exploring the Wonders of Ajanta
and Ellora Caves”, since it was in my TO DO list I just registered
immediately to the event.
On 7th October our flight time was early morning
5.30 a.m. So with all confusion whether to go to airport on previous day night
or early morning, I decided to go early morning since my place was near to
airport. Few went to airport on the previous day night and few early morning,
somehow we all managed to reach airport on the right time and started our
journey with 2 different flights. By 7 we all landed in “PUNE” got fresh and
started our journey to Aurangabad in a TT. Our crew members who explored Ajanta
and Ellora were :- myself, Chaitanya,Sushma, Geetha, Tejaswini, Shubha, Anshu(our
little lady or model, singer, dancer of class 9th J so many names she has though)
Abhinav, Saroj, Amit, Mahesh and Suresh.
Day 1:- From Pune to
Ellora.
After getting down in PUNE airport we got fresh and boarded
our TT which was waiting outside the airport. All were very hungry so there was
a pin drop silent in TT. Chaitanya asked who’s not hungry. All were shocked to
hear J because rats were running in everyone’s
stomach. Around 30 mins of drive we got down at hotel. We all were looking for
Vada Pav which is very famous in Maharashtra. We ordered Vada Pav, poha,
sabudhana Vada (Yummy) and tea. With Vada Pav we got green chilies. I, Saroj and Abhinav had the first bite of chili.
Omg it was spicy too spicy water was running from nose eyes everywhere but it
was yummy. Later I didn’t dare to have it but Abhinav and Saroj ate it. But
they also didn’t have much else we should have got Ice cream to both of them for
next day morning (LOLJ).
After having heavy and yummy breakfast we continued our
journey to Ellora. From Pune, Aurangabad is around 220kms and from Aurangabad,
Ellora is around 30kms. So we had 5 to 6 hours of journey. If we have a good
team, journey will never make you bore else it will be hell. We really had good
team and we played lots of games. First was our BTC‘s one of the national game “dumb charades” followed by “Antakshari” and then “Food
Antakshari”. Food Antakshari was
too good so many food items with different combination J(example was Tequila with pickle, this was told by our Model AnshuJ) Dumb Charades word “BalaYogi Upmanyu” was crazy we bought all tiffin’s
like roti dose idly all for Upmanyu J J
By 1 o’clock we reached Ellora caves. We had our lunch (Veg biryani) and
then we entered Ellora caves. We took a guide with us since none of us were
aware of Ellora caves nor its history.
Let me start with a little history of the place. The actual name
of Ellora cave is Verul, but it was
difficult to pronounce for the British and thus was renamed as Ellora. There
are 12 Buddhist, 17 Hindu and 5 Jain caves containing rock-cut temples and
monasteries. The Cave nos. 2, 5, 10 and 12 are of the Buddhist group, Cave nos.
14, 15, 16, 21 and 29 are of the Brahmanical group and Caves 32 to 34 are of
the Jaina group is what the guide explained before we entered the caves.
Once we enter we see “Kailashnatha Temple” at the entrance
where they have maintained beautiful park in front of it. Main attraction in
Ellora cave is Kailashnatha Temple. The Kailashnatha Temple is cave number 16
amongst the 34 caves of Ellora. Building the Kailashnatha temple self-consumed
around 200 years to complete is what the guide tells. We took some photos and entered the temple.
At the entrance towards our right we see “Lord Ganesh” and left we see “Maa
Durga“ka sculptures incarnated on the rocks. Exactly on the opposite we see goddess
Lakshmi with 4 elephants who’s doing Pooja by pouring water on her. The way they
have incarnated it actually shows the waves of water and how the hairs of
goddess has got wet. As we move on we can see so many statues of lord Shiva, Ravanasura,
Mahishasuramardhini, Goddess Sarawasthi, Ganga and many more. We can see many avatars
of lord Shiva incarnated. As we go further we saw Ramayana and Mahabharata also
incarnated. There was also statue of Shiva Parvathi ka Panigraha where we can
see the shy face of Parvathi incarnated so beautifully.
We also saw idol of Ravanasura who cut all his 10 heads to
worship Lord Shiva when he couldn’t find flowers, which was carved beautifully.
Like this we saw so many beautiful idols of gods and goddess. Then we went inside
the garbhagudi where we found shivaling which was very big in size. Every
carving had its own story behind .It was very nice to hear such stories and see
the carvings J.We
spent almost 2 to 2.5 hours in Kailashnatha temple itself. After some photography
we went to Buddhist caves.
Buddhist caves are caves no. 2,5,10 and 12. These caves have
big idols of Lord Buddha who is preaching Buddhism. Mostly here Buddha idols
are in sitting posture. But Buddhism didn’t spread much outside because they
don’t give equal respect to women is what we got to know from the guide.
But most interesting in these caves was cave no.10. Monks
used this cave has prayer hall. Beauty of this cave was when we chat “Aum” or
“Buddham sharanam Gacchami” it used to reflect back. And we could feel the
reflection. Such a beautiful architecture. I was stunned when I felt that
reflection. Like this we explored Ellora caves and its beauty .It was almost
6.30 p.m. when we came out of the caves
After visiting the magnificent Ellora caves, we went for
Grishneshwar. This was just 1 or 2 kms away from Ellora caves. It is the 12th
Jyotirling temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. The temple is built in Red Rock. We
took darshan and left for hotel which was already booked. Around 7.30 p.m., we
reached Hotel in Aurangabad. Same hotel was booked for next day also. Got fresh
and went out to have dinner. Had tummy full of food came back and slept that
night with a deep sleep, since was tired don’t even know when I got sleep.
Day 2:- From
Aurangabad to Ajanta.
We got ready by 6a.m. early morning and started our second
day journey to Ajanta caves. We had our breakfast on the way before reaching Ajanta.
We reached Ajanta around 7.30 a.m.
After immersing ourselves in great architectural splendor at
Ellora, we pushed off to the Ajanta caves. Unlike Ellora, your vehicle cannot
directly take you to the caves. The caves are located inside the forest, where
one cannot take their own vehicle. We need to alight at a particular point from
where we are taken to the foothills of the cave by a special bus. The journey
takes about 20 minutes and is a very interesting ride. The jungle environment
definitely adds to the excitement.
Once we descend from the bus, we need to do quite a bit of
climbing up the hills to reach the caves. The pathway is a bit steep. But, once
up there, one would realize all the pain was worth it. While Ellora was all
about sculptures, Ajanta is all about wonderful arts it’s full of paintings. Ajanta
caves, excavated in a horse-shoe shaped rock surface about 77 meters in height
overseeing a narrow stream known as Waghora. Entire cave sight was simply
incredible and I was happy to see what I had come so far to see.
Here also we took guide and started to see and listen the history
about Ajanta. We saw so many paintings of Buddha and his lifestyle. How he got
enlighten under Bodhi tree was beautifully painted. We can see how King and
Queen were dressed during those days.
The “Fashion” what we do now is nothing new. Because people
on those days have already done it and we are just following them is what I feel
because each painting show their style and their passion toward “Fashion”
Ladies used to dress very beautifully and were also very
pretty. Their hair styles, lipsticks, thin eye browse, their jewelry everything
we are following it now. Same with guys, in painting I can see shaved head, people
wearing Bermuda’s finger rings, checks shirts, stripe shirts all were fashion
that time too.
Most of the painting have got destroyed because of bats, few
years ago since there was no electricity people used to watch the painting
using lamps , the carbon which comes from those lamps have accumulated on
paintings . Archeology department are trying their best to preserve paintings
by doing so many research.
We saw all the caves took photographs and around 1.30 we
came out and had our lunch in Ajanta itself, since there are lot of good hotels
around. After lunch we started our journey back to Aurangabad.
Around 5 we reached “Suneri Mahal” but the Mahal was closed
because it closes by 5. History about the Mahal has told by a local was King
used to keep all his treasure below the Mahal. The height of the Mahal about
the ground level, has been dugged below with same depth to store his treasure in
those days. Now that underground place is filled with water and the entrance
for that has been closed because it’s a very dangerous to go inside. We took
one group photo and left from there to “Taj Mahal “I mean it’s a copy of Taj
Mahal called “Bibi Ka Maqbara”.
Around 5.45 we reached “Bibi ka Maqbara” has it is just 2
kms from “Suneri Mahal”.
The Bibi Ka Maqbara was built by Azam Shah,
the oldest son of Aurangzeb. This was his attempt to rival the Taj Mahal built
by his grandfather, albeit in memory of his mother, Rabia Durrani, the first
wife of Aurangzeb. Unfortunately, he lacked the treasury his grandfather had
access to, as well as the skilled labor the treasury bought. Today, the Bibi Ka
Maqbara is simply a replica of the Taj, and is popularly known as the ‘Deccani Taj’
– the Taj of the Deccan.
We took some good photos went around Maqbara. It’s very
beautiful. But place is bit crowded. We spent around 45 mins taking pics and
chit chatting and then came out had Chats and came back to Hotel. Got fresh and
had dinner at “Hotel Kailash” which is one of the best hotel in Aurangabad.
Had nice dinner and also had a nice
sleep since we were tired. Our 2nd day of trip of Ajanta came to an end.
Day 3:- Aurangabad to
Bangalore
3rd day we had only few hours of time since we have to return back to Pune which is of 6 hours journey. The last place which we visited on 3rd day was “Daulatabad Fort”.
We took the ticket at the entrance and entered the fort. It was full of walls. We took photos everywhere and then we reached a place where it was pitch dark. There was local person who works there. We asked him to explain why the place was so dark.
We went to the top took some nice photos. There were so many squirrels feeded them some chips and then started descending from the port. Came down had sugar cane juice and started back our journey to Pune.
For the first time in history of BTC we played UNO in TT. That was too funny. We were able to see cards of the next person. It was too fun. I still remember Suresh who used to always forget telling “UNO”, one time he told I know I know instead of UNO, LOL J we were laughing like hell.
We reached Pune by 5.30 but our flight was at 7.45. We entered the airport got fresh. Did the feedback session and boarded our Bangalore flight.
This is how our journey to Ajanta and Ellora came to End. I really want to thank Sushma and Chaitanya for organizing it. And also my special thanks to team for making my trip to Ajanta Ellora has one of the memorable one.
Special thanks to all photographers (Chaitanya, Saroj, Mahesh, Abhinav, Amit and Tejaswini) for such a memorable and beautiful pics.
Organized By : Sushma & Chaitanya
Date of event : 7 - 9 Oct, 2016
Members Count: 12
Place : Ajanta & Ellora
Pictures : BTC FB Page
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