Trekking and Photography: March 2009

(History)
The Elephanta Caves (also known as Caves of Gharapuri) are situated on Gharapuri Island, which was renamed Elephanta Island by the Portuguese and which is located in Mumbai harbour off the coast of Mumbai in Taluka Uran and District Raigad. The island is named after a colossal elephant found near the main entrance of cave. At present, the statue of elephant is housed at Jijamata Garden in Mumbai. The Island is located at about 11 km north-east of the Apollo Bandar, Mumbai, 7 km from the shore of the Gate Way of India. In 1987, the caves were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Most of the sculptures here are defaced by the Portuguese, who used the sculptures as target practice in the 17th century. The caves are thought to date back to the Silhara kings of the 9th through 13th centuries. Some of the sculptures of this site are also attributed to the imperial Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta (presently in Karnataka), the Trimurti of Elephanta showing the three faces of Shiva almost akin to the Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh. This was also the royal insignia of the Rashtrakutas. The rock-cut temple complex cover an area of 60,000 sq ft (5,600 m2) consisting of a main chamber, 2 lateral ones, courtyards and subsidiary shrines. It seems, different dynasties held their sway over this island, namely, the Konkan-Mauryas, Trikutakas, Chalukyas of Badami, Silaharas, Rashtrakutas, Kalyani Chalukyas, Yadavas of Deogiri, Muslim rulers of Ahmadabad and then by the Portuguese. The Marathas also had this island under their control and from them it passed into the control of the British. There are seven cave excavations (out of which 5 are easily reachable) in the elephanta group and these are datable from circa 6th – 7th centuries A.D. The main cave has a main entrance on the north with two other openings on the east and west respectively and a central hall with six rows of pillared columns, six in each row except on the western corner, where a shrine of lingam is provided.

(Reach the Caves)
Best way to reach these caves is from The Gate Way of India. Another way is from Uran. There is regular boat service from gate way to this island at the cost of Rs/- 100.00 and 120.00 only per head from 9.00 AM to 5.00 PM. It takes about an hour to reach the island from gate way. While reaching island from gate way, you can see more spots than from Uran such as Tata Power Plant, Bhabha Atomic Center, Beautiful view of gate way and hotel taj and few giant commercial ships and private cruises if you are lucky enough. I would suggest, take the earliest possible boat from gate way and reach the island before 12 noon so that you get maximum time to watch the caves and surrounding area. Remember to have a look at all the spots during your journey. Once you reach the destination, you have an option of taking the ride of toy train which will cost you Rs/- 10.00 only per head. You can enjoy the treat of “Kairi”, “Awala”, “Bor”, “Maka” and “Kakadi” (these are all Indian names of some of the best known fruits) while reaching caves from the boat station. After reaching the base of caves either by walk or train, you have to get the ticket which will cost you Rs/- 10.00 only per head if you are Indian and Rs/- 100.00 only per head if you are Non-Indian. After buying ticket you enter the premise where everything is very costlier than regular price. Remember to keep enough water and eatables with you so that you don’t need to buy anything there. After a walk for few minutes, there are steps which will take you to the caves. You can even hire a chair which will be lifted by four persons and they will take you to top. While going though these steps you can see many stalls and small shops selling many things like craft material, metal statues, bags and t-shirts, paintings and much more. Be ware of monkeys while you are on this trip, they are every where and they will not allow you to eat anything easily specially to girls/ladies. Once you reach the top, have a break and also have some cold water from the water cooler near the gate. Note this place as one way from here will take you towards caves and another will take you to Canon Hill where two huge canons are installed by British Army in 18th century. Take the way to caves and you will see a small museum which will follow you though summary of these caves and will also show you the pictures from other caves across India. Visit this museum and have a look at the available information, maps and pictures so that you will not miss anything during you trip.

(About Caves and Sightseeing)
Once you get out of museum, the caves starts from your right hand side. It is cave 1 and other caves from 2 to 5 are behind this cave and the last cave 6 is somewhere away from all these and it is quite hard to reach also. As you enter cave 1, you will see few huge pillars and the famous “Trimurti” which will be in front of you as you stand on caves entrance. Remember this cave is biggest among all and has maximum to watch out for. This cave has total 9 carved structures and a shiv temple. This cave has two sub caves from its entrance, one on its right side and other on left side which has 4 structures plus a shiv temple and 2 structures plus a water reservoir respectively. Take you time and watch all these 15 beautifully carved structures, 2 shiv temples with huge “Shiv Pind” and a water reservoir. I would suggest either to have a guide or to follow some group which has guide so that you can understand the meaning of all these structures. The reason to have a guide is that, most of these statues are almost broken and each one of them has a story to tell which can not be understood by just watching them. Even the pillars are so minutely and beautifully carved that you can not resist but watch them again and again. There are almost 40 such pillars. I will not be able to mention each of the statue and its meaning here as it’s very lengthy and so much descriptive that it can not be understood just by reading, you have to be before that particular structure to understand its meaning. Here, you can take some rest and can even eat your packed food safely as those monkeys will not follow you here. But be ware and remember that you don’t leave any of your waste material behind so that the place is left clean. After spending enough time in this cave, you can move on to other caves which don’t have much to watch for but are still in good condition except cave 5 which looks like half done task. There is a toilet near cave 5 where you can unload yourself. After watching all these caves, come near the water cooler or museum which I had mentioned earlier and take left turn from here to go to Canon Hill. In about 20 minutes, you will reach that hill and have a look at that huge canon. Take a left turn from this canon to go to another canon and also see that. They are almost same in size and notable thing is that they were connected from underground by a tunnel so that one can reach them from within ground without anyone’s notice. This tunnel is closed now but you can at least see the doors of that tunnel. Both canons are about 8-10 meters in length. From canon hill, you can see the lake of Elephanta which falls behind caves and the commercial harbour which also falls behind these caves. After having deep look at all these things and the surrounding area, you can start the journey towards boat station and then towards Mumbai with sweet memory of these caves, canons and this island. I am posting some of the pictures taken by me when I visited this place in March 2009.