The Elephanta Caves are a great tourist attraction in the vicinity of the large Mumbai meteropolis. These caves house rock cut temples dedicated to Shiva Mahadeva, dating back to the 5th century CE. Elephanta Island was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 to preserve the artwork.
Elephanta Island is easily accessible by ferry from Mumbai, being about 10 km from the south east coast of the island city. Its about an hour`s boat ride from the Gateway Of India. A narrow gauge train takes tourists along the 1 km pier to the base of the steps that lead to the caves.
The original name of this epitome of temple art is Agraharpuri. Agrahar is the necklace or most important neck ornament. The Agraharpuri slowly became Gharapuri; still retaining the original meaning as the focal point of Gharapuri Island, which was renamed Elephanta Island by the Portuguese explorers, after seeing a monolithic basalt sculpture of an elephant found here near the entrance. They decided to take it home but ended up dropping it into the sea because their chains were not strong enough. Later, this sculpture was moved to the Victoria and Albert Museum (now Dr Bhau Daji lad Museum) in Mumbai, by the British.
These rock cut temples were created by carving out rock, and creating the columns, the internal spaces and the images. The entire temple is akin to a huge sculpture, through whose corridors and chambers one can walk. The entire complex was created through a process of rock removal. Some of the rock surfaces are highly finished while some are untreated bare rock.The entire cave temple complex covers an area of about 60000 square feet and it consists of a main chamber and two lateral ones, courtyards and several subsidary shrines. Above the temple is a mass of natural rock. There are three entrances to this temple. The ones on the east and the west marking the axis of the temple. A 20 pillared hall lines the axis and on its western end is the cell in which is enshrined a Shivalingam. The pillars consist of fluted columns standing on square bases and are crowned with fluted cushion capitals. The Sadasiva manifestation of Shiva is carved in relief at the end of the north south axis. This colossal 20 feet high image of the three headed Shiva, showing Shiva in the three roles of creator, preserver and destroyer, Trimurthy is a magnificient one, considered to be a masterpiece of Indian art. This colossal image represents Panchamukha Shiva, only three faces of whom are carved into the wall and it demands immediate attention upon entering the temple through the northern entrance. Also on the southern wall are grand sculptured images of Kalyanasundara, Gangadhara, Ardhanariswara and Uma Maheswara. To the west of the northern entrance are sculptured images of Nataraja and Andhakaasuravadamoorthy and to its east are images of Yogiswara and Ravanaanugrahamurthy. Thus in the Elephanta caves, Shiva is portrayed in the non anthropomorphic Shivalingamform, as well as in his quintessential being emanating from the Shivalingam in the colossal image and in 8 manifest forms.To the east of the main temple is a courtyard, flanked by the secondary shrine. This temple contains six pillars at its entrance, four of which are free standing and two engaged. The entrance leads to a hall decorated with sculptured panels depicting legends from the Shiva Purana.