ELEPHANTA CAVES PART 14 - HISTORY OF ELEPHANTA CAVES - GHARAPURI

GHARAPURI  - ELEPHANTA CAVES 14

HISTORY OF ELEPHANTA CAVES

MAHESHA ELEPHANTA

While the creators of the caves remain unknown due to a lack of surviving records, local legend credits various mythical and non-human figures with the creation of these temples. The earliest surviving records identify Elephanta Island as Puri or Purika, the capital of the Konkan Maurya kingdom during the 6th century C.E. though their role in building the caves remains debated amongst historians.

LION PEDESTAL

 In all Probability, The Elephanta or Gharapuri  caves were commissioned around the 5^th or 6^th century CE and are unique in the sense, they do not contain any specimen of early Indian architecture. The Gupta Empire coincides with the revival of Hinduism and a remarkably liberal patronization of Art and Architecture of the medieval period between 350 to 650 CE.

These beautiful monuments faced ruthless vandalism from the Portuguese, who not only used them as cattle shed and for storing fodder, they also used the caves as an artillery testing ground during their occupation of the Island . The Portuguese in terms of their Art & Architecture have only a history of colonial buildings as architecture and as far as sculpture’s is concerned were practically tomb art or zero or borrowed from the Roman past. Hence I presume that they would have been awe struck and jealous seeing sculptures from the past by a Race far superior to them and an art form beyond their imagination.

According to James Burgess an Englishman who wrote in 1871 on the Elephanta, mentioned the caves were intact when taken over by the Portuguese in 1534.Dom Joao saw the caves in 1539 and said that the work is of a “Superhuman” agency. In 1550 Garcia d’Orta found them much damaged by cattle. In 1579 J.H.Van Linschoten described the island as “Pory” or Puri and called them deserted and ruined. In 1673 it further suffered damage from the Portuguese who used it as shed for keeping cattle fodder. In 1712 one of the Spanish Hidalgo ( Supposedly Nobleman) fired several shots from a big gun to hear echoe’s, thereby damaging many a pillars. According to Grose in 1750 the Portuguese were in pains to maim and deface the statues. In 1865 Cave no VI, which was being used as a church by the british again saw vandalism in the form of the noses of two statues in the Maheshmurthi being broken.

The history of the Gharapuri caves has to be deduced from tradition only. One important piece of inscription on a stone at the entrance to the caves was stolen by a petty thief the Portuguese viceroy “Dom Joao de Castro” and shipped to Europe in 1540 and the funniest part is it the stone is missing from the palace of the King Joao III.

In 1909 the monumental caves of the Island became protected under the Ancient Monument preservation act of the British.   

DWARAPALAKA with two dwarf attendants

Further an English contractor named Harold Smith, had possession of two copper plates and took them to England in 1865. (Probably illegal). These copper plates are not traceable now and hence the valuable content of the plates are denied to the next generation.

Aihole inscription of 634-35 CE says that a Maurya dynasty was ruling the West coast of india in the 1st half of the 7^th century CE and was defeated by Pulakesin II the  successful Chalukya King of western India. The ancient Indian sculpture art is generally believed to have commenced in the reign of Asoka the Great Mauryan King whose rule lasted from 273 to 232 BC. The early school of Sculpture was at its best during the ascendency of the Andhra’s, also known as Satavahana’s in the 1^st century BC.

Decorated JATAMUKHA headgear

The Konkana region denotes the entire strip of land between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea up to Mewar, which included parts of Gujrath, Maharashtra, Madhyapradesh & Karnataka.  The Konkana Maurya’s were conquered by the early Chalukyas around 635^th year CE.

DWARAPALA

Porphyry the Greek scholar and historian’s description, in his treaties named the “De Styge” around 304 CE, were identical to the representation of one of the panels in the main cave – Ardhanareeshwara –Siva. This could, may be take back the existence of Elephanta a few centuries before.

PAVILION

Some References:

The Rock Temples of Elephanta or Gharapuri – Dr.James Burgess – 1871.

Gazetteer of Thana District – 1882

The guide to Elephanta Island – 1911

A guide to Elephanta – Dr.Sastri Hirananda – 1934.

For the History and Iconography of the Elephanta caves and to translate it to a laymans language, I have taken some references from the book – A guide to Elephanta  of Dr.Hirananda Sastri, keeping in mind the Indian perspective and the understanding of the myths and culture of India. I salute him for his work.