Ellora Caves

January 16th
Two days ago we saw the Ellora caves. They were really old temples made by Buddhists, Hindus and Jains. The Buddhist ones were mostly the same. They had residences on top, beside or under the main temple and the temple had a raised central part with lots of columns around the side. There would be a path going around the raised bit with carvings on the walls and then a small room at the back with a large statue of the Buddha. One of the Buddhist caves didn't follow the pattern. It was all one room and had no raised part. Instead, it was shaped like a rectangle with a semicircle on the end. Sitting in the semicircle was a giant Buddha statue, around the edge was a path defined by columns. It went from the bottom left corner of the rectangle, around the semicircle and down to the bottom right corner. The Hindu caves were sort of the same except bigger. One of the Hindu caves wasn't much of a cave because they levelled a big hill to make it! There were lots of elephant statues around the outside and extravagantly carved rooms on the inside. It was bigger than the Parthenon in Athens! The Jain caves were just like the Hindu because Jainism is an offshoot of Hinduism that goes even further with Ahimsa (do not hurt anything). Hindus can kill insects and wear shoes. Jains say that you shouldn't hurt insects or animals, shouldn't wear shoes so as not to crush anything underfoot and you must be a strict vegan.
Yesterday we went to the mini Taj. It was commissioned by the son of the commissioner of the Taj Mahal for his wife's mausoleum. It is a lot like what the Taj Mahal looks like except not as extravagant. It was really nice with marble and plaster-on-stone work making it all white. There were four minarets around it and a garden behind. We stayed until a little before sunset when the sunlight shone on the five white domes and turned them an orangy yellow.