Elephanta

Island in the harbor outside the city of
Bombay, most famous for its temple to
Shiva by the same name. The date of the
temple’s construction is disputed, but is
generally ascribed to the seventh or
eighth century C.E. Elephanta is a rockcut cave temple, in which the sandstone
hillside was carved away to form the
temple itself, and the images of the
deities. This follows the general pattern
of the rock-cut temples at Ellora in
Maharashtra and required careful planning, since carving errors could not be
corrected. The Elephanta shrine displays images of Shiva in his various
forms: as Lord of the Dance (Nataraja),
as the Lord of Asceticism (Yogishvara),
as Bearer of the Ganges (Ganghadhara),
as the pillar-shaped form known as the
linga, and as the combination of male
220
Ekoddishta
and female known as Ardhanarishvara.
The central image, and by far the most
famous, is the three-headed, eighteenfoot-tall image of Shiva as Maheshvar,
the “great Lord.” The face on the left
shows his horrific and destructive facet
as Bhairava, the face on the right his
benevolent, creative facet as Uma,
whereas the center face shows him as
Tatpurusha—blissful, eternal, and transcending the ephemeral affairs of the
world. Although the primary image is
virtually untouched, many of the others
sustained damage from Portuguese
imperialists who considered the images
idolatrous and used them for target
practice. For further information see
Pramod Chandra, Elephanta Caves,
Gharapuri, 1970.