Kailasanatha

The largest and most famous of the
rock-cut temples at Ellora in the state of
Maharashtra; the temple is dedicated to
the god Shiva in his form as the “Lord of
Mount Kailas.” The temple was constructed late in the eighth century by
kings of the Rashtrakuta dynasty and
completed during the reign of Krishna I.
The Kailasanatha temple is modeled
after other contemporary temples: its
main elements are an outer gateway, an
assembly hall, and a central shrine
(garbhagrha) surrounded by a processional path (pradakshina) to smaller
shrines. It is set on a high platform base
topped with a ninety-six-foot-high spire
representing Mount Kailas in the
Himalayas and covered with decorative
carving. The amazing point about this
temple is that the entire structure is a
sculpture—workers carved it out of a
single rock outcropping, starting at the
top and working down. It is estimated
that during construction, the builders
had to remove three million cubic feet of
stone from the temple and the excavated
courtyards surrounding it. See also
caves, artificial.