Kailasa is the culmination of the experiment in rock-cut architecture that began with Cave 15. Perhaps India's (and the world's) largest cave excavation, this marked a departure from all the earlier conventions of architecture.
To create this awe-inspiring structure, three deep trenches were sunk into the parent rock, which freed a gigantic monolith, 84 in long, 47 m wide and 33 m high. The architects then carved a temple into this massive chunk of rock.
Kailasa magnificence is in direct proportion to the grandeur of the patronage that conceived it. It was excavated tinder Krishna I, a Rashtrakuta monarch who had just subdued the western Chulukyas and was at the height of his power.
Kailasha can be divided into four parts: entrance gateway, body, an intermediate Nandi shrine, and the cloisters surrounding its courtyard.
The entrance, carved into the front wall, is a two-storeyed gopura made in the Dravidian style. The wall is adorned with sculptures of Shiva, Vishnu and the Ashtadigpalas (guardian gods of the eight directions). Its back, too, is decorated with beautiful sculptures of Mahishasuramardini, Vishnu and Kama, the god of Love. To its south is a huge subterranean cistern.
Just into the cave, there stands a grand sculpture of Gajalakshmi and, a little further, on either side, the temple's courtyard. Most impressive in the courtyard are two great, monolithic elephants and tile square pillars on either side. Fourteen meters high, these Pillars are crowned with huge trishulas (tridents).
To its north, the courtyard has a shrine, sunk into the rock and embellished with images of the three river goddesses — Ganga, Yamuna and Sarasvati.
The main temple's massive plinth is almost 8 m high and its central frieze is carved with elephants, lions and mythical creatures. Episodes from the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and Krishna's life are sculpted on its walls. The principal shrine rises almost 23 m over the plinth, and has five subsidiary shrines. Inside, there is a pillared mandapa; an antechamber and a garbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum).
Fragments of paintings still exist on the ceilings, and can be distinguished as two layers — the first from Rashtrakuta times and the second dating to the Holkars, under whom the entire structure was washed in lime and covered with ochre-coloured paintings.
The mandapa is breathtaking. Its pillars are exquisitely carved and an outstanding depiction of Nataraja adorns its ceiling. The ceiling is also decorated with murals, most of which have lost their lustre because of soot and carbon deposits.
One can only marvel at the passion of these artists, who must have worked by the light of oil lamps, lying on scaffolding and having to protect themselves from falling dust and stone particles that could easily blind them.
The antechamber between the mandapa and the shrine has a huge monolithic linga over a yonipitha, and its ceiling is embellished with an enormous lotus.
Before the main temple is a Nandi mandapa. The style and execution of this monolith indicates that it was sculpted elsewhere and transported here.
The Nandi mandapa contains beautiful paintings of stories from the Ramayana.
From the Nandi mandapa, you can go to the second floor of the gopura over the main entrance and catch a glimpse of the cave complex from a window. Two exits from the gopura lead to an elevated platform that offers a fuller view of the temple.
A bridge connects the main shrine with the Nandi mandapa, and below it are two enormous sculptures of Shiva. The passage leads back to the courtyard which has, to the east, a corridor filled with sculptures.
Located just below the rock's huge overhang, this corridor has marvellous representations of deities, including those of Shiva, Parvati, Vishnu, and Brahma.
No visit is complete without a tour of the Lankeshwara shrine dedicated to Shiva. Located to the north of the main shrine and exquisitely carved, this is probably a later addition.
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