Ellora Caves

“ At three in the afternoon, we reached the foot of the ghat in whose perpendicular face the great cave-temples have been excavated. The rock-cut temples at Mahabalipur had been but preparation for the great series of caves at Ellora, where the face of a steep hillside has been burrowed into, great chambers hollowed out, and porticoes, galleries, staircases, and passages cut in the solid rock and covered with splendid bas-relief sculpture on the most elaborate scale. The line of rock-temples extends for a mile ”

“ Ellora is only a short distance from this place. At some very remote period a race of men, as if by magic, excavated caves high up among the defiles of the mountains. These rooms extended over a breadth of one kos. ”

“ That spoke another sky and tongue,
⁠* Dowlutabad.—A mountain fortress, on the road leading to the Caves of Ellora.
⁠† Dus Awtar.—One of the centre Excavations at Ellora. The compartment of sculpture represented in the plate, has Siva for the principal figure, in the character of Ehr Budr, taking vengeance for an affront that has been offered to his consort Parvati. "One of the right hands of Ehr Budr holds a cup, to catch the blood of the demon that he has transfixed with a spear, lest it should fall upon earth, and demons spring up from it. ”

“ Here the party of Hindoo priests, drummers, and fakeers sat down to rest, while we went on a short distance and reached the entrance to the famous caves of Elephanta. The principal cave is of great extent, excavated out of the solid rock; the colossal columns of the portico seem to hold up the mountain above them. On either side of the entrance great creepers come down in heavy masses over the mountain. Rows and rows of columns handsomely ornamented appear within, growing beautifully less in the distance and vanishing amid gloomy shadows and a thousand fantastic shapes. ”

“ Ellis Cave.—On the estate of Dr. Ellis, 19 miles north of Fort Payne and 3 miles from Sulphur Springs, are two caves known locally as Big-mouth and Little-mouth. The smaller is closed by a locked gate. The larger has a rather imposing appearance from the outside. From a ledge of rock, in place, in front of it, one looks down a steep slope in which rocks up to 40 or 50 tons weight are imbedded. At a vertical depth of 30 feet is a level space not more than 8 or 10 square yards in area. ”

“ A cave obviously may become dry, either by the drainage passing along a lower level, or by the elevation of the district by subterranean energy. After it has been forsaken by the stream, the particles brought down by the atmospheric water percolating through the joints, tend to fill it up on the surface, and these may be either of clay, loam, or sand.
These actions may be studied in this country in the well-known caves of Ingleborough, Buxton, Cheddar, Wookey Hole, and a great many others in Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Durham, Cumberland, and Wales. ”

“ On turning the light of the magnesium lamp up the river, its rocky ledges are seen to be ornamented with stalactites and formation perfectly mirrored in the water, which is about 600 feet from the surface, and about 50 below the level of the Cave House in the centre of the valley. Never had river more romantic barriers. Human imagination could not conceive a freak of nature more wildly grand or mysteriously beautiful. There are large ornamented pillars near delicately-tinted formation, drooping from overhanging rocks, like pensile boughs of weeping willow. ”

“ And then again, partly perhaps the cause, partly the effect of the consecration of grottoes, began the caves of the hermits. There were the cave of S. Pelagia on Mount Olivet, the caves of S. Jerome, S. Paula, and S. Eustochium at Bethlehem, the cave of S. Saba in the ravine of Kedron, the remarkable cells hewn or found in the precipices of the Quarrantania or Mount of the Temptation above Jericho. ”

“ Each of these regions has a peculiar geological history not repeated in any other portions of the earth's surface: each is blessed with its own peculiar style of beautiful scenery: and each vies with the other and all the world besides for the supremacy of its truly wonderful caves. Yet it should be well understood that the claims are not based on an unworthy spirit of rivalry, nor any desire to deny the greatness and beauty of already famous members of the Cave family. ”

“ Without any great difficulty we can understand the process of cave excavation by the action of percolating acidulated water on the limestone, and its subsequent removal as the volume of surface drainage diverted to the new channel gradually increased. But it is not so easy to offer a reason for the varied forms with which the caves are afterwards decorated. Why is it the charmed waters do not leave the evidence of their slow passage only in plain surfaces of varying widths, and the stalactites and stalagmites whose formation we can readily account for? ”

“ About six miles up the coast there is a sheltered cove they call Fanga-anaana—"the haven full of caves." I've seen it from the sea myself, as near as I could get my boys to venture in; and it's a little strip of yellow sand, black cliffs overhang it, full of the black mouths of caves; great trees overhang the cliffs, and dangle-down lianas; and in one place, about the middle, a big brook pours over in a cascade. ”

“ A little beyond Sand, in a cove on the sea-shore close below the road, [339] and accessible from it by a winding footpath, are two caves and some curious detached rocks. One rock is a sort of rugged pyramid, and another resembles a sphinx (see illustration) . This latter is particularly remarkable, and is overgrown with beautiful lichens. The larger cave is used for public worship, and the small one as a dwelling. The first hamlet or village after Sand is called First Coast, and the other, further on, is Second Coast. ”

“ In the next epoch fresh water work began and extensive marshes were formed, with an abundant growth of vegetation and reptiles. There was also much volcanic violence which resulted in the fine scenery in the north end of the Black Hills, and probably opened the fissures to form Wind Cave, the Onyx Caves in the southern hills and Crystal Cave near the eastern edge toward the north. ”

“ In one place I saw a cave, or rather a shelter under a big boulder, utilised as a dwelling; and here a kind of parapet had been built of stone gravel, terrace fashion, to enlarge the area of the cave floor.
Inhabited caves are never found in inaccessible places, as is the case with cliff-dwellings in the southwestern part of the United States. Where caves are difficult of access, the Indians may place a wooden ladder, or rather, a notched tree trunk, which is the national style of staircase. ”

“ There are two stripes of stone that run parallel to each other along the floor, from the entrance, the whole depth of this cave, (the prospect from which, of the great tank, town, and valley of Ellora, &c. is beautiful,) and seem intended as seats either for students, scribes, or the sellers of some commodities, a convenient passage lying between them up to the Idol at the end of the cave. ”

“ At a point 22 yards north, on the passage to the Grotto Cave, at an angle, is a drop of 100 feet into the right-hand branch of the Imperial Cave.
Sitting on a thin shell of limestone, on the right-hand side, the visitor may pitch a stone into a hole 10 inches by 14 inches, and hear it strike the bottom of the black depth. He may thrust his candle down to arm's length underneath the mineral crust, and (if he be in a very cheerful vein) fancy he is peering into the Infernal Regions, over which he rests on a thin and fragile screen. ”

“ Until it is shown that a thousand yards of landlocked, iron-bound coast can be cut and tunneled in utter disregard of every known law of mechanical action, the caves in Staffa, on the west coast of Scotland, driven into igneous rock, not modified by local conditions, or in the weak places "of an exposed cliff," can not be classified as merely remarkable instances of caves worn by the sea. ”

“ Unlike the other parts, where every bit of débris is sealed down by a glistening layer of stalagmite, this great cavity is heaped high with loose fragments, as free from incrustation as if the ceiling had collapsed yesterday. So wild and vast is the configuration of "O'Leary's Cave" that, standing on the lower side and looking across a depression in the middle to the ascending ground opposite, one fancied oneself, in the dim candlelight, gazing across a valley to a range of hills in the distance. ”

“ Their pattern and orientation followed the pre-cave network of joints and cracks in the original strata. Gradually the openings were further enlarged into the cave system we know today.
There is more to it than that, of course. You may ask, “Why aren’t there caves continuously throughout the belt of marble? The joints and cracks are everywhere. And certainly all the marble near the surface has been subjected to ground water action at some time or another. Why are Oregon Caves limited to one particular part of the marble belt?” ”

“ Visit two caves, both worth seeing, but not equal to those we have seen: one, called Port Coon, opens in a small cove, or bay—the outer reach opens into an inner cave, and that again into the sea. The other, called Down Kerry, is a sea-cave, like that on the eastern side of Loch Eribol—a high arch up which the sea rolls:—the weather being quiet, we sailed in very nearly to the upper end. We then rowed on to the celebrated Causeway, a platform composed of basaltic pillars, projecting into the sea like the pier of a harbor. ”

“ From their generally inaccessible position sea-caves have very rarely been occupied by man, and the history of their formation is so obvious that it requires no further notice. Among them the famous Fingal’s Cave, off the north coast of Ireland, and that of Staffa, on the opposite shore of Scotland, hollowed out of columnar basalt, are perhaps the most remarkable in Europe. ”

“ The entrance is by a narrow passage cut through the rock. Notwithstanding its natural strength, the fortress has been taken several times, and has belonged to various masters. Near the town are the remarkable cave temples of Ellora. ”

“ Driving on rapidly, we reached the suburbs of the city, where the road became shady and pleasant—still with caves at every large road excavation, reminding one very much of the numberless holes that swallows make in summer; for both the mortar and Parrott shells disputed this district; and a cave, front in whatever direction it might, was not secure from fragments. M—— [Pg 95] impatiently urged on the driver, fearing that when the firing recommenced we would still be on the road. ”

“ He did not believe that the black hole into which he had descended was the bottomless pit, and so he tried again to fathom its inky depths, and at a distance of 90 feet from the surface alighted upon the rocky floor of what is now called the Imperial Cave.
Cave exploration is not what would be commonly regarded as a pleasant pastime. It requires a lissom body, plenty of physical strength, and a strong nerve to worm along narrow passages, without any certainty of being able to reach a turning-place, and with the risk of being so wedged in as to make retreat impossible. ”

“ The caves were filled with detritus, lime, and a deposit of salt in cubes. They were perfectly dry, without stalactites or petrifactions of any kind except the cubes of salt. The largest cave could contain twenty or thirty men, and has a long, low, narrow gallery running from one side, which would be invisible when the sun does not shine through the entrance. This is in the wilderness of Engaddi, and the fountain is just beyond the next ravine. ”

“ In Kentucky and Tennessee, caves are numerous, which appear to have been used for burial-places. In the county of Ulster, in New York, is a cave three quarters of a mile in length, caused by a stream running under ground. The rock which constitutes the roof and sides of the cave is a dark colored limestone, containing impressions of shells, calcareous spar, and beautiful white and yellow stalactites. At one end is a fall of water, the depth of which has not been fathomed. ”

“ The caves used as human habitations, at least in summer, are generally about twenty or thirty paces across, lighted by the sun, and comparatively dry. I have often seen such places with their roofs blackened by smoke: families lodging in one, goats, cattle, and sheep, stabled in another, and grain or straw stored in a third. At Adullam are two such caves in the northern slope of the hill, and another further south, while the opposite sides of the tributary valley are lined with rows of caves, all smoke- blackened, and mostly inhabited, or used as pens for flocks and herds. ”

“ But the country is not only rugged and mountain-spurred; it possesses curiosities even greater beneath the surface than those which diversify the sun-kissed landscape over which we have just passed. On Elk Creek, and entered from the cañon wall, is Keith’s Crystal Cave, a colossal rent in the mountain bowels, with passages fifteen miles in length. It is beautifully chambered, from which depend the most exquisite crystallizations in the form of stalactites and stalagmites that reflect the torchlight in glorious colors, dancing from column of onyx to pools of pellucid water. ”

“ All sense of time and direction are lost in the myriad of decoration, light and shadow, gigantic, often grotesque formations, and the serenity of this underground heaven.
Passing quietly ahead the traveler pauses at the largest "living" stalagmite within the known part of the Caverns, the Crystal Spring Dome. Generally dry, this part of the Big Cave is moist, and water, dripping slowly from the ceiling above, is still depositing its minute quantities of calcium on the mighty Crystal Spring Dome as it has been doing for countless centuries. ”