Ellora Jain Caves

The northernmost group at Ellora — five excavated temples including the Indra Sabha, carved from the cliff downward.

Caves 30 to 34 are Jain, cut later than the Buddhist and Hindu groups along the same escarpment. The Indra Sabha is the largest, a two-storey excavation with a free-standing shrine in its courtyard, all of it cut from the living rock rather than built.

Sharing a cliff with the other two traditions makes Ellora a compact argument about how these communities actually lived beside one another.

Written for Jain Times. Corrections are welcome — see sources and licences.