Visit To Elephanta Caves, Mumbai

Location: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Attractions: Caves

Visiting Time: 9 am to 5 pm (Monday closed)

Best time to visit: Any time

It was 3^rd Feb 2015, when me and my wife went to explore the caves of Elephanta.

Route:

Mira Road -> Churchgate -> Gateway of India -> Took a ferry from Gateway of India to Elephanta

Fare for boat ride from Gateway of India to Elephanta (to and fro per person): 160/- Rs.

Elephanta Caves:

Waiting to reach there

The point where passenger boats are unloaded

Well guarded by Arabian sea and just few miles away from the land of Mumbai is beautiful island known by the name “Gharapuri”. 

After some 40-50 minutes of ride in boat, we landed on the island. We got in a mini toy train to reach the base of the hill and then started climbing up the steps to reach caves.

Toy train and steps starting from the base of the hill to reach the caves.

After climbing up through the local stalls of food & antiques we finally reached the entrance of cave area.

These caves of Gharapuri were named as Elephanta by Portuguese as they found a massive stone statue of elephant on this island. That statue is put on display at Jijamata Udhyan in Mumbai. There are in all seven caves of which five are of hindu deities and other two are buddhist caves. 

Entrance to Cave-1

We entered the cave-1, and on our left there was a carving of the lord shiva in meditation. This sculpture is known as "Yogeshvara" 

Yogeshvara (Shiva in meditation)

Just opposite to Yogeshvara was another shiva sculpture known as Nataraja (Its a famous dancing form of the lord Shiva)

Nataraja (lord Shiva's dancing form)

As we entered further in the cave, on our right side there was a chamber with shiva-linga inside. Chamber having four doors (one on each side) and protected by eight door-keepers (two at each door) looked amazing with stone shiva-linga (visible through the doors) worshiped with flowers.

Chamber with doors and door keepers

Chamber with shiva-linga seen from outside

Near this chamber there were few steps leading to another section of the main cave. Just before those steps we saw two more sculptors facing each other. On our right side it was lord shiva killing the demon named Andhakasur. And other one was of lord shiva getting married to goddess Parvati.

lord Shiva killing the demon Andhakasur (Andhakasur vadha)

Shiv-Parvati marriage (Kalyansunder)

Other section was with a chamber having shiva-linga and walls with carvings of the lord shiva as Yogeshvara and Nataraja. We then moved back to the main cave and reached the center area. From there you can see three huge sculptors in the middle of the back walls of cave.

Left one is known as the “Ardhanarishvara”, it’s the form of shiva with half of the body as that of female (wife Parvati).

Ardhanarishvara (Shiva as half male and half female)

And right in the middle of back wall of the cave, is the famous master piece known as “Trimurti”. This one with three heads of shiva depicts three aspects of Shiva in nature – Creation, Protection & Destruction.

Trimurti (Three heads of shiva)

And on the extreme left is a sculptor of shiva bearing the river Ganga known as "Gangadhara".

lord Shiva bearing river Ganga (Gangadhara)

The middle of the cave is well supported on number of massive pillars with beautiful carvings on them.

The middle of cave with pillars 

As we moved towards the other side of cave we saw two more shiva sculptors facing each other on the opposite walls. The one was of lord Shiva with Parvati on Kailas mountain. And other is of demon Ravana trying to lift Kailas mountain with lord Shiva on it (Ravananugraha Shiva).

Left: Shiva and Parvati,   Right: Demon Ravana trying to lift kailas mountain (Ravananugraha Shiva)

In other section there was a side cave with open space in courtyard with circular base. That circular base was a seat for Nandi (the bull of lord Shiva).

Side cave with circular base visible in courtyard

Cave had a small chamber with shiva-linga inside it. There were two stone statues of lions acting as door keepers. On the left side there were carvings of dwarpal (door keeper), lord Ganesh, Kartikeya and Ashtamatrikas (eight mother goddesses)

Chamber in side cave, dwa-rpal (door keeper) is seen on extreme right 

We spent nearly one hour inside cave-1 and took lot of pictures of all those amazing sculptors standing in the darkness since centuries. We then left to explore other caves. 

Other four caves were not really that great, they are not embellished like the cave-1.

Cave-2, Cave-3, Cave-4 (left to right)

After vising all the five caves (fifth cave was just a excavation with shiv-linga) we came out of the cave area. After lunch we took a walk towards garden area, it took some 15 minutes to reach that area. (It can be skipped as nothing great to see there) 

Garden with lake

We then headed towards the top of the hill to see cannons. It took nearly 30-40 minutes to climb up the hill and to reach the cannons. 

Cannon-1 & Cannon-2(left behind by Portuguese) capable of moving 360 degree to hit the target

The view from the top of the hill

After spending some time at the top, we decided to leave the island and started walking down the hill to board our boat to reach Gateway of India.

The view from boat while reaching the Gate way of India

Gate way of India:

It was constructed by britishers in the memory of the visit of king Georger V and queen Mary to India in 1911

• Foundation was laid by the governor of Bombay Sir Gearoge Sydenham on 31^st March 1911
• The drawing of it by George Wittet was approved on 31^st March 1913
• Piece of land was reclaimed during 1915-1919
• Foundation work was completed in 1920
• Construction of it (after Hindu and Muslim architectural style in yellow basalt) was completed in 1924
• It was opened for the public on 4^th Dec 1924
• Dome of the structure is 15m wide and 25.15m in height

Gate way of India

We spent some time taking walk around Gateway, gazing at ocean, luxurious hotels (Taj & Oberoi) and people busy taking their selfies with Gateway. After sunset and a cup of tea, we call off for the day and headed back to home.

For more pics: Elephanta album