Aurangabad is a major centre in Maharashtra. It has a Taj Mahal lookalike structure. Smaller but nevertheless it is there. It has some caves, and down the road a walled city, and then the Ellora Caves.
It seems that the early religious groups located these remote places to build their temples in the rock walled ravines of old rivers. There are a number of them, starting in Turkey, and so on through to India and no doubt beyond. Some are ornate, some painted but a bit like seen one seen em all. There is not a lot one can do to a hole in the rocks. I do not mean to be disparaging but stone carving that has been in the main mutilated by those that followed is not a major attraction for me. The poor buggers that lived through the construction and the actual living in them I do have some interest in.
However I was off to the next cave system in Ajanta. The picture is of the line of temples in Ajanta and of course the Duddha in teaching pose. I know you knew that !
As it turns out, all caves are pretty much the same. The getting to and from had a distictive aspect however. I have never been on a bus that contained so many people.
nzl04
