ELLORA, in lat. 20°2' N., and long. 75° 11' E., in the Dekhan, N.W: of Aurangabad. The entrance to the caves is 2064 feet above the sea. It is called by the people Yerula and Ballora, and Varula, and is near Roza in the bowlatabad pro vince of the Dekhan. The plateau of Roza, in the face that looks into the valley of the Godavery, is scarped, and the porphyritic greenstone arayg daloid rock has been excavated into great caves and temples, and dwellings about thirty in number. They are partly Buddhist, partly Jaina, and partly Brahman ical.
• The Buddhist group of cave-temples occupies the southern extremity of the crescent in which the caves of Ellora arc excavated. Later on, the northern horn was taken possession of by the Jains, who excavated there a retnarkable series of caves. But between these two, at an intermediate age, the Brahmans excavated some 15 or 16 caves, nvalling those of their predecessors in magnifi cence, and exceeding them in richness of decora tion. The series culminated in the Kailasa, which is the largest and most magnificent rock cut temple in India, and is the one in which their Brahmanical authors emancipated themselves from the influence of Buddhist cave architecture. The most northern there is a maanifieent temple, known as Sita's Nhani or Dumnataena ; others arc Ravan ka Khai, Ratneswara, Nilakant'h, Teli-ka Gana, Kumharwara, Janwasa, and the Milkmaid's Cave, the last near a high waterfall.
The Ellora Buddhist caves are the Dherwara, Do Thal, Maharwara, Tin Thal, and Viswakarma chaitya.
The 13rahmanical caves are Dasa-Avatara, Dum nar Lena, Kailasa monolithic temple-caves between Kailasa and Rameswam, Ramcswara, Nilakantha, Teli ka Gana, Kumharwara, Janwasa, Milkmaid's Cave, and small caves above the scarp.
The Jaina caves are Chota Kailasa, Indra Sabha, and Jaganath Sabha.
The chief structure, called the Kailas, is a perfect Dravidian temple, complete in all its parts. It is one of the most wonderful and interesting monuments of architectural art in India. It is a model of a complete temple such as might have been erected on the plain.% In other words, the rock has been cut away externally as well as internally. It measures 138 feet in front, the interior is 247 feet in length by 150 feet in breadth:the height in some places being 100 feet. This temple is said to have been built, about the 8th century, by Raja Edu of Ellichpur, by whom the town of Ellora_ was-founded, as a thank.
offering for a cure effected by the waters of I spring near tho place. The lofty basement of tin temple has a row of huge elephants and sardulat or lions, griffins, ete. It is surrounded yid] figures also of Vishnu, and tho whole Puranic ratitheon.—IiTgusson's Eastern Architecture, p, :131; Ferg. and Burg. p. 450. See Architecture.