Thursday, October 5 Ellora Caves, Aurangabad Sightseeing

I ate a really good masala dosa and called Mom to inform her of my lack of cell phone. Her reply: “Oh my god”. Anyways, I caught the Ellora tour at 9:30 from the MTDC Hotel. It’s funny sometimes; Indians don’t talk to me because I’m not Indian, and foreigners don’t talk to me because they hear me speaking Hindi. It’s kind of like…being biracial. Oh, my life is so hard. First stop: Daulatabad Fort. It is the only fort in India carved out of a mountain, so it was pretty cool. It was built like a maze with lots of dark passageways, crocodile-guarded moats, and iron spikes on doorways. It was impregnable, but also had no water supply, so basically it's useless. The capital was then moved back to Delhi. What sucked about the fort were the touts and the bats. The touts were incessant, and essentially the only way to get them away is to completely ignore their chanting “Hello, Friend”. After being in India so long, let’s just say, I don’t like touts and they don’t like me. There were dark cavers lit only by a torchman who wanted money. Too bad your damn government charged me 50 times too much or I’d tip you. The bats were all squeaking and covered the ceiling, scary as hell. I also got guano in my hair. Bastards. It’s also funny that at these world-renowned tourist attractions, foreigners are more of a spectacle than the actual site. I felt like a mother dog, being followed by a litter of puppies. The tour guide was really good, but this one guy (who was also on my tour from yesterday) took the liberty of overshadowing him, and leading us around, asking 1,000 questions. Another funny character was this one guy in his 20’s with a mullet of epic proportions. It was curly hair slicked back and long. It’s what I like to call the “Johann Sebastian Bach Mullet”. I got a picture, don’t worry. Next we visited Ghrishneshwar Temple, dedicated to Shiva in lingam form. It was nice, priests and prasad-vending women lined the entrance, and there was a big lingam in the inner sanctum. In order to worship, men had to take off their shirts, so I did. Next, we were driving through the foothills of the lush Deccan Plateau of Maharashtra. There were hills, and flat-topped elevated plains. Men wore all white and sported sailor caps, while women dressed in the traditional colorful long sari. The crops were corn and cotton, which makes sense because this area is more warm and humid year-round, compared with the varying temperatures of the desertic north. We finally came to Ellora, another World Heritage Site known for its caves. However, unlike Ajanta, Ellora was never re-discovered; it has been in continuous use ever since the excavations started in the 6^th century. Ellora also features different architectural contributions through the ages, of Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains. It took generations to complete these caves, chiseling each from top to bottom. It would take literally days to explore all 30+ caves, so we saw only the highlights. The Buddhist caves featured a stupa with many statues of the Buddha, and then a multistory lodging facility for the monks. Beds, and even pillows, were carved out of the hill. Then came the Hindu caves, the highlight of which was the Kailasa Temple, the masterpiece of Ellora, and the largest monolithic structure in the world. It looks like a free-standing building with minarets, a frieze, and surrounding caves. All over it were statues of scenes from the Mahabharata and Ramayana epics. It featured a lingam to Lord Shiva, also. It is amazing to think that this entire thing was carved out of a single stone. Getting into the temple was annoying; I used Hindi and my acid-wash jeans to buy a ticket for the Indian price, but the damn security guard didn’t believe I was from India, so I had to buy another ticket for 25 times the price. I told him in Hindi (using the informal address): “There, happy now?” That’s pretty frustrating, I was so close! It’s like giving a $5 tip, and then saying, “Oh, actually I don’t really want to give you $5 anymore, can you give me back $4.80?” The Jain Temples were a replica of the Kailasa temple. I learned that Mahavira (the founder of Jainism) always looks almost identical to Buddha because they had no record of what either looked like. But Mahavira is naked and has both men and women around him. Buddha is clothed and has only men around him. We drove past Aurangzeb’s Tomb. Thank goodness we paid no homage to him. Even though he’s the Last Great Mughal, he’s really not worthy of having a tomb, or even having a city named after him. That’s like people going to Saddam Hussein’s tomb to pay respects to him. Aurangzeb is not only responsible for the fall of the Mughal Empire, he also killed all his brothers, usurped the royal throne, imprisoned and blinded his father, and outlawed every religion except for Islam. Next we stopped at a government Himroo shawl emporium, where I didn’t buy a thing. Then we came to Bibi Ka Maqbara, a clone of the Taj Mahal, but ¼ the size. It’s not even all marble or with inlays. Plus it was poor lighting outside, so I decided to skip it. Well, actually the reason I didn’t go was because I tried to pay the Indian price and say I was from Assam, and the guy was about to give me a ticket, but his assistant wouldn’t allow it. Damn overcharging people, I’m a poor cheap college student that looks somewhat Indian, in an Indian University, learning your language and politics. Give me a break! Once again, I’m one of those cliché white people in love with India, but not accepted as Indian. I took pictures from atop the fence. The last stop was Panchakki, an underground water channel from the medieval period which traverses 8 km from the source in a hill reservoir. It’s used to grind flour, and for tourists to feed the carp. I had some dinner, chilled out, and caught the 10:30 bus to Mumbai.