1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 16L 16T 16ab 16s 17 18 19 20a 20b 21 22 23 24 24a1 24a2 25 26 27 28 29 30 30a 31 32 32y 33 34 g1,2,3,4,5 g6,7 g8,9,10,11,12 g13,14,15,16 g17,18,19 j1,2 j3,4
Ellora Cave Temples

floor 1




floor 2




floor 3






Bodhisattvas, main shrine - First floor

The main shrine on the first floor has a huge teaching Buddha seated in the dhyanasana. He is surrounded with seated rather than standing bodhisattvas. Eight in number, and differentiated by their varied attributes, they may well represent an astabodhisattva (8-bodhisattva) mandala. The bodhisattvas can be distinguished primarily by the objects each holds to the proper left. On the left shrine wall, from front to rear, they hold: #1 a flag or a staff, #2 a sword upraised, #3 a branching flower, and #4 an expanded lotus. The crowns are very much the same, except for that of Avalokitesvara (nearest to the Buddha). The two nearest the front also hold roundish objects in the proper right hand, one with a tri-lobed decoration on its front; the upper right hands of the other two are missing. The seated bodhisattvas on the right wall have, from the front: #1 a spray of (lotus?) flowers, #2 a book on a flower #3 (missing), #4 a stemmed device, oval shaped, composed of jewels, perhaps backing a now broken flower. Above, on each side, there are small Buddhas in the meditation pose.

520 (_CAV3186.jpg)










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