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






Nandi mandapa

Sometimes called a Dancing Hall, this monolithic structure may have been a shrine for the devoted bull Nandi. Despite its necessarily low placement, this shrine was associated with the lingam in the upper floor. However, it had to be cut at its present low level because the earlier Buddhist excavators had already removed some or most of the matrix from the area above its roof. It is likely that the handsome loose image of Siva's bull that sits on the floor of the upper pillared hall on axis with the lingam, was once placed upon the roof of this courtyard edifice, in order to allow it better to attend the lingam within the cave. This would explain the anomalously flat treatment of the roof, with its low central platform, probably originally for the Nandi iself.

928 (_CAV2619.jpg)










339 results in Cave 15: