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Jaina Rock-cut Caves in Western India ELLORA
The famous site of Ellora with thirty-four caves of all the three sects has been an active religious centre for a long period as the excavation activity stretched from around the 6th century to the 13th century CE, though the Jaina caves were excavated between 9th to 13th centuries CE. The site possibly formed part of the 'Paithanapatha' during the Satavahana period (Mahajan 1989: 73). Pratisthana or Paithana was a flourishing city right from the early historic times. One of the most important caravan routes from Nasik to Pratisthana passed via Chalisgaon, Ellora and Aurangabad (Deglurkar 1971: 13). The same division is mentioned as Pratishthana visaya and Pratishthana bhukti in the inscriptions of the Rashtrakutas (Mahajan 1989: 135). Elapur or Ellora was probably early capital of Rashtrakutas. During medieval period, Devagiri, situated very close to Ellora, emerged as a capital city of Yadavas and played an important role in the history of the medieval period.
Epigraphic references
The earliest reference to Ellora, mentioned as Elapura, is from the Baroda plates of Rashtrakuta king Karka II (Pathy 1980: 8). The inscription refers to the Kailasa cave. From the site itself, about fifteen inscriptions are found in different caves, ranging in date from around the 6th century to the 15th century CE (Pereira 1977: Appendix I). Except the inscriptions in Dasavatara cave and on the Parsvanātha icon, these refer either to visitors, creed formula or records of the donation of intrusive icons. Thus, it is clear that the site was a regular place of visit and worship long after the excavation activity ceased.
Literary references
Ellora was never forgotten as suggested by a number of references to the site in the texts ranging over a wide period. The earliest literary reference to Ellora is found in Matsya Purana, where it is referred to as a Brahmanical tirtha (Bhardwaj 1973: 84). The site is mentioned in the Mahanubhava literature (Ranade 1988). It is quite well known that Chakradhara Swami, founder of the Mahanubhava sect, during his wanderings throughout Maharashtra, visited Ellora twice and stayed there for some time (Kolte 1952: 62). Since Chakradhara visited the site, it was revered as the 'sthāna' of the Mahanubhavas and is mentioned in the 'Sthānapothi', a Mahanubhava text dealing with the sacred places of the sect (Kolte 1951: 26-28). The Jaina caves are mentioned as Gomateshvara's cave (Kolte 1951: 28). They were also called Kate Vasai and Malhar Vasai (Ranade 1988: 112). The site is also referred to in the 'Lilacharitra', a text dealing with the life of Chakradhara. There are over fifty liļās that deal with his visit to Ellora, of which eight lilas are directly related to the caves (Ranade 1988: 109). There is a mention of Ankai cave, from where, Chakradhara sighted the site of Chaturvidhi matha. The Ankai cave is identified with later Jaina caves at the top of the hill, while Chaturvudhi matha is the place near the Sivalaya tirtha (Ranade 1988: 112).
There is an indirect reference to the Kailasa cave in 'Uñanesvari, the famous commentary of Jnanesvara on the Bhagavat Gita. It is said that Jnanesvara, while
