Kailasa Temple Was Not Built Stone by Stone
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| Kailasa was not assembled from stone blocks. It was created by removing rock until the temple stood free. |
Most temples begin with a foundation.
Kailasa Temple at Ellora began with a cliff.
Instead of bringing stone to the site and assembling it block by block, builders removed the rock around the monument until a free-standing temple remained.
The Archaeological Survey of India calls Kailasa the largest single monolithic excavation in the world. UNESCO describes Cave 16 as the largest monolithic temple and an extraordinary technological achievement. (ASI)
A Temple Left Inside the Rock
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| A simplified reconstruction shows how deep trenches could isolate a basalt mass before the sanctuary, halls, columns, bridges and courtyard were carved from the rock that remained. |
Kailasa is attributed to the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I, who ruled during the eighth century.
An archival description held by the Australian National University explains the basic method: three deep trenches were cut into the rock, isolating a huge central mass.
From the stone left behind, builders formed the main sanctuary, its basement, two free-standing columns, an elephant, halls, subsidiary shrines and connecting bridges.
The temple was not assembled.
It was gradually released from the surrounding rock. (Open Research Repository)
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| The sanctuary, halls, columns, bridges and sculptures were formed from rock left standing inside the excavated court. |
The Rock Was Part of the Design
Ellora was carved from the volcanic basalt of the Deccan Trap.
The ASI notes that the ancient builders selected fine-grained formations suitable for detailed carving. They also followed natural horizontal and vertical joints in the rock, reducing the labour required for excavation and splitting.
The same source describes the basalt as comparatively workable during the first stages of excavation and harder after exposure.
The geology was not simply the background to the temple.
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| Ellora’s builders selected workable basalt formations and used natural joints in the rock to assist excavation and splitting. |
It helped determine how the temple could be made. (ASI)
An Inscription That Marvelled at the Result
A copper-plate grant issued during the time of Karka II, around 812–813 CE, praised the monument built by Krishnaraja at Elapura, the ancient name for Ellora.
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| A nineteenth-century archaeological survey helped record Kailasa’s plan, elevation and sculptural arrangement for modern study. |
The inscription described the temple as appearing almost self-created rather than made by human hands. It even claimed that the architect was amazed by what he had accomplished.
This was courtly praise, not a construction report.
But it shows that Kailasa was already regarded as an exceptional achievement within a few decades of its creation. (ASI)
Ellora Was Never Entirely Lost
Ellora differs from Ajanta in one important way.
It never disappeared completely from historical memory.
The site stood near an ancient trade route linking inland cities with ports on India’s western coast. Travellers and rulers continued to visit it over the centuries. The ASI records accounts associated with the Arab geographer Al-Masudi, the historian Firishta and later European travellers including Jean de Thévenot and Niccolao Manucci. (ASI)
Modern archaeology did not rescue Kailasa from total obscurity.
It measured, documented and conserved a monument that generations of visitors had continued to know.
Architecture by Subtraction
Kailasa is usually admired for its scale and sculpture.
Its greatest achievement may be the planning that cannot be seen.
In an ordinary masonry building, a damaged block can sometimes be removed and replaced.
At Kailasa, every cut permanently changed the building that remained.
The temple was not made from stone carried to Ellora.
It is the part of the mountain its builders chose not to remove.
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| The most important material at Kailasa may be the rock that is no longer there. |
Research Note
This article draws on documentation from the Archaeological Survey of India, UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the Australian National University’s Basham Collection, the Baroda copper-plate grant of Karka II as cited by the ASI, and historical archaeological publications.
The description of the three-trench excavation method is a scholarly reconstruction of the construction process rather than a surviving ancient building manual.
Sources
Archaeological Survey of India, Ellora Caves. (ASI)
UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Ellora Caves. (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)
Australian National University Archives, Kailasa Temple: 8th Century, Basham Collection. (Open Research Repository)
James Burgess and Georg Bühler, Report on the Elura Cave Temples and the Brahmanical and Jaina Caves in Western India (1883), available through Internet Archive. (Internet Archive)
K. V. Soundara Rajan, Cave Temples of the Deccan (1981).