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   An Afternoon.....

The Elephanta Caves

It’s a Saturday and we decided to visit The Elephanta Caves. Also it was a decision to take a local train ride this time to enjoy the Mumbai crowd. From CST a 5 minutes drive in taxi and then an hour long ferry ride through the sea to reach this beautiful spot was quite an experience.

The Island

There are guides to help you understand the history of the caves and chairs lifted by human for a ride who cannot of course take the tedious steps up the hill. A small train is available to take you from the arrival point to the base of hills.

The Train

Info

Elephanta Caves are located on Elephanta Island in Mumbai harbor about 10kms from Mumbai city. The island got its name from huge rock elephant discovered by the Portuguese in 18^th Century AD, which is now placed at Jijamata Udyaan. The solid basalt rock cut architecture in the caves has been dated between 5^th to 8^th century. There are seven caves in total out of which the cave number 1 contains sculptures of Lord Shiva and the famous Maheshmurti idol which earned international acclaim for the caves.


Cave-1

Yogeswar Shiva (The Meditator)



Natraj Shiva (The Dancer)

Gangadhar ( Base of Ganges)


Maheshmurti Shiva

Ardhanariswar ( Half feminine)

cave

cave

All the sculptures are badly damaged. Portuguese soldiers used these priceless idols of god for target practice except the Maheshmurti Shiva idol. Further damage occurred due to Water lodging, dripping rainwater and invasion of modern visitors. Today, Elephanta caves are a World Heritage monument designated as UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987 to preserve the artwork. It is currently maintained by the Archeological Survey of India.

Two huge canons are located on two hills named as cannon hill 1 and 2. There are huge rooms below these huge canons used by the Portuguese, which they might have used for storage of armory.

The canon

There is a museum at the entrance of the caves,  containing pictures of different caves and architecture found in Mahrastra.

You have to beware of monkeys and cows, eager to swallow your food and stay away from the washrooms there. It’s pathetic.



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Evening @ Powai Lake through my Camera........

A Beautiful Garden

It was a hot afternoon and we were in Sion. And soon we landed at this beautiful garden called Jawaharlal Nehru Udyan, a few meters from Sion railway station.

I loved the entire Garden. It was cool and there were so many colorful butterflies(this was my first time to see butterflies in Mumbai).

Inside this Garden is a Fort built by the Britishers in 16th Century which was majorly used as a watch tower. It is now taken care by Archeological Survey of India, whose office you can see at the base of the garden.

Fort

Now this garden is used as a place of relaxation,jogging, exercise and we saw many students studying in the peaceful environment of garden and corners of fort.

 It is surely an amazing and calm place amidst the noise and crowd of Mumbai.

http://wikimapia.org/#lat=19.0461205&lon=72.8675509&z=16&l=0&m=b

Kanheri Caves

Inside the greenary of Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Borivali exists a fabulous 2000 year old Buddhist Monarchy; Kanheri Buddhist Caves.


Beauty of Park

Inside SGN Park towards Kanheri Caves

This 2000 years old caves represent the monastic life in ancient India. Kanheri saw continuous occupation from the 1st century BC, until the decline of Buddhism in India in the 9th century AD.

Caves from down the road

The carvings and architecture of Kanheri reflect both the Hinayana as well as Mahayana Buddhism.

It was a large settlement of monks, who devised ingenuous ways of sourcing and harnessing rainwater, to provide for their daily life of study and prayer.

Carved Walls

Water cisterns, stairways chiselled into the hill, prayer halls, dormitories, and the “superior” living quarters of senior monks make Kanheri a fascinating place to visit.

The caves, taken care by the Tourism department of India lies undisturbed, in the green environment of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. The park is spread over 9000 hectares, and is home to several species of bird and animal life, including deer, four horned antelope, leopards, macacques, civets, mongoose and langoors.

Monsoon is the best time to visit the place to enjoy the greenary and water cisterns.

Mumbai way...

Festival is still on...

We went to Powai lake last evening where Lord Ganesha was given a send-off on the fifth day. On the way we saw a lot of people caarrying their Ganapati and dancing. The place was heavily crowded. On reaching the spot they performed the aarti and finally handed over the idol to the trained people there for immersion.



 immersion spot

Individuals could not perform immersion as there were specially appointed help guards wearing Yellow t-shirts helping people in the process. They were carrying the idols on two specially buit boats into the deeper side of the lake and did the immersion while carrying the smaller idols in their hands swimming into the water.



It was a nice watchable sight for me as i never saw this before. Every one one was so delighted and it was so sweet of them to allow me the chance of taking few pictures of the lord during Aarti. I would love to go for the final day immersion to see much fun and fair.

                                                

Children with their Ganapati

Street vendors were selling some toys and decorative items there and ofcourse i also checked in few items.