The island
Gharapuri is a small hilly island in the harbour of Mumbai, with two hills and a few villages. The Portuguese named it Elephanta after a large stone elephant that stood near their landing place; the elephant fell apart and was later reassembled, and now stands in a garden in Mumbai. The island has seven caves. Two small ones on the eastern hill are Buddhist and older; the others are Hindu, and the largest, Cave 1, is one of the masterpieces of Indian sculpture.
Date and patrons
No inscription on the island names the patrons. The caves are usually dated to the middle of the sixth century, on grounds of style and coins found on the island, and they are often attributed to the Kalachuris of Mahishmati, who ruled the region then and whose coins have been found there. Other patrons, including the Mauryas of the Konkan and the Chalukyas, have been proposed. The cave's relation to Jogeshwari and to the Shaiva caves at Ellora places it in a group of great Shiva cave temples of the period.
The great cave
The main cave is a pillared hall about forty metres deep, open on three sides, with a freestanding square shrine holding a linga near its western end. The hall is laid out so that several axes cross, and the visitor moves through it around the shrine. Its walls are carved with large panels showing Shiva in his mythological roles: as the lord of dance, Nataraja; as Ardhanarishvara, half male and half female; bringing down the Ganga on to his hair; marrying Parvati; killing the demon Andhaka; and pressing down Mount Kailasa with his toe as Ravana tries to shake it.
The central panel on the south wall, opposite the entrance, is the bust of Shiva with three faces, about six metres high. The calm central face is flanked on one side by a wrathful face with snakes and a moustache and on the other by a gentle feminine face holding a lotus. It was long called the Trimurti, as if it showed Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, but scholars agree that it represents Shiva alone, in the form called Sadashiva or Maheshamurti, with the faces expressing his different aspects. It has become one of the most reproduced images of Indian art.
Damage and conservation
Many of the sculptures are damaged. Popular accounts blame Portuguese soldiers for using them for target practice; this is often repeated but rests on little evidence, and weather and neglect also played a part. The British took control of the island in the eighteenth century, and conservation began in the nineteenth. The caves were listed by UNESCO in 1987 and are reached by ferry from the Gateway of India. An annual dance festival is held on the island.
Further reading
- Michell, George. The Hindu Temple: An Introduction to Its Meaning and Forms. University of Chicago Press, 1988
- Huntington, Susan L. The Art of Ancient India. Weatherhill, 1985
- Kramrisch, Stella. The Hindu Temple. Motilal Banarsidass, 1976
See also
- Ellora Jain caves — The Jain caves at Ellora, numbered 30 to 34, are rock-cut temples of the ninth and tenth centuries at the northern end of a site whose Buddhist and Hindu excavations are older.
- Ajanta Caves — The Ajanta Caves are a complex of some thirty Buddhist rock-cut monasteries and prayer halls carved into a horseshoe-shaped cliff above the Waghora River in Maharashtra between roughly the 2nd century BCE and the late 5th century CE.
- Buddhist rock-cut architecture — Buddhist rock-cut architecture comprises the chaitya halls and viharas excavated into the basalt of western India from the second century BCE, the earliest surviving Indian architecture of any tradition.
- Hindu temple architecture — The architectural tradition of Hindu temple building on the Indian subcontinent, spanning the Nagara style of the north, the Dravida style of the south, and the hybrid Vesara style of the Deccan, all grounded in the sacred geometry of the Vastu Purusha Mandala.
This entry was last revised on 12 November 2026.