A morning boat ride to the world-famous UNESCO Heritage site - The Elephanta Caves Island. An hour-long ferry ride from the Gateway of India to the Elephanta Island in the Mumbai Harbour, will open you up to a hidden world of rock-cut caves robust in their carvings and boasting a legion of Shaivite sculptures.
Welcome to Elephanta Caves, tucked away in a desolate island locally called Gharapuri (city of caves) 10 kilometers east of the Gateway of India. Through the 19th and 20th Centuries, historians and scholars have been in two minds about their exact period of origin. Further studies, numismatic evidence, architectural style, and inscriptions have traced the cave temples to King Krishnaraja from the Kalachuri dynasty around mid-6th Century, and the Buddhist Stupas to the Hinayana Buddhists who had settled in the island around 2nd Century BCE, much before the advent of the Brahmans to Elephanta.
Hewn into a basalt rock face, this UNESCO World Heritage Site straddles two hills, one to the west and the east. The western ridge rises gradually from the sea and expands towards the east across a gorge and peaks at an elevation of about 173 meters. The landmark cave here is Cave 1 or the Great Cave on the western hill known for its stellar Shaivite depictions and reliefs from Hindu epics and mythology. Adjacent to Cave 1 and in the southeast direction, Cave 2 through 5 pans out. Caves 6 and 7, however, are on the rim of the eastern hill which is otherwise home to the two Buddhist caves with Stupas and water tanks. There is a walkway connecting the east and the west hill.