Ellora's 34 rock-sculpted temples, created sometime between the 4th and 9th centuries, were chiseled out of the hillside by Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains. A visit here allows for an excellent comparison of the stylistic features and narrative concerns of three distinct but compatible spiritual streams.

Of the 12 Buddhist cave-temples, carved between the 6th and 8th centuries, the largest is Cave 5. The "cave of the celestial carpenter, Vishwakarma" (Cave 10), is acknowledged to be most beautiful of the Buddhist group. A large ribbed, vaulted chamber, it houses a big figure of the Teaching Buddha, while smaller figures look down from panels above.

The atmosphere here is chilling, a place for the suspension of worldly realities and for complete focus on things divine. In the three-story vihara (monks' domicile) of Cave 12, note the monks' beds and pillows carved out of rock.

Cave 13 marks the first of those carved by the Hindus which, when viewed in combination, offer a wealth of dynamic, exuberant representations of the colorful Hindu pantheon: Shiva as Natraj performs the dance of creation in Cave 14 (where he is also seen playing dice with his wife Parvati and piercing the blind demon Andhaka with a spear); and in Cave 15, the manifold avatars of Vishnu tell numerous tales while Shiva rides the divine chariot and prepares to destroy the palaces of the demons.