The north-facing garbhagriha of the East Wing shrine, with its single richly decorated door and the Shiva Linga on a pedestal carved from the cave rock.
Façade and Shiva Linga of the Garbhagriha
The image shows the facade of the garbhagriha, which is a cubicle, measuring roughly 14 ft by 16 ft, and faces north. Unlike the garbhagriha of the main hall, which features four doors, this garbhagriha has a only one door.
As seen in the image, the door is richly adorned, its frame carved into four distinct bands, each sculpted as a pilaster set at a different level. The outermost band is carved with a frieze in a geometric, square-wave pattern.
Within the cubicle, the Shiva Linga is placed on an altar-like pedestal (pitha) directly carved from the cave rock. It is worth noting that the Linga itself is made of a different stone and was inserted into the pedestal. This distinguishes the Elephanta Cave 1 shrine from Badami Cave 1, where both the Shiva Linga and the pedestal were carved entirely from the rock.
Related Pages
– Badami
– Cave Temples of Badami
– Badami Cave 1, Badami Cave 2, Badami Cave 3, Badami Cave 4
– Durga Temple at Aihole
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