A
Journey to Aurangabad
Prepared by
Sabu K
Each
traveling is giving
us a new
experience of enjoyment and knowledge of a place, people and culture
that retains in our memory as eternal reminiscence over our entire
life. It was a long desire to visit Aurangabad, an ancient historic
place of Buddhism and Mugal Emperors, which is lying far east of our
economic capital Mumbai. We, a three member group consisting of
Purushothaman Pillai, Vimal Kumar and myself working in Mahatma
Gandhi University, Kottayam planned to set out a journey to visit the
places in Aurangabad. In search of ancient and monolithic rock cut
temples of Ajanta and Ellora, our journey started on 07-10-2016 from
Ernakulam Junction, for which we got into the the train bound for
Pune, which left the station at 5.15 am. As this train was going via
Konkan route, we could reach at Pune at 9.30 am on 08-10-16 without
taking much time. We took a room in Dream Land adjacent to the New
Sagar Hotel near Pune Railway Station and took refreshment and had
breakfast from the New Sagar. Being a nationally important place,
especially concerned with the national movement against British rule,
Aghakhan Palace at Pune was the first place that we visited. It was
the palace built by Sultan Muhammed Shah Aga Khan III in 1892 and
later handed over to British government, where in Mahatma Gandhi,
Kasturba Gandhi, Sarojini Naidu and Mahadev Desai- the political
secretary of Gandhi were imprisoned by the British rulers against
Quit India Movement. The palace, having the beauty of Italian and
Mugal architecture is a cynosure to every body's eyes. It was in this
palace that Kasturba Gandhi and Mahadev Desai took their last sigh
during their confinement and their bodies were cremated in this
palace premises.
After
visiting in Aga Khan palace, we moved to Pune Zoological Park, where
we could see some animals and snakes that have been caged in. The zoo
was not so attractive to see as it doesn't have many number of
species; however, walking around the lake under the canopy of lush
green trees was a comfortable and wholesome experience of breathing
fresh air. By 4.30 pm, we went back to room. Amid of this, we just
get around a market place for seeing a social life. As the day was
near to the Mahanavami and Vijayadashami, the place seemed to be very
rush and busy.
Having
done a glimpse into the urban life of Pune, we left at11.15 pm to
Aurangabad by bus. As it is having a distance of 246 km from Pune to
Aurangabad, we had already reserved seats in an AC Bus. It could be
seen that a lot of buses were operating to Aurangabad during night
and they had been lined up along the stretch. By early morning
itself, we could reach our destination without much difficulty. Soon
we took a room for two days in Preetam Lodge located very near to
Aurangabad Railway Station and got ready for traveling to Ajantha
Caves. The MSRTC buses bound for Ajanta Caves were many and so, there
was no scarcity of transportation to this direction during day time.
We
reached Ajanta at 11.30 am. In order to welcome the visitors, an
interpretation centre has been established. First we entered the
interpretation centre, supported by UNESCO. Ajanta is a heritage
place of ancient human culture associated with Buddhism. Seeing its
significance, UNESCO has declared this as one of the wold heritage
places. Now it has been preserved and conserved by the Archaeological
Survey of India under the auspices of UNESCO. Visiting this place
provides an impetus to every Indians for looking into the tradition
of Buddhist culture and art that had prevailed long years back. It
is providing us very relevant information about Ajanta caves.
However; no visitors are turning up to this centre for seeing their
exhibitions. In this centre, some of the replica of important caves
were artificially created by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)
with the intention of not getting destroyed, even if the original
caves all got damaged or destructed due to old or natural calamity or
due to war. The documentary film shown in this centre was giving us
an outline about Buddhist sculpture in Ajanta. As this is a protected
area, the visitors can reach at this original cave site only by bus
operated by the ASI.
We
got at the cave site by 12.30 pm. After having lunch from the
restaurant of Tourism Department, we began to climb up the cave rock.
Thirty two caves are there in Ajanta, of which some caves supposed to
have been built in BC and some others in between AD fourth and sixth
century. All of them have been built by carving out the volcanic
basalt rock using chisels and hammer. A monolithic huge rock with a
shape of horse shoe in which all the caves have been constructed.
Inside some caves, ceilings have been decorated with murals of
various animals and the fight between themselves and some are
depicting the stories of Jataka tails. Also some pictures are
narrating the principles of Lord Buddha. The sculptures engraved in
caves are the icons of Lord Buddha which envisage the teaching with
disciples. These sculptures expose to the sects of Mahayana Buddhism.
Some caves consist of dome of Buddha that show the sect of Hinanyana.
Miraculous rock cut temples with sculptures and murals are amazing to
any visitors. The invasion of Hinduism upon Buddhism can be detected
in sculptures in a few caves where Lord Vishnu's images have been
enshrined. Anyway; Ajanta's paintings and sculptures are a blend of
Buddhism and Hinduism. It is not enough one or two days for visiting
all caves with the eagerness of understanding the features and
peculiarities of depictions contained therein. The water fall and the
brook flowing beneath of the caves add a beauty to the cave site,
which lure the heart of visitors coming there.
The
time was nearing to 4.30 pm. The gloaming sun was shedding its golden
rays across the Ajanta Hill. We hurriedly finished the remaining
caves and wound up the programme of that day. With awesome memory of
the things that were seen in Ajanta, we planned to say good bye. It
is hard to think and believe that hundreds of centuries back how
Buddhist monks could reach there and how they made such a marvelous
creation. Any way, all that have been part of our history....that
teach religious and cultural tradition once prevailed over centuries
to the generations coming there. The British man Thomas Smith, unless
who had come there for hunting tiger, no one would have known about
its significance. It would get disappeared under jungle for ever.
It
was in very tight time schedule, next day programme was arranged. The
places to be visited were many, so that we hired a taxi car for
covering the places in Ellora and Aurangabad. We started our journey
at 8.30 am and the route leading to Ellora was very enchanting with
thin mist. Ellora is hardly 28 km away from Aurangabad. When we
reached there, time was around 10.am and there was a long queue for
taking pass for entering the cave premises. Similar to Ajanta caves,
Ellora is a monolithic rock cut temple with numerous caves. Among
them, the most significant one is Kailasanadha Temple, the most
wonderful creation of human imagination and handwork. Then our
direction was towards Daulatabad Fort in Aurangabad. Around 2.30 pm,
we reached there. Looking away this fort is very magnificent. We
climb up the fort with a great enthusiasm. The fort has 700 steps
from its foot to up. Reaching at its culmination is a very strenuous
and dangerous attempt, as it is very narrow and steep way. However;
we climbed up with great determination. The fort has been constructed
on a steep hill without much circumferential area. The construction
of the fort upon this hill is the most exaggerating and beyond our
imagination. At a glance, every one will surprisingly think that how
it has been constructed during the time of technology had not been
improved. The fort's construction is a replica of military civil
engineering and it has a lot of tunnels and canals. At the top of it,
there is a temple of lord Ganapathy, where an old lady is serving.
The fort is known as Aurangazeb's fort, really it was built by Yadav.
With a great joy, we left for Bibi Ka Macbara, a tomb of Auangazeb's
wife. The construction is imitating to Taj Mahal. A few moments, we
spent there. Another places that we visited were Panchakki and
Aurangazeb's Tomb. Then the time was around 6 pm. We finished our
journey and got ready to return . By 10.44 pm, we got into Manmad-
Hyderabad Express. We left Aurangabad with sweet memories of joyful
moments that bestowed us and by saying thanks to the marvelous places
in whispering manner “we will come again”.
In
all the remnants of Ajanta and Ellora, there is heterogeneity and
homogeneity of culture and believes. They tell out the diversity of
traditions in the past.
