Kailasa Temple at Ellora – The Shrine Carved from a Single Rock

[jemhouston]

https://artincontext.org/kailasa-temple-at-ellora/

https://x.com/IndiaTales7/status/197336 ... e.mu.nu%2F

[warshipadmin]

Very nice. Is it less effort to carve a temple out of solid rock or to build it from rocks quarried from the same site, for a given level of technology?

[Sukhoiman]

At ajanta/ellora (having been there), I would say direct hewing would be easier, there isn't much easy logistics and flat land to lug hewn rock and deploy (for this size of complex anyway). Think lot of hills and river valleys etc since they are mountain ranges in the end.

I guess that kind of thing is what factors into the approach...in addition to the particular original cave/rock being some original direct religious significance.

The wiki pages have seen large expansion since I last looked at them:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajanta_Caves
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellora_Caves

[kdahm]

Very nice. Is it less effort to carve a temple out of solid rock or to build it from rocks quarried from the same site, for a given level of technology?

If you build up, there needs to be a source of rock nearby to build it out of. If you carve it out of site, there's a lot of rock that needs to be put somewhere. So design your temple or quarry so that the amount of stone that is cut out is somewhat greater* than the amount of stone that you have to put down, and everyone is happy not to have to trundle a lot of stone very far.

*To account for flaws, wastage, and breakage.