Scholar-Journalist
Unveiling the Tapestry of My Holiday Adventures
By SOUMYA SHARMA
I spent my winter vacation at one of the famous locations in Maharashtra, which is known as Aurangabad. I started the journey, with my family on 22nd December, 2023.
We traveled by car and visited many farms on our way. We reached our destination at 4: 00 PM. We relaxed for some time in the hotel and then we explored the local market which was situated nearby.
The Himroo shawls and the Paithani silk sarees are some of the main clothing attractions for people. Aurangabad is also known as ‘The City of Gates’.
One of the famous temples situated there is Grishneshwar Temple. It is one of the 12 jyotirlingas in India.
It was earlier destroyed by the Mughal Sultanates. But later recovered and was re-constructed by the queen of Indore, Ahilya Bai Holkar, and her mother-in-law Gautama Bai.
The temple is well-maintained and is visited by many visitors. We visited the temple on the next day after our check out from the hotel room.
On the same day, we visited to one of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites– The Ellora Caves. These caves are said to be constructed by the ruler Krishna I, a ruler of the Rashtrakuta era. These caves were constructed in the 6th century CE in the Charanandri hills. It consists of about 100 caves, out of which 34 caves are open to the public.
Majorly they are famous for hand-carved statues that signify the religion of Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism. These are famous as they were carved by hand and were under work for about 200 years and almost 10 generations worked on it.
Cave 16, known as the Kailasa temple, is a particularly notable cave temple in India as a result of its size, architecture, and having been entirely carved out of a single rock. Every statue carved has a story behind it. One cannot travel all the 34 caves in one day, as I couldn’t. But the caves I visited were marvelous and noteworthy.
Although, some of the statues are deformed because of natural issues like temperature, insects, and more. But do you know why so? This is so because these caves are older than 1000 years!
We traveled the whole day and in the evening we returned back to our room.
The next day we had our breakfast and around 9:00 AM we left for the Ajanta caves.
These caves are famous for their beautiful paintings which were painted in the 2nd century. These caves are mainly based on the religion of Buddhism. It is said that Buddhism began to decline in its land of origin and its shrines fell into desolation and ruin.
But late in 1819, John Smith, a British fellow stumbled on a rock when he was chasing a tiger and he accidentally discovered one of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites, the Ajanta Caves.
He gave the order to clear the forests and discovered a region that comprised about 30 caves, some of which were incomplete. These caves are famous for their paintings which inspired the art of many foreign countries.
Some of the world-famous paintings like Padmapani and Vajrapani. Many paintings are painted which narrate different stories from history like the birth of Lord Buddha, King Sibi’s sacrifice, and many more.
Cave number 26, has wonderful works of art and sculptures. A sleeping Buddha is said to be there which is the main attraction among the tourists. Many caves have prayer halls and some of them depict art forms like singing and dancing.
We visited almost all the caves. As these caves are even older than the Ellora Caves, only some traces of the paintings are visible. Flashlights and torches are strictly prohibited on the premises as these may dull the colour of the paintings.
Very little amount of sunlight enters the caves Management set up a few lights so that the tourists can see the paintings clearly. We left from there at 12 noon. We had lunch and then we returned to our room.
Later in the evening, we planned to visit a temple of Lord Ganesha which was situated in a village. We reached there by 6:00 p.m. But the villagers advised us not to go there in the evening. We followed their advice and returned on our way to the hotel.
On the way, we saw many tube wells, farms of wheat and cotton, cattle animals, and much more. We visited the Valdi Fort and viewed the beautiful sunset. It feels extremely peaceful when we are in nature. The soft winds, the chattering of birds, the sound of the flowing water all seemed so beautiful.
We spent our time in nature’s lap and then left for our room.
The next day, we woke up, packed our bags, and started off for our home. On the way, we saw many farms. We bought vegetables and fruits that were fresh and were extracted right from the farm. After a 12-hour drive, we reached our home at night.
The way we went in the core of our mother nature and whatever we experienced there will always be in our hearts and minds. The knowledge we got from our history in this journey will always be remembered by us in the future.
