Greetings all! What a cool day. Sometimes I guess going on the package tour is worth it, because I got to see a ton of cool stuff today.

First, Daulatabad. A medieval hill fort, now abandoned. It was used on and off for about 6 or 700 years. Built by Hindus, used by whomever conquered. This place I wasn't really looking forward to, but it was really cool. They literally carved this fort out of a mountain (get used to this concept).

It has several different ramparts, secret passageways for night travelers to come in (where they have to stick their head up first so it gets bonked if they are the wrong person). Then, a moat! Then, a labrynth! In the dark, with stairs, and bats living in the caves a few feet above our heads. They have to bring us through with an oil torch, up the stairs, and tell us which are the wrong turns so we don't take them (wrong turns end up to either a dead end or a 150' drop to the moat). Also, the doors have spikes on them so that elephants can't knock them down (the guide said that they solved that problem by putting a camel between the elephant and the door - seems to me like something non-sentient would have done the job just as well, but I digress...). The picture of the cave and torch is from there, as is the sideways one of me (taken by the nice Korean couple).

Then, the main event. Ellora. Three sets of caves, all of them carved in the second half of the first millenium, when we westerners were mired in the dark ages, one set Buddhist, one set Hindu, one set Jain. Arid cool hill country in the middle of India (Maharashtra). HUGE caves, and lots of them. I looked at one Buddhist cave (Buddhist caves are oldest) that has three floors, stairways, lots of buddhas, and even rock beds for the monks carved in with rock pillows.

Then, the Hindu caves. These are more ambitious and more lively (lots of gods). I attached a picture of the most famous one, the Kailash caves, which really are a whole temple (three stories again) carved out of a rock face. That's right. They started at the top, and worked their way down. If they forgot something? Oops, too bad. If they messed something up? Same. Our guide said that this was the biggest rock cut temple in the world, it's only peers being Petra (where I've always wanted to go), and a place I can't recall the name of in Ethiopia (Allatabad or something?). I have to admit my bias here. Rock-cut temples make me hot. I can't help it. Anyways, I picked the picture of Kailash that shows the greatest overall look, though I was actually more partial to the details. Inside there is a cool and actively worshipped Shiva Lingam (phallus) that has flowers and oils, etc placed on it and rubbed into it. See what I mean about getting me hot? Anyways, touching it gives great power. Shiva is the destroyer, but in that destruction, he creates. We didn't have time to go next door which is too bad because the next cave over apparently has a big Nataranja Shiva (do any of you remember your Shiva avatars, the cosmic dancer?) and also a Shiva bursting forth from a lingam. Very cool.

Then to the Jain temples. These aren't as large as the Hindu caves, but very interesting nonetheless. The Jain prophet mostly pictured (I think Maravi? but this is likely wrong) looks very much like a Buddha. The only way to really tell it's Jain is the details. He never has clothes on (there is a little bump between his legs), there are animals all around (Jain's respect all life, even refraining from eating veggies from under the ground out of respect to the underground insects), and there is a woman and man to either side of the image (Jains were progressive and felt men and women were spiritual equals according to our guide).

After that, we went to a pilgrim Shiva temple, one of the 12 temples any Shiva devotee must visit if he/she is to feel complete (important because they contain jyoti linga [sacred linga?]) and jump out of the cycle of death and rebirth. Again, a lingam, lots more active worship, more pilgrims, very cool. They let us into the sanctum. I like lots of details of Hindu adoration. Wafting your hands through the candles and incense to feel the warmth of life and the smell of the divine (also like that in Judaism). Prostration. Touch. Barefeet. The mark on the forehead (Amma has a little poster in the 'ram about the marks. She says that they are not only a mark of the spiritual, they also help aid the body's functioning because that point is an important part of the skin, and also they focus not only your energy but that of the person talking to you). Men had to be bare chested here as well, just inside the temple, like the temple I was in in Kanyakumari. I took a picture of a little puja basket (I think I am using this correctly - puja is a tribute made to the divine sometimes physical and sometimes an act). Pilgrims would buy these and then put the flowers on the lingam, etc. Two funny signs outside this temple: a) please do not pour milk on the lingam (don't ask me, I thought it was a kosher form of respect - in India milk is very important because it comes from cows and is used in lots of rituals), and b) please do not break coconuts in the shrine (again, beats me? Coconuts were a part of most puja baskets, but I guess they need to be whole).

Finally, to the mini Taj Mahal (built by one of Aurangzaeb's sons for his mother), more commonly called the Bibi-Qa-Maqbara. Very strangely reminiscent and inspired by the Taj (perhaps giving some credence to Shah Jahan's fears that it would be replicated?). But smaller and much more poorly maintained, and not made from all marble. Still kind of interesting. I could probably swap a picture into my Taj pics and none of you would know the diff. Interestingly here I've noticed a more traditional Muslim presence. Lots of women with their face hidden except for little eyeslits, and wearing all black. Check out this nice detailed metalwork on the old wooden doors. Mom, I may be outdone here. When you go, perhaps you would be satisfied if I built an addition to the house, or a sandcastle? I could set up my tent in the backyard?? I'll put some nice drawings on it?

Oh yes, and a medieval wonder of engineering, the Panchakki. A water wheel designed to grind flour, built in the 1400's I believe and powered by water coming downhill from a reservoir, underground, over 6 km away. Very cool. And a wonderful huge Boddhi tree, the biggest I've seen. Urban forestry dorks be alert, I am about to give a dbh... maybe 2.5 meters. Seriously.

Anyways, I'm beat. But I will attach one more pic, the pic from yesterday's trip to Mumbai. Chivatri Shivaya Station (formerly called Victoria station) is thought to see 2.5 million people passing through it per day. Per day!! This is a crazy, and huge, and wonderfully Victorian building (I still haven't got a pic of the exterior). But I hope that this picture gives you at least an idea.

Ok, that's it. I feel the Maharashtra tourism corporation should be paying me. I feel a bit like a cheerleader with this entry, but it was a really cool day. Oh, and by the way, I believe I've been misspelling ascetism as aesceticism. What can you do? I'm sure that's just the tip of the iceberg in my grammatical inaccuracies.

Love to all,

John