Pherozshah Mehta Gardens in Mumbai built on top of huge reservoir is one of the beautiful garden in the city. The park was primarily dedicated to Pherozeshah Mehta, a prominent Parsi political leader, activist and lawyer.
The garden is popularly known as Hanging Garden. It has numerous hedges carved into the shapes of animals in very creative forms.
The garden has well maintained pathways for strolling. It has varieties of plants, flowers that are treat to the eyes.
From here one can capture a sunset view of the Arabian Sea.
We have already seen details of Kailasa Temple of Ellora in the earlier post. This 8th century temple has strong architectural influences of Pallava and Chalukya styles.
Within the enclosed courtyard, there is a flat-roofed main shrine dedicated to Shiva, and an image of his mount Nandi. The rectangular main shrine is called Rang-Mahal because after its completion, the temple was plastered and painted.
The temple has niches, plasters, windows as well as images of deities and other figures. The 7 meter high plinth is decorated with life size elephants and mythical animals.
The two storey main shrine has Vadys Mandapa, Nandi Mandapa, a pillared hall, an antechamber and a small sanctum surrounded by five subsidiary shrines.
The pillared hall is supported by 16 pillars each with different set of carvings on them.
The Hanging Gardens in Mumbai is one of the oldest garden in the city. It is a terraced garden perched at the top of Malabar Hill just opposite the Kamala Nehru Park.
For people looking for quite time away from the hustle and bustle of city life this is the right place.
The park was laid out in 1881 by Ulhas Ghapokar over Bombay's main reservoir.
This garden is beautiful place with a variety of flowers and well maintained greens all around.
This is thirty-second in the series on the rich cultural heritage of ancient temples in India. There are various intricate sculptures in each of these temples where each one of them is better than the other.
On the East Gate of Great Stupa of Sanchi has beautiful sculptures of elephants at the top side. The close up of the elephants shows skillfully carved cloth coverings and other details.
Dashavatara in Ellora has a sculpture of Mahadeva in his terrible form. The gigantic figure lounges forward holding up his elephant hide, with a necklace of skulls depending below is loins, while with his trishul he has transfixed one victim.
To add to the elements of horror, Kali, gaunt and grim, stretches her skeleton length below, with huge mouth, having a crooked knife in her right hand, and stretching out the other with a bowl as if wanting a share of the victims blood.
At Sun Temple of Modhera, on the step of the Surya Kund directly opposite the temple, a small shrine has Vishnu on Shesh Shaiya.
The Devgiri Fort 15 kms from Aurangabad, has many interesting structures. Each one of them is very different from each other.
The fort also has a temple, dedicated to Bharat Mata Mandir. It is opposite to Chand Minar near the Hathi Hauz. There is a dome shaped entrance gate to the temple.
This temple has many ancient pillar halls and there is a wide courtyard in front of the temple.
Within the rows of pillars there is a beautiful sanding image of Bharat Mata. The image of deity is very new when compared to rest of the structures.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) formerly known as Victoria Terminus at Mumbai is the 19th century heritage structure. It was built to to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria.
The terminus is one of the first construction that made use of industrial revolution technology merged with the Gothic Revival style based on late medieval Italian models.
This style made use of color and ornamentation that is compatible with the Mughal and Hindu architecture of the subcontinent.
The facades present the appearance of well-proportioned rows of windows and arches.
This is the highlight among the city's historic buildings. From across the street one can admire all its quirky ornaments.
In Ellora the cave numbered as 15 is a Hindu Temple. To reach this magnificent Cave No. 15 one has to climb up series of steps where the entire court has been hewn out of the solid rock with a curtain wall across in front of it, and a sacrificial hall in the middle. This cave originally a Buddhist monastery is popularly known as Dashavatara.
This cave is a double storey, the lower part measuring 95 feet in length is a few feet above the level of the court, and it is supported by 14 square pillars. The upper floor is 95 feet wide and 110 feet deep inclusive of the vestibule of the shrine, supported by 44 square columns.
The two pillars in the front are carved with floral ornamentation, including dwarfs, snakes etc.
In the eighth century was converted into a Hindu sanctuary under the patronage of the Rashtrakuta king Dantidurga. The beautiful carvings in this cave were done under the patronage of the Kalachuri, the Chalukya and the Rashtrakuta dynasties between the sixth and the ninth centuries. This cell has a huge sculptress of The second has Siva and Parvati.
One of the cell has Varaha holding the Prithvi on his hand, with three other snake figures below it.
The 14th century Devgiri Fort is known for various bronze canons found all around the fort. One such canon is Kila Shikan.
The canon located in a strategic place named so mean Fort Breaker. It lies on a stone platform.
The impressive canon has a ram-head.
The canon has the name inscribed on it in Persian.
The excavation of Cave No. 16 at Ajanta was ordered by Varahadeva, the minister of King Harishena in the late 6th century A.D. The entrance gate to this cave is carved with an elephant on either side.
This monastery with its colossal hall, ornate doors and windows, beautifully painted galleries, sculptures, ornamented pillars is a architectural beauty that makes it one of the most striking in the series.
This is a monastery that consists of a central hall surrounded by 14 cells on three sides, vestibule and a sanctum for Buddha image. The veranda has octagonal columns. The sanctum of this cave is devoid of doorway and antarala. The sanctum has Buddha image seated in pralambapadasana.
Originally the entire cave was beautifully painted but now very little of the painting now remain. Several interesting scenes from the life of Buddha such as the infant Buddha, Siddhartha at school- drawing the bow, miracle of Sravasti; and other Jataka stories are depicted.
The "Dying Princess" is considered to be one of the important paintings produced in this cave. The princess is wife of Nanda the cousin brother of Buddha. She fell ill after hearing the decision of her husband that to renounce the crown and to become a monk. The dying woman with drooping head, half-closed eyes, and languid limbs, reclines on a bed.
Apart from painting there are beautiful sculptures in the cave at the juncture of pillars and ceiling.
Elephanta island off the Mumbai coast can be reached by ferries. Total travel time by ferry to the island is one hour.
After going around island by exploring the caves we took the last ferry at 5:30 p.m back to Mumbai.
The sunset over the sea was simply gorgeous.
In the backdrop one can see the skyline of Mumbai.
Mahadev Govind Ranade was a founding member of the Indian National Congress. He was a well known public figure as he was Indian scholar, social reformer and author. He published books on Indian economics and on Maratha history. Below
He was a founder of the Social Conference movement and he opposed child marriage, the shaving of widows' heads, the heavy cost of marriages and other social functions. He was a staunch supporter of widow remarriage and female education. While he valued India’s history, he encouraged the acceptance of change, believing traditional social structures, like the caste system, should accommodate change, thereby preserving India’s ancient heritage.
This is twenty-ninth in the series on the rich cultural heritage of ancient temples in India. The ancient temples are richly carved and each of the carvings surpass each other in their mastery.
Inside the Kailasa Temple of Ellora surrounding the maim shrine there is a pillar courtyard. This courtyard has several panels depicting various legends of Shiva and Vishnu.
In this courtyard there is a gallery of twelve panels depicting Shiva legends. On these panels there are Shiva and Parvati in various attitudes.
On the external wall of Mallikarjuna Temple, Basaralu there is a beautiful sculpture of Karthikeyan on peacock.
October 2nd is birth anniversary of Father of the Nation, Mahatama Gandhi. Here is a sculpture of Mahatama titled "Unto the Last". This meant "All have the right of work to earn their livlihood and discrimination is useless."
Raopura Tower located in Vadodara is a clock tower built in the year 1896 and then it was central part of the fort.
The Tower is designed in Indo-Saracenic style with clock in all the four directions. The design also includes Chhatris above the clock.
It is also known as Maharani Chimnabai Tower as it was built in memory of Maharani Chimnabai the first wife of the Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III.
