Abstract/Sommario: Ellora, near Aurangabad in Maharashtra, witnessed the culmination of more than a thousand years of the rock-cutting tradition. The Kailasanatha temple is the largest and most magnificent monolithic excavation in the world. An entire hillside has been transformed into this great temple. In the Ellora caves (6.-10. century A.D.) Buddhist, Brahamanical and Jainist excavations were made on the trade route from nearby Paithan to Ujjain in Central India