Kailasa Temple, Cave 16 at Ellora in Maharashtra, is one of the most ambitious monuments ever created by removing rock. Rather than assembling blocks, builders excavated downward and inward through a basalt cliff to release a freestanding temple complex with gateways, courtyards, halls, shrines, bridges and sculpted walls. Dedicated to Shiva and conceived as Mount Kailasa, it is the monumental centre of Ellora’s Hindu caves.
Ellora contains 34 principal Buddhist, Hindu and Jain caves extending for roughly two kilometres. UNESCO inscribed the complex in 1983 because these traditions produced major monuments side by side between approximately the sixth and tenth centuries. Kailasa is generally associated with the eighth-century Rashtrakuta ruler Krishna I, although work and embellishment may have continued beyond a single reign.