We finally visited the Varaha Cave Temple pertaining to the same UNESCO designated group of Monuments. Dating back to the late 7th century the Temple is said to be one of the finest testimonial of the ancient Vishwakarma Sthapathis rock-cur cave architecture.
The most prominent sculpture in the cave is the one of Lord Vishnu in the incarnated form of Varaha (or boar) lifting Bhudevi (the Mother Earth Goddess) from the sea. In the panel Varaha has four hands, two arms carrying shankha and chakra shown towards the back. Symbolically it is said to represent the removal of ignorance of human beings.
The Gajalakshmi panel (underneath on the left) represents Lakshmi, the Goddess of prosperity shown with her hand holding lotus flowers fawned by the four attendants and the elephants (in the photograph taken only their trunks can be seen) filling the water vessels.
Before getting back onto the bus we still strolled around the green grass area filled with local Indian people having passed by a less important cave and having sighted the falling stone associated with Krishna, (thus being called Krishna's butter ball).
It had been a long (and interesting day) but we were dying to get to the hotel where we would be spending the next two nights.
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