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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Assess Ellora as a unique art centre of the different cultural streams.

  • UPSC 2011
  • Guptas, Vakatakas and Vardhanas

What makes Ellora exceptional is not any single monument but the fact that one basaltic scarp in the Deccan carries, side by side and in rough chronological sequence, the rock-cut architecture of three different faiths — Buddhism, Brahmanical Hinduism and Jainism — executed across roughly four centuries under at least three ruling houses. No comparable…

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What the full answer covers

  • The Buddhist Group (c. mid-6th to late 7th century CE)
  • The Brahmanical Group and the Kailasa Temple (c. late 7th to 9th century CE)
  • The Jain Group (c. 9th to 11th century CE)
  • Ellora's Unique Significance

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