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Kailasa temple built at Ellora marks the culmination of rock-cut architecture in India. Elucidate.

  • UPSC 2015
  • Themes in Early Indian Cultural History

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Rock-cut architecture — building by subtraction, carving a structure directly out of living rock rather than assembling it from quarried and transported material — followed its own internal trajectory in ancient and early medieval India, moving from simple excavated chambers to elaborately articulated cave-temples and finally to a single monolithic, free-standing monument. The Kailasa temple…

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What the full answer covers

  • Stage I: The Mauryan Origin of Rock-Cut Excavation
  • Stage II: The Buddhist Chaitya-Vihara Tradition Develops the Craft
  • Stage III: Early Medieval Deccan Cave Temples Bridge Excavation and Free-Standing Form
  • Stage IV: The Kailasa Temple — Technique, Scale, and Iconographic Synthesis
  • Stage V: Why Kailasa Marks an Endpoint, Not Merely a Peak
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