Our Indian heritage is not only enormous, but also the most advanced in many fields such as art, mathematics, astronomy and medical science. Ellora caves is such a great example of exquisite and unbelievable art that calling them caves is an understatement. I recently had the fortune of visiting these precious caves. The best way to describe Ellora caves are "as temples carved into mountain stone with exquisite detail." These are full size temples and you don't have to crawl in or bend down when you go into them. Once you see them, you will wonder how it is not part of one of the seven wonders of the world. These pictures here do more justice to these caves than my attempt at describing them.
The real question is - Do we deserve our heritage? What are we doing to preserve this heritage?Indian government has done a lot of things to help promote these caves and preserve it. For example, there is an entry ticket to go into these caves. A beautiful well maintained garden welcomes you into these caves. We even have drinking water available near the caves. Plenty of tour guides are available.
However, what is missing is access to a toilet! If you want to see the caves in full detail, it will take you the major part of your day and at some point every visitor needs to use the toilet. Sure, we have two toilets on the premises, but they are locked! No, there are no working hours for the toilet. They are just plain locked forever! There are signs for toilets everywhere, but only to find them locked when someone follows them!
What is the end result of this? People ease themselves next to the toilet in open air. It is understandable when someone does this in such a situation, but it is abhorring when you step into some of these caves and get the stench of urine in many dark regions of the caves! Isn't it disgraceful to desecrate art like this? We should have at least some pride in our ancestral work and heritage so that our kids can be inspired to do greater things. If we don't respect our own heritage, there is no chance others will either.I hope the management of Ellora caves will at least open up the toilets so that our heritage is not used as toilets. I seriously hope, no matter how bad the call of nature may be, we will have the sense to not desecrate our ancestral heritage.
