Ghumakkari commenced after a break of about 4 months.  The destination this time was Aurangabad.  Aurangabad is a city in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, India. Its original name was Khadki (Window), founded in 1610 by Malik Ambar. When Fateh Khan, Malik Ambar's son turned successor in 1626, he gave the city the name 'Fatehpur' and come to be known as Aurangabad after the name of Aurangazeb.  It is better known as ‘City of Gates’.  The places planned to be visited were Ajanta and Ellora caves, Ghrishneshwar Temple (one of the presently 12 Jyotirlings), Daultabad and Bibi Ka Maqbara.

We started our journey on 16.10.13 from Delhi by Spicejet and reached Aurangabad at 8.00 pm.

On 17.10.13 we first visited Ajanta Caves.  Ajanta Caves, declared as World Heritage Site by UNESCO, are situated in Jalgaon district of Aurangabad.    The caves are built by cutting the rocks into beautiful piece of art and architecture.  These are the finest examples of some of the earliest Buddhist architecture, caves paintings and sculptures.  

These caves comprise shrines, dedicated to Lord Buddha and Monasteries (Viharas) used by Buddhist monks for meditation and study of Buddhist teachings.  The caves are 29 in number and were discovered in AD 1819 by a few British army officers while hunting in a forest of Deccan.  The caves are located at a distance of around 106 kms from main city of Aurangabad and can be reached by driving for about 2 hours.  We started from a very high up place ‘View Point’, known to very few persons and started climbing down almost 4 kms to reach the starting point of Ajanta Caves.  

The entire cluster of Ajanta Caves gives a very pleasant appearance in the shape of Horse Shoe from the ‘View Point’.  Another important point which one misses if one doesn’t start from view point is a water fall.  This distance of 4 kms, one otherwise has to cover by a special bus by MSTDC.  It took around 30 minutes to climb down and reach the starting point.  We saw all the caves.  The caves also have inscribed on their inner walls a visual form of the life of Buddha and interesting stories from Jatakas. Cave Number 1,2,19 and 26 are highlights.  In our opinion, cave number 26 is the best.  It took around 3 hours to view all the caves.  We came back to our Guest House at around 5.30 pm and were too tired could not think of visiting anywhere else.

Next Day on 18.10.2013, we visited Ghrishneshwar Temple, Ellora caves, Bhadra Hanuman Temple, Daultabad Fort, Panchakki and Bibi-ka-Maqbara.
Ghrishneshwar Temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva and is one of the 12 Jyotirlingas.  Here, male members have to take off their upper clothes before entering the main Temple.

Ellora Caves are situated around 30 kms from Aurangabad city.  This is also a World Heritage Site.  These are rock-cut temples and monasteries.  There are 34 caves, actual structures excavated out of the vertical face of the hills, consisting of 12 Mahayana Buddhist caves (caves 1-12), 17 Hindu caves (caves 13-29) and 5 caves of the Jain faith (caves 30-34). 

The central attraction at Ellora is Kailas Temple (cave16), which in fact is the most remarkable. Chiseled by hand from a single massive rock, it includes a gateway, exhibition area, square, hall, hut, sanctorum and tower which bear testimony to the excellence of Dravidian art. It is believed to have taken 7000 laborers, working in continuous shifts for 150 years to build.  The entrance of the cave is narrow, one cannot believe that inside it is a very big, huge and beautiful cave. 

Daultabad fort –

Daultabad formerly known as Devagiri, 11kms north-west of Aurangabad, is famous for its formidable hill fort. The fort is situated on an isolated cone-shaped hill rising abruptly from the plain to the height of about 190 metres.  The Chand Minar, the Chini Mahal and the Baradari are the important structures within the fort.

The Chand Minar, about 63 metres in height, was erected by Alauddin Bahman Shah in 1435 AD to conquest of Daulatabad.  Opposite the Minar is the Jumma masjid, whose pillars originally belonged to a temple.  Close to it, there is a large masonry tank.  The Chini Mahal at the end of the lower fort is the place where Abdul Hasan Tana Shah, the last king Golconda, was confined by Aurangzeb in 1687 AD.  The Baradari, octagonal in shape, stands near the summit of the fort.  The principal bastion at the summit also carries a large canon.

Though the city of Devagiri was founded in 1187 AD by the Yadava king Bhillan V, the fort was constructed during the reign of Singhana II (1210-46 AD).  It was captured by Ala-ud-Din Kalji in 1294 AD, marking the first Muslim invasion of the Deccan.  Finally in 1318 AD, Malik Kafur killed last Yadava Raja, Harapal.  Then in 1327 AD, Muhammed-bin-Tughluq sought to make it his capital, by transferring the entire population of Delhi and changing the name from Devagiri to Daulatabad.  Then it was in the possession of the Bhamanis till 1526 AD.  The fort remained in Mughal control till Aurangzeb’s death in 1707 AD., when it passed on to the Nizam of Hyderabad.  To reach the top of the fort i.e. Baradari, one has to climb approximately 1000 steps. Bibi Ka Maqbara was built by Aurangazeb's son, Prince Azam Shah in 1678 in the memory of his mother Begum Rabia Durani. This mausoleum is a replica of the famous Taj Mahal. The chief architect of the monument is a Persian called Ustad - Ata - Ullah. The inscription on the walls of the tomb reveals that it cost precisely Rs.665,283 and 7 Annas to build this monument. Bibi Ka Maqbara has four towering minarets like Taj Mahal. An octagonal lattice-screen of white marble surrounds the raised plinth supporting Rabia Daurani's grave inside the tomb. The tips of its pillars are made of red stone. At the end of the day, we were again too tired to think of going anywhere else.  The weather on this day was very hot and we used umbrellas to save ourselves from the scorching sun god. On 19.10.13, we could not gather courage to go to Aurangabad caves and decided to spend time by visiting prozone mall and watching movie as our out journey flight was at 7.40 pm.