It is also reported that the urge to create these carved sculptures with deep expressions of "vigour and vitality" was inspired from the expressions depicted in the rock cut temples at Ellora and Elephanta in Maharashtra, and Mahabalipuram temples in Tamil Nadu.
The history of cave paintings in India range from drawings and paintings from prehistoric times, beginning around 30,000 BCE in the caves of Central India, typified by those at the Bhimbetka rock shelters to elaborate frescoes at sites such as the rock-cut artificial caves at Ajanta and Ellora, extending as late as the 8th - 10th century CE.
His works were composed, decorative in nature and always compared to those of Puvs de Chavannes, the post-Impressionist artist of Paris.Rama Rao was spotted by Sir O. J. Couldrey, principal of the Government Arts College, Rajahmundry who took him to Ajanta and Ellora for sketching the frescos and sculptures.
Yasushi Akutagawa's Ellora Symphony was composed in 1958 after a visit to the Ellora Caves in Aurangabad, India.
Kailashnath Temple, also Kailash or Kailāsa or Kailasanath Temple, is a famous temple, one of the 34 monasteries and temples known collectively as the Ellora Caves, extending over more than 2 km, that were dug side by side in the wall of a high basalt cliff in the complex located at Ellora, Maharashtra, India.
Another extensive site of rock-cut architecture is in Lalibela, a town in northern Ethiopia, where numerous churches, in three dimensions as at Ellora, were carved out of the rock.
•
Ellora in India and Lalibela in Ethiopia provide the most spectacular and famous examples of such structures.