Legend aside, the construction of the temple began during the rule of the Rashtrakuta king, Dantidurga (735 757 AD). A group of skilled artisans cut and carved the vertical face of the basalt rock of a hill in Elapura, known today as Ellora, near Aurangabad. Unlike the Buddhists who made carvings inside the rock to construct cave temples.
There are 32 caves in Ellora, numbered according to their age. Temples 1 to 12 in the south side are the Buddhist caves. Temples 13 to 29 are the Hindu caves, and in the northern side are the Jain temples. The result is the magnificent Kailasa temple, one of the largest rockcut temples in the world. Major work on the temple was done by King Dantidurga’s successor, Krishna I (757773 AD).
There are five subsidiary shrines around the main temple in the circumambulatory path that runs along the side of the hill. This includes a shrine dedicated to river goddesses Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati, and a yajnashala (hall of sacrifice).
