Incredible India Travel | Social Impact & Culture Tours

Every signboard at Elephanta calls it the Trimurti. Scholars say it is something else. This episode walks the island from the ferry at the Gateway of India to the Great Cave, where a colossal Shiva shows three faces and has five. We meet an island whose three villages had no mains electricity until February 2018, a stone slab naming the builder that the Portuguese took away, an elephant cut into pieces and reassembled in a Bombay museum garden, and the experts who advised UNESCO in 1987 to wait before listing the caves. It is a story of what you cannot see at first glance. Part of the private Elephanta Caves day trip from Mumbai. Book at 5sensestours.com.

Tags: Elephanta Caves, three faced Shiva, Sadashiva Elephanta, Gharapuri, Elephanta Island, Mumbai day trip, rock cut temples, UNESCO India, Incredible India Travel, 5 Senses Tours

Key moments:
00:00 A god with three faces, and five
04:00 The ferry from the Gateway of India
08:30 An island without electricity until 2018
13:00 The climb and the Great Cave
18:30 The face you cannot see
24:00 The missing inscription and the stone elephant
29:00 The experts who said wait
34:00 The way back

Resources:
Blog: https://5sensestours.com/the-elephanta-caves-mystery-a-god-with-3-faces-showing-2-hidden/
Tour: 5sensestours.com/tour/elephanta-caves-tour-from-mumbai/
UNESCO listing: whc.unesco.org/en/list/244