Kailasa Temple, Ellora

After stopping in Bombay, Yoshida traveled by car to the cave temples of Ellora in the present-day Indian state of Maharashtra. The temples represent three major religious traditions: Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain. The Kailasa Temple, dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, was carved from the gray basalt that forms the hills in this region. Yoshida's print depicts the courtyard at the entrance of the temple where visitors rest in the shade. Deep shadows darken the carved face of the temple, which was built in the eighth century in a massive effort that required removal of some two hundred thousand tons of stone over more than a century. Yoshida's inscription at the bottom of the print in English attests that he applied for official permission to make sketches at the site.