The carvers
before and after Christ,
had cut marvels
out of rocks
of Deccan Plateau,
in awing Ajantha
and enchanting Ellora.

The vaulted roof
above the nave,
the Viharas for the monks,
three storeys with chapels,
the Stupas,
and the mural paintings
on the walls and ceilings,
the rock-hewn doors!!…
make us petrified with surprise.

We don’t turn renegades.
We fail to decipher
the myths and mystic inscriptions
of the Jain, the Buddhist and the Hindu.
We stand spell-bound
seeing the skills of those sculptors.

If Maria ( Evil) had succeeded
in wooing Gautama to seek
a jewelled Wheel of Empire,
then Buddhism would have made fertile
even the far east plains of Africa.

Earthquakes elect not to raze these hills
and thunder goes awry hitting somewhere.
No civil war rent off the idols.
Volcanoes erupt not in these sylvan retreats.
If alien missiles with nuclear warheads
fall on these relics of human wonders,
let shame bring on themselves.