The Kailasa temple at Ellora was not built. It was excavated — carved downward into the rock, removing everything that was not the temple until the temple remained. Two hundred thousand tonnes of rock removed over decades to reveal something that was already there, waiting.
I find this the most extraordinary act of construction in human history. The confidence it requires — to commit to removing the mountain without being able to see the final form until you’re nearly done — is a kind of faith I can barely imagine.
In the novel, Ellora represents a different way of knowing. Not building toward an answer but uncovering one. That epistemological difference turns out to matter a great deal to the plot.