The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.s2.31

v2.c16.s2.31

“But there is another explanations of the first line, which seems more consistent with the epithet Mahāmeghavāhana, ‘the great rider upon the clouds,’—a term hardly applicable to a terrestrial monarch. It will be remarked that the termination *lunam*, ‘excavated,’ is indefinite as to time, and far different from the conclusion of every.subsequent sentence in a causal verb of the present tense, as, *kārayati*, ‘he causes to be done.’ This first line then may be independent of the rest, and may be similar to the announcements upon the other caves, also terminating in *lunam*; or in other words, it may declare the name of the cave as, ‘the cave of Aira.’ Now Stirling tells us that Indra’s wife was the last to inhabit these caves, but that they date from an age much anterior—the time of Buddha;—that is, not of Śākya, but of Buddha the progenitor of the lunar race according to Pauranic mythology;—in common parlance from ‘time out of mind.’
“Again Wilson, in his analysis of the Mackenzie manuscripts (vol. I, p. cv.) remarking that they present no satisfactory materials for tracing the ancient history of the countries north of the Krishna, cites among the few traditions recorded, that ‘the excavations at Ellora are ascribed to ILA, the son of BUDDHA, the son of the moon’. The rājās who ruled subsequently at Ellora are said to be YUVANĀSVA, DANDAKA, INDRADYUMNA, DARUDHYA, and RĀMA rāja. — (Of these INDRADYUMNA, it may be remarked, *en passant*, is the traditionary founder of the temple of Jagannāth).
“The ILA above mentioned is properly speaking not the son but the wife of BUDDHA,—in other words ILĀ or IRĀ, the goddess of the earth, or water from whom was born AILAS or PURURAVAS, progenitor of the two principal branches of the CHANDRAVAMŚA who reigned at Kāsi and Pratiṣṭhāna.
“The essays of Wilford contain frequent mention of Ila and Ilā, (for this personage is both masculine and feminine), whom he identifies with JAPHET as *Ilapati* or Jyapati; and again with *Ilys*