The caves are thought to date back to the Silhara kings of the 9th through 13th centuries (810-1260). Some of the sculptures of this site are also attributed to the imperial Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta (in present day Karnataka), the Trimurti of Elephanta showing faces of Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheswar embodied as one being one among them. This was also the royal insignia of the Rashtrakutas. Other Rashtrakuta sclptures here are the reliefs of Nataraja and Sadashiva and the splendid sculptures of Ardhanarishvara. About the Trimurti, historian Grousset points out, "The three countenances of the One Being are here harmonized without a trace of effort. There are few material representations of the divine principle at once as powerful and as well balanced as this in the art of the whole world".