A Shaivite shrine in the Ellora cave temple complex, the Dashavatara Cave, also known as Cave 15, marks a late phase of cave architecture in Ellora. It is the only cave in the complex which bears an inscription both dating it and linking it to royal patronage, specifically that of the Rashtrakutas. Scholars have used this to argue that the Rashtrakuta king Dantidurga ordered the excavation of the cave to commemorate his conquest of the Ellora region in the mid-eighth century CE.

Like most caves at the Ellora complex, the Dashavatara cave is carved out of a single cliff face. It is one of the few caves to feature an external freestanding mandapa, carved out of the same rock; the sculptural niches on this structure are surmounted by gavakshas, unlike the kuta and panjara pavilions more commonly seen in contemporary Deccan temples. This freestanding mandapa may be a predecessor to the more ambitious freestanding excavations seen in the later Kailasanatha temple.

The cave proper is two storeys tall; the upper storey consists of a mahamandapa containing forty-two ornamented pillars in six rows, with large sculptural niches along the northern and southern walls. An antechamber, leading to a garbhagriha containing a Shiva linga, is carved into the eastern wall; it is flanked by two sculptural niches on either side. The deep court of the mahamandapa is a distinctive feature of later caves at Ellora. The ground level is supported by fourteen plain pillars and a number of cells, features similar to those of the Buddhist Caves 11 and 12 in the Ellora complex; seated Buddhas are also depicted on the bracket-capitals of the upper storey. This has led several scholars to suggest that the Dashavatara cave was initially excavated as a Buddhist shrine, being converted into a Shaivite shrine before its completion by the Rashtrakutas.