If you want to see the glorious past, there are many caves that are worth exploring. Most of the cities has a great number of caves that have history, culture and spirituality. Let us talk about these caves in India if you are planning to go, you would literally love them.
It is an important attraction in Mumbai. This cave is also known as “Gharapuri”. These are located 7 kms away from the city Mumbai and can be only reached by ferry. There are seven rock-cut caves that have been curved and is related to the 6 th and 7 th century. The cave has a beautiful sculpture of Shiva in different ways. The main attraction in this cave is Mahesh –Murti which present Lord Shiva in three different forms- the aghora, turbulent and fearsome , tatpurusha , benign and meditative and vamadeva, mild pleasing and lovable. Andhakasuravada murti , cosmic dance of Nataraja, Kalyanasundara murti, Ravana shaking Kailasa are also worth exploring.
This cave show the true love of Chalukayas for architecture. The caves are related to 6 th and 7 th century AD. There are total four caves out of which three caves have Brahamanical temples and one has Jain temple. Each cave has a sculptures of hindu gods, mahavira and other jain thirthankaras. Cave no 1 is adorned with carvings of an 18-armed dancing Shiva, a two-handed Ganesha and a ceiling with motif . cave no.2 has panels of trivikrama and bhuvaraha . cave no.3 has both the themes of shaivite and vaishnavite . cave no.4 has images of mahavira and padmavathi on the walls.
Ajanta and ellora caves are truely the most popular caves of India. Ajanta is a group of 29 caves that are related to 2nd century BC and 6 th century AD . Ellora is group of 34 caves that are related to 6 th and 11 th century AD. The caves at Ajanta are all Buddhist while the caves at Ellora are Buddhist, hindu and jain. Ajanta caves are popular for paintings and sculptures while Ellora are popular for its exquisite architecture.
It is very famous temple in Bihar which is located 12 kms away from Bodhgaya. It is believed that Buddha had spent his time meditating, when Buddha was practicing his self- mortification , he became very weak, and started starving and one day he was resting under a Banayan tree, poor village women named Sujata offered him some food. After he accepted the food, he got to know that neither extreme self- indulgence nor self-abasement is the right way to attain enlightenment. A hindu goddess deity Dungeshwari is also placed inside this cave.
On NH22 , opposite Tabo village ,there is a group of caves. These caves have been used for the purpose of meditation by Buddhist monks. It is also believed that monks were used during winters by the monks. There are some big caves that might have been used for assembly halls and smaller caves for lodging and dwelling purpose.
The khandagiri caves are situated just at a short distance of bhubaneshawar and has are the group of 15 caves. These are historical caves in India used by the jain monks during the reign of King Kharavela. The cave no.3 ananta cave is one of the popular cave and has the figures of women, elephants, athletes.
IT is situated at the bank of river Krishna and is at a distance of 8kms from the city of Vijyawada in Andhra Pradesh. The caves are associated with the Vishnukundin Kings and and related to the 7 th century AD. There are so many caves in here but the best one has four stories with a huge statue of Lord Vishnu. Others are dedicated to – Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The first floor is dedicated to lord Buddha and has many sculptures of them.
There are two main cave temples at the complex of Tiruchirapalli Rock Fort, one is called as the Lower Cave Temple and the other one is called as Upper Cave Temple. These caves are built during the time of Pallavas. These caves have a temple of Shiva in the east and Vishnu in the west. They have very unique kind of pillars which are not seen in the other temples of Tamil Nadu.
Patal bhubhaneshwar cave is located in Bhubhaneshwar village near Gangolihat, Uttarakhand. This cave was found by legend Treta Yug by King Rituparna of Suryavansha dynasty. There are four doors to enter the cave known as , “Paapdwar”, “Dharamdwar”, “Randwar” , “Mokshadwar”. But according to hindu mythology, Paapdwar was closed after the death of Ravana and the Randwar was closed after the epic war of Mahabharata. So , there are only two doors left. These caves are the home of all Hindu gods and goddesses.
It is situated near Pune district in Maharashtra. There are about 18 caves belonging to the Buddhism related to 3 rd BC and 2 nd AD. They have large number of flowers and other images on the pillars. Cave no.12 is the largest of all and it is a Chaitya hall . cave no. 18 is towards South with so many beautiful sculptures and architecture.
it is situated near the border of Bangladesh and the best adventure tourist places in India. The caves are situated away 6kms from the Sohra market of the Mawsmai village and they are the only caves with lights. These caves have the formations of large chambers.
This is situated in the Sarguja district, Chattisgarh. The caves can be reach through tunnel , known as “Hathipol”. (as even elephants can pass through these tunnels). In these caves lived rama, sita and lakshman during the exile. That is why it is named as SITA BENGRA (residence of sita). There are many old paintings one can find.
So, we can say that caving is slowly becoming one of the famous activity in India. If you haven’t go yet, you should visit these places now. Pack your bags and see these beautiful caves!
