Magnificent Hinayana And Mahayana Art Structure of Buddhism - A Walk-Through Of the Kanheri Caves

Dear Hivers,

I joined a few of my friends to visit Kanheri Caves located in Western Mumbai.

Now before I bombard you with photos, let us allow Wikipedia to shed some light on Kanheri Caves.

The Kanheri Caves (Kānherī-guhā [kaːnʱeɾiː ɡuɦaː]) are a group of caves and rock-cut monuments cut into a massive basalt outcrop in the forests of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, on the former island of Salsette in the western outskirts of Mumbai, India. They contain Buddhist sculptures and relief carvings, paintings and inscriptions, dating from the 1st century CE[1] to the 10th century CE. Kanheri comes from the Sanskrit Krishnagiri, which means black mountain.

Wikipedia

Kanheri Caves have something written in entrance which is like the About page of Wikipedia and a map which directs to the caves.

As written in the 'About' page, there are a total of 110 caves in numbers. Archaelogists called these caves "Vaasa Vihara" or "Rain Shelter" for monks who roamed about different places spreading words of Buddha.

There are stairs and you need to go up to find all the caves. From above, the view is scenic.

(Sanjay Gandhi National Park is surrounded by Mumbai edifices looking magnificent in the background to the greenery)

(Who spares a chance to take a photo at this scene!)

These stairs lead to different caves.

Now when we enter into caves, the art and sculpture was magnificent. Totally mesmerizing. These sculptures are so good you will be convinced that's exactly what BUDDHA must have looked like. Because there are so many sculptures that are exact of each other

So much detailing in each sculpture also shows the respect art had in that era. Somebody can't put in so much effort in one job with having to worry about what to eat next day. I mean these sculptors must have been secured, respected and paid.

One of the important things about these caves is that these were designed suitable for water harvesting. You can see small drainage from one storage to another. Only after completely filling one storage will the other storage starts getting filled.

Almost every caves here is designed like this for water storage.

In some places these kind of pools were there, I was confused this was for water storage or it was a swimming pool.

Another interesting thing I saw was this sculpture. The bottom middle sculpture looks like of Nagdeva (King of Naags or Snakes) from Hindu Mythology. Hindu Mythology says, Lord Vishnu is guarded by Seshnaag (1st king of Naags). So this similarity must have some context.

This Power button structure also somewhat amused me. My best guess for it still would have been that it is broken part of some sculpture, perhaps the easiest guess.

This cave looks sophisticated. You can observe the establishment for water storage in here also

Couple of photos of us looking tired after moving around the caves

(Can you see a couple having good times?)

This small but beautiful park was named Multipurpose Park, but they didn't allow us to sit for 5mins, so not sure what are the purposes that added up to make it Multipurpose

Overall experience from visiting these caves is very good. Misrepresentation/ under-presentation if any is unintentional.

I will try to cover more places from Maharashtra in the next two years. Will be an exciting ride.

Thank you for reading this

Sagar