Bhaja Caves

The Bhaja Caves are 22 rock-cut Buddhist caves on a hillside about 450 ft above Bhaja village near Lonavala, a short way off the Mumbai-Pune highway. Linked to the Theravada tradition and probably begun in the Satavahana period, they sat on an old trade route that climbed from the Konkan ports through the Bhor Ghat to the Deccan, and the site is now in the care of the Archaeological Survey of India.

The chaityagriha, Cave 12, is one of the earliest of its kind: an apsidal hall split into nave and aisles by 27 pillars, with original wooden beams under the vaulted roof and a stupa at the far end. Cave 18 is a monastery with a pillared verandah, carvings of Surya and Indra and a 2nd-century BC panel of a woman playing the tabla as another dances. A group of 14 stupas, five inside and nine outside, bears the names of monks such as Ampinika, Dhammagiri and Sanghadina.