Karla Caves

The Karla Caves are among the oldest Buddhist rock-cut sites in Maharashtra, located near Lonavala in Pune district. Their centrepiece is Cave 8, a chaitya hall considered the largest and best preserved of its period, and the site is also unusual for having caves cut on more than one storey.

Inside the chaitya stands a monolithic stupa of the 1st century CE, and the hall is decorated with carved animals and riders. Inscriptions around the site record gifts from monks, nuns, merchants, kings and villages, including a grant of farmland, and so give a picture of the economy that supported the monastery. At the mouth of the chaitya is a shrine to the folk goddess Ekveera, together with a nagarkhana, or drum house.