Kolvi Caves

The Kolvi, or Kholvi, caves are cut into a laterite hill at Kolvi village in Jhalawar district, Rajasthan. About 50 caves survive, with stupas, chaityas and figures of the Buddha seated in meditation and standing, including some colossal statues. Their style points to a Mahayana community here in roughly the 8th and 9th centuries, and similar caves found nearby suggest a thriving Buddhist culture in the area. They closely resemble the Bagh caves of Malwa.

Dr Impey first described the caves in 1854, and Alexander Cunningham reported on them some years later. He was struck by the stupas here, each hollowed out to hold a Buddha image at its centre, where older stupas held relics. In his view this made them true temples rather than reliquaries. On this basis they are dated to 700–900 CE, later than the caves at Dhamnar and Bagh.