Panhalakaji Caves

The Panhalakaji Caves, in Ratnagiri district about 160 km south of Mumbai and near Dapoli, are a complex of 29 Buddhist and Hindu caves, 28 of them on the right bank of the Kotjai stream. Hinayana Buddhists began cutting them in the 3rd century AD, starting with the stupa in what is now Cave 5, and inscriptions in Brahmi and Devanagari survive.

In the 10th–11th centuries a Vajrayana group made Cave 10, with images of Akshobhya and Mahachandaroshana; the latter, shown on a stupa, points to links with Buddhist sites in Odisha. Shiva and Ganapati worship arrived under the Silaharas: Cave 19 holds a Shiva linga with Hindu scriptures on its ceiling. The Nath sect used Cave 14, which has Nath deities, and Cave 29, renamed Gaur Lena. The nearest railway station is Khed.