Talaja Caves

The Talaja Caves are carved into isolated conical rocks at Talaja in Bhavnagar district, Gujarat. The group has 30 excavations, roughly half of them water tanks, and includes a hall of a distinctive form known as the Ebhal Mandapa. The halls are plain, while the facade carries chaitya windows above a broad band.

The chaitya and cells are thought to have been cut in the 2nd century BC, when Buddhism held sway in the area, ahead of the rock-cut architecture of Maharashtra, although some historians say the date cannot be fixed and others place the start at the end of the 1st century CE. Later, under the Kshatrapas of the 2nd century CE, Jain symbols were added to the cells and halls.