10 mysterious caves of India

 There are thousands of caves in India. Sure, everyone knows about Ajanta & Ellora and the Elephanta (in pic) caves, but what of the others? From Andhra Pradesh to Odisha, here are some more gorgeous caves.

1. Borra Caves, Ananthagiri Hills, Andhra Pradesh 

The name comes from Borra Guhalu in Telugu — ‘Borra’ means something that has bored into the ground and ‘guhalu’ means caves. They are located in the Ananthagiri hills of the Araku valley of the Visakhapatnam district in Andhra Pradesh. In 1807, William King George of the Geological Survey of India discovered the caves.

 The caves are basically Karstic limestone structures extending to a depth of 80 m, and are considered the deepest caves in India. The caves distinctly exhibit a variety of impressive speleothems ranging from very small to big and irregularly shaped stalactites and stalagmites.

 2. Bhimbetka Rock Shelters, Madhya Pradesh

 The Bhimbetka are an archaeological site of the Paleolithic Age, exhibiting the earliest traces of human life on the Indian subcontinent. It is located in the Raisen district in Madhya Pradesh, inside the Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary. Here we can see a close-up of the cave paintings depicting men.

 

 The caves were declared a World Heritage Site in 2003, and some of the Stone Age rock paintings found among the Bhimbetka rock shelters are approximately 30,000 years old.

A war scene is shown in one of the cave painting in Bhimbetka. There are over 500 natural caves here, which have a large collection of pre-historic rock paintings depicting scenes from everyday life, hunting scenes and war. The painting were discovered in 1958. The caves also deliver early evidence of dance.

 3. Amarnath Cave, Baltal, Jammu and Kashmir

 A Hindu pilgrim worships in front of an ice stalagmite, which is representative of a Shiva Lingam, or the god Shiva. It is one of the most revered of Hindu shrines. Thousands of Hindu devotees, braving sub-zero temperatures, come to pay their respects at the cave.

 The cave, enveloped by the rugged Himalayan mountains, itself is covered with snow most of the year except for a short period of time in summer when it is open for pilgrims. The stalagmite, or Shiva Linga, is formed due to freezing of water drops that fall from the roof of the cave on to the floor and grows up vertically from the cave floor.

 4. Undavalli Caves, Andhra Pradesh

 These caves are one of the finest testimonials to ancient 'vishwakarma sthapathis', and are located 6km from Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. These caves were carved out of solid sandstone on a hillside in the 4th-5th centuries AD.

 

The Undavalli caves are an example of how many Buddhist artefacts and stupas in the state were converted into Hindu temples and deities. It was originally a Jain cave resembling the architecture of Udayagiri and Khandgiri. The main cave is one of the earliest examples of the Gupta architecture, primarily primitive rock-cut monastery cells carved into the sandstone hills.

 

5. Vaishno Devi, Jammu and Kashmir

One of India's most popular cave temples, Vaishno Devi is one of the holy Hindu temples dedicated to Shakti, located in the Trikuta Mountains. Officials claim that millions of pilgrims visit the shrine each year. 

6. Udayagiri and Khandagiri Caves, Orissa

 The Udayagiri and Khandagiri Caves are partly natural and partly artificial caves of archaeological, historical and religious importance near Bhubaneswar. They have a number of finely and ornately carved caves. It is believed that most of these caves were carved out as residential blocks for Jain monks during the reign of King Kharavela.

 

Udayagiri means 'sunrise hill' and has 18 caves while Khandagiri, which means 'broken hill', has 15. The Jain caves are among the earliest in India.

7. Elephanta Caves, Maharashtra

 

The Elephanta Caves are a network of sculpted caves on the Elephanta Island, or Gharapuri — meaning 'the city of caves' — in Mumbai Harbour. It can be reached by ferries running through the day from Mumbai. The island consists of two groups of caves — the first is a large group of five Hindu caves, the second, a smaller group of two Buddhist caves.

8. Badami Caves, Karnataka

 The Badami cave temples are a complex of temples located at Badami, a town in the Bagalkot district of Karnataka. The cave temples are composed of four caves, all carved out of the soft Badami sandstone on a hill cliff in the late 6th-7th centuries.

 

 The architecture of teh caves includes structures built in Nagara Style and Dravidian style. Each has a sanctum sanctorum, a mandapa, a verandah and pillars. The cave temples also bear exquisite carvings, sculptures and beautiful murals.There is also the fifth natural cave temple in Badami – a Buddhist temple in natural cave which can be entered kneeling on all fours.

 9. Ellora Caves, Maharashtra

 

Ellora is an archaeological site, 29km from Aurangabad in Maharashtra. Well-known for its monumental caves, Ellora is a World Heritage Site and the 34 caves are actually structures excavated out of the vertical face of the Charanandri hills. Buddhist, Hindu and Jain rock-cut temples and viharas and mathas were built between the 5th century and 10th century.

 10. Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra

 

 The caves are located in Maharashtra, near Jalgaon and just outside the village of Ajinṭhā. The caves form the largest corpus of early Indian wall-painting. This image, from Cave 17, shows the Buddha begging for food at his former home, standing in front of his wife Yashodhara and his son Rahula.

 

The caves include paintings and sculptures described by the Archaeological Survey of India as "the finest surviving examples of Indian art, particularly painting", which are masterpieces of Buddhist religious art, with figures of the Buddha and depictions of the Jataka tales. Shown here is the east wall of Cave No. 26 in Ajanta, with five sculptures of Sitting Buddha. Cave No. 26 is the most famous one in the cause od Reclining Buddha sculpture.