Kanheri Caves

Kanheri, from the Sanskrit Krishnagiri meaning black mountain, is a monastic city cut into a basalt ridge in the heart of Sanjay Gandhi National Park, roughly 40 kilometres north of the colonial centre. Excavation began in the first century BC and continued into the tenth century AD, producing more than 110 caves that include chaitya prayer halls, vihara living cells, lecture rooms, refectories, burial galleries and an extensive network of rock-cut channels and cisterns that harvested monsoon rainfall for year-round use. Cave Three, the great chaitya hall, is the outstanding structure, its facade flanked by two colossal standing Buddha figures over six metres high, its interior lined with 34 carved pillars leading to a rock-cut stupa. Later Mahayana carving added elaborate panels of Avalokiteshvara and the eleven-headed Bodhisattva, and Brahmi and Devanagari inscriptions record donations by merchants and guilds from across western India. The monastery flourished because it sat astride the trade route linking the ports of Sopara and Kalyan with the Deccan interior, and the wealth of that commerce funded its expansion. Reaching Kanheri means entering the national park at Borivali and travelling roughly seven kilometres to the caves by park bus, taxi or bicycle, through forest where leopards, spotted deer and langurs live. The setting, among trees on a hillside with views across the park, is unlike anything else within a metropolis of twenty million people.