mysterious caves of india

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.

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.

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.

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.

The caves are located in Maharashtra, near Jalgaon and just outside the village of Ajin?h?. 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.