Kanheri Caves
The Kanheri Caves are a group of caves and rock-cut monuments, cut into a massive basalt outcrop in the forests of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, on the island of Salsette in the western outskirts of Mumbai, India. They contain Buddhist sculptures and relief carvings, paintings and inscriptions, dating from the 1st century CE to the 10th century CE. Kanheri comes from the Sanskrit Krishnagiri, which means "black mountain".
The site is on a hillside, and is accessible via rock-cut steps. The cave complex comprises one hundred and nine caves. The oldest are relatively plain and unadorned, in contrast to later caves on the site or the highly embellished Elephanta Caves of Mumbai. Each cave has a stone plinth that functioned as a bed. A congregation hall with huge stone pillars contains a stupa. Rock-cut channels above the caves fed rainwater into cisterns, which provided the complex with water. Once the caves were converted to permanent monasteries, their walls were carved with intricate reliefs of the Buddha and bodhisattvas. The Kanheri caves were built in the 1st century and had become an important Buddhist settlement on the Konkan coast by the 3rd century CE.
Most of the caves were Buddhist viharas, meant for living, studying, and meditating. The larger caves, which functioned as chaityas, or halls for congregational worship, are lined with intricately carved Buddhist sculptures, reliefs, pillars and rock-cut stupas. Avalokiteshwara is the most distinctive figure. The large number of viharas indicates there was a well organized establishment of Buddhist monks. This establishment was also connected with many trade centers, such as the ports of Sopara, Kalyan, Nasik, Paithan and Ujjain. Kanheri was a university center by the time the area was under the rule of the Maurayan and Kushan empires. In the late 10th century, the Buddhist teacher Atisha came to the Krishnagiri Vihara to study Buddhist meditation under Rahulagupta.
Inscriptions at Kanheri
Nearly 51 legible inscriptions and 26 epigraphs are found at Kanheri, which include inscriptions in Brahmi, Devanagari and 3 Pahlavi epigraphs found in Cave 90. One of the significant inscriptions mentions the marriage of Satavahana ruler Vashishtiputra Satakarni with the daughter of Rudradaman I:There are also two inscriptions of Yajna Sri Satakarni, in cave No. 81, and in the Chaitya cave No. 3.
A 494-495 CE inscription found at Kanheri mentions the Traikutaka dynasty.
Description of the caves
The Island of Salsette, or Shatshashthi, at the head of Mumbai harbour, is uniquely rich in rock-cut temples, with works of this kind found at Kanheri, Marol, Magathane, Mahakali Caves, Mandapeshwar Caves, and Jogeshwari Caves. Kanheri lies a few miles from Thane, and contains the most extensive series in this grouping, with about 109 separate caves.With easy access from Mumbai and Vasai, the caves attracted attention early in the colonial eras. They were described by Portuguese visitors in the 16th century and by European voyagers and travellers like Linschoten, Fryer, Gemelli Careri, Anquetil Du Perron and others.
The cave grouping sits about six miles from Thane, and two miles north of the Tulsi lake. The caves are excavated within one large hill and situated in the midst of an immense tract of forest country. Most of the hills in the neighborhood are covered with jungle, but this one is nearly bare, its summit being formed by
a large, rounded mass of compact rock, under which a softer stratum has in many places been washed out by the rains, thus forming natural caves. It is in the stratum below this that most of the excavations are situated. The cave rock is a volcanic breccia, which forms the whole of the hilly district of the island, culminating to the north of the caves in a point about 1,550 feet above the sea level.
There are considerable differences in the ages of the excavations, but some of their dates may generally be ascertained from the characters of the numerous inscriptions that exist upon them. Cave architecture is generally simple, with most of the excavations consisting of a single small room with a stone bed, fronted usually with a little veranda and supported by two plain square or octagonal shafts. In the larger and more ornate caves the architecture is
as important as elsewhere. Today, we can note that colonial writers such as James Fergusson, steeped in Orientalism and often comparing it to Greco-Roman architecture, perhaps ignorantly described the Kanheri architecture as "certainly primitive", even though the engineering science of these monks' abodes predates the Christian era.
One cave of this type in the ravine, consists of a very narrow porch, without pillars, a room with a stone bench along the walls, and a cell to the left. It bears an inscription of Yajna Sri Satakarni of the Satavahanas of the 2nd century CE, and it is probable that other caves in the same plain style range from the second to the fourth century CE. Other caves are covered inside with sculptures of a later Mahayana type, and some have inscriptions which may date as late as the middle of the ninth century.
The existence of so many monastic dwellings in this locality is partly accounted for by the neighborhood of so many thriving towns. Among the places mentioned as the residences of donors to cave architecture, occur the names of Surparaka ; the ancient capital of the northern Konkan; Kalyan, long a thriving port; Chemula, the "Samylla" of Greek geographers, on the island of Trombay; and Vasya. "Sri Staanaka" and Ghodabandar were
also thriving towns of those eras.
Cave No.1
Cave No.1 is a Buddhist vihara, or monastery. The entrance is framed by two large pillars. The cave has two levels, but its construction is incomplete.Cave No.2
On the right of the court of the Great Chaitya is Cave No. 2, pressing very closely upon it. It is a long cave, open in front, and once contained three small stupas, also called dagobas, with one of them now broken off near the base. This cave and cave No. 4 are probably older than the Great Chaitya cave, which seems to have been thrust in between these two caves at a later date; however, this long room has been so much altered at different times that it is difficult to know its original arrangement. On the rock surrounding the dagoba are sculptures of Buddha and a litany, but all these are probably of later dates.Great Chaitya (Cave No.3)
The cave first met on the way up the hill, and one of the most important, is the Great Chaitya cave. On the jamb of the entrance to the veranda is an inscription of Yajna Sri Satakarni, whose name also appears in cave No. 81. The inscription here is mutilated but decipherable. It is probable that the cave was excavated during Satakarni's reign.From the style of its architecture, it can be stated with certainty that the Cave 17 at Nasik Caves is contemporary, or nearly so, with the Great Chaityas both at Kanheri and Karla. The Nahapana Cave at Karla is a bit earlier than No. 17 at Nasik. The "Gautamiputra" Cave No. 3 succeeded these other caves after a considerable lapse of time; therefore, any caveworks sponsored by Yajna Sri Satakarni must have been executed within a short interval of time after the others. On the other hand, whatever its date may be, it is certain that the plan of the Kanheri Great Chaitya cave is a literal copy of that at the Karla Caves; the architectural details show the same differences in style as is found between Cave 17 and Cave 3 at Nasik.
If, for instance, we compare the capitals in this cave, with those of Karla, we find the same degradation of style as is seen between Nasik caves No. 10 and the later No. 3. The screen in front of this Kanheri cave, though weatherworn and difficult to draw, is of very nearly the same design seen at the Gautamiputra Cave of Nasik. Its design compilation of discs and animal forms seems to share a modernity also found at the Buddhist stupa site of Amaravathi, near the Eastern coast of southern India.
Cave No. 3 is 86.5 feet long by 39 feet 10 inches wide from wall to wall. It has thirty-four pillars round the nave and the dagoba; only 6 on one side and eleven on the other have bases and capitals of the Karla chaitya-cave patterns, but not so well proportioned nor so spiritedly cut. Fifteen pillars round the apse of the cave are plain octagonal shafts. The stupa is nearly 16 feet in diameter but unadorned, with its capital destroyed; so also is all the woodwork of the arched roof. The aisle across the front is covered by a gallery under the great arched window; it is probable that the central portion of the front veranda was also covered in wood. Two colossal figures of Buddha, about
23 feet high, stand in relief at the northwest and southeast ends of this veranda, but they appear to be of considerably later date than the cave itself.
The sculptured front screen is a copy of Karla's and in the same position, but rather better executed; indeed, it holds the best carved figures in these caves. The cave rock happens to be close-grained, this granting a peculiarly unique beauty to the figures. The style of dress of the figures is that of the age of the great Satakarnis: the oblong earrings and anklets of the women are very heavy, with the male turbans wrought with great care. This style of dress never occurs in any of the later caves or frescoes. These sculptures may be dated with confidence as of the same age as the cave. Not so, however, with the images above them, including several of the Buddha and two standing figures of the bodhisattva Avalokiteswara, all belonging to a later period. This also applies to the figure of the Buddha in the front wall at the left end of the veranda, under which is an inscription containing the name of Buddhaghosa, in lettering of about the sixth century.
The verandah has two pillars in front, and the screen above contains five openings. In the left side of the court are two rooms, one entered through the other, but evidently of later date than the cave. The outer room bears a good deal of sculpture. On each side of the court is an attached pillar; on the top of the western pillar rest four lions, as at Karla; on the eastern pillar are three fat, squat figures, similar to those on the pillar in the court of the Jaina Cave at Ellora; the squat figures probably supported a dharmachakra or dharma wheel. In front of the verandah there was once a wooden porch.