Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Junnar Caves:
There are around 200 Buddhist caves in the
hills of Junnar. The largest collection of caves at a single place in the whole
of India. These caves belong to the Hinayana (Theravada) phase of Buddhism.
They were built between 3rd century BC to 3rd century AD. The Junnar Caves are
furthur divided on the hill ranges. The
Tulja Caves, The Shivneri Caves near the Shivneri Fort, The Manmodi Hills
(comprising of Amba Ambika Caves, Bhimashankar Caves and Bhutalinga Caves) and
Lenyadri Caves aka Ganesh Caves.
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| Tulja Caves |
After visiting the Gumbad and having a
hearty lunch at Hotel Dilip, we decided to visit the Tulja Caves. It had now
started drizzling, the weather was nice, due to poor lighting, I had to shoot my photos in HDR mode.
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| Tulja Caves |
The route to Tulja Caves is tagged on
Google Maps. We had to travel on a kacha (muddy path) to reach the base of the
Tulja Caves.
From there a series of step will lead you
to the top. The steps are made of stone though not uniform. Due to the drizzle
they had become extremely slippery. We still managed to reach the caves.
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| Hill range around Tulja Caves |
One of the caves is converted into a temple
dedicated to Goddess TuljaBhawani. A couple of locals were sitting next to the
temple. With a donation book. Thank God they didn't ask us for donations.
There is a Stupa behind the carved pillar near the Tulja Bhawani Temple. The Stupa
is decorated with graffiti. How dumb can some people be? It angers me to the
core when they deface a national monument.
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| Tulja Caves |
There are a couple of caves here. Due to
the drizzle and the water dripping from the hills, the floor had become
extremely slippery. We decided not to venture further as it might turn hazardous
to us.
Again nothing much to see in these caves,
they are not in good condition either.
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| Stupa at Tulja Caves |
We then headed down the slippery steps to the
car.
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| Tulja Caves |
It took us around 20 minutes each to climb
up and down. Had the floor been dry it would have taken us around 30 minutes to
explore it.
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| Tulja Caves |
Next pitstop was Shivneri Caves.
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