The passenger

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Wai

Karla Caves

As you park your vehicle and start walking on the pavement road towards Karla caves,you are greeted by small shops selling plastic toys,cold-drinks and various devotional material. Among the ruckus of people, one of the sounds that you cant escape is the loudly sung devotional songs for the goddess Ekvira ,often auto-tuned. The shops display various Audio and video CDs with glossy colorful covers giving you a hint about this booming sect of Marathi folk music.

You walk on and climb more than a few steps you can see the huge rock cut caves facing the Mumbai -Pune highway.

There are quite a few interesting things about Karla caves. It's location is convinient on the trade route joining the Konkan and the Ghat. It was built with the help of wealthy donors,mainly traders or other rich patrons residing in this area.It is situated in the vicinity of another Buddhist caves of  Bhaje and Bedse.

Now a protected national monument,Karla caves is also famous for it's age-old connection with Koli(fishermen) community.It hosts the famous temple for family goddess Ekvira Devi.

The Koli or fishermen community who are residents of the Konkan coast come here to worship the Goddess with a romantic belief that she overlooks them from up here ,the edge of the ghats!

 

Upon entering the majestic Chaittyagriha(the prayer hall),you can only but  feel awestruck with it's architecture, especially the wooden arches holding the roof which have survived for over two thousand years. At the end of the hall is a stupa adorned by a wooden umbrella as if a royalty.

The stupas are funeral mounds containing relics of Buddhist monks or Buddha himself. The idea for disciples to meditate in front of it.

Other parts of the caves containing viharas or cottage like structures which served as hostels for the Buddhist monks were closed for public viewing.

Another interesting activity we saw that day. The pilgrims who come here have developed an amusing game of throwing coins over the Stupa. It does not make any sense at all and I won't be surprised if this develops into some ritual in coming years if not stopped in time by the authorities. 

This cave has been witness to around two thousand years of history.The stupa,the pillars,the sculptures and every element of architecture of these caves here has soaked in the surreal humming and holy chants by monks for hundreds of years.It must have seen and heard the preachings by teachers,hosted debates between intellectuals and provided refuge and shelter to the seekers of spiritual enlightenment for centuries.

We roamed in the cave, in the dark alley behind the pillars,tried to read the inscriptions written tall on them , caressed the rock just to see how it feels.As we left the caves we could see a kesariya flag over the ekvira devi temple, a line of pilgims .