Buddha

Posted by Babul Bhatt (Bombay, India) on 13 November 2007 in Art & Design and Portfolio.

The Kanheri Caves are located on the western outskirts of Mumbai, India, deep within the green forests of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Kanheri comes from the Sanskrit word Krishnagiri generally meaning black in color.

These caves date from 1st Century B.C. to 9th Century A.D. The earliest are 109 tiny rock-cut cells, carved into the side of a hill. Each cave has a stone plinth for a bed. A congregation hall with huge stone pillars contains the stupa, a Buddhist shrine. Farther up the hill are the remains of an ancient water system, canals and cisterns that collected and channeled the rainwater into huge tanks.[3] Once the caves became permanent monasteries, they began to be carved out of the rock with intricate reliefs of Buddha and the Bodhisattvas carved into the walls. Kanheri had become an important Buddhist settlement on the Konkan coast by the 3rd century A.D.

Kanheri was a University center by the time the area was under the rule of the Maurayan and Kushan empires.

VFXY Photos | Cool Photoblogs | Listed on Photoblogs.org