Me Sahyadri November 2018 A

As the economic development has taken the center stage, the balance between the environmental sustenance and socio economic development will be under the scanner. As most experts with balanced views have proclaimed, Indian wildlife and ecological system sustenance will be under threat, unless precautions are taken with the help of appropriate research and long term national interests. As we encounter the economic development, many habitats which indirectly or directly help sustainable development will be damaged. The awareness to gauge the success by sustainable development and not by year to year growth is a distant dream any environmentalist will assume in current scenario.
Western ghats, or Sahyadri as we all call it as, is a treasure trove of spectacular landscapes, biodiversity, flora, fauna, some amazing geological wonders and man made monuments. With the increasing pressure from human encroachment, all these elements are under stress and in turn are under depletion. Western ghats should be left untouched by human beings, to protect their future generations from getting short of resources, such as water, energy and clean air. The important elements of western ghats, which need protection are highlighted in the new version of Photo journal, Me Sahyadri Magazine.

About the Maval Cave exploration :
The main caves in Maval region are so significant that other small hermit caves are often overlooked. We as a team of four like minded friends, decided to explore the Maval region for these small hermit caves. We explored and found few beautiful places. The very concept of creating a hermit cave somewhere high up in the hills is fascinating. These places often are full of tranquility and nothing else. With very little architectural evidences and clues, the academicians have obviously ignored these places. It was James Fergusson and James Burgess, during their exhaustive study of “Cave temples of India, 1880” mentioned few of these hermits in Maval region of Pune district. With the little clues and exhaustive investigation, team of four members, Saprakash Belsare, Amey Joshi, Ninad Bartakke and Vivek Kale started the exploration. The journey to locate, trek and analyse these hermit caves itself was fascinating. We met many villagers who were unaware of these places, but also met few shephards who were precisely aware of the hermits and gave us tentaive guidance.
There is a very brief mention about the misceleneous caves of Maval by James Fergusson and James Burgess in their work. Based on available information we decided to search these caves and monuments. The activities were planned. The food, travel , track exploration in difficult and routes full of foliage, enquiring the villagers about the caves, taking measurements and drawing skecthes and maps, photography, GPS data collection, making notes and analysing the information, observing the minor details of the caves etc activites were distributed amongst the team members. We met many bats, owls, geckos, lizards, large spiders, martins, honeybees during the treks. Often we felt sad that we disturbed them to see the caves. Most of these places are hazardous due to pitch darkness, bats, dust, thorny plants, honeybees, low oxygen level in caves and rock patches etc. Not all the attemps were successful. Sometimes we could not find the intended places and sometimes we realised that the cave was just our imagination and did not exist. Nevertheless we saw about 20 new strange caves/monuments during the exploration. The high intensity torches, GPS tool, measuring tapes and measuring laser tool, Honeybee protection caps, maps, google maps, photographs etc were useful during the mission. In this photoessay, I have compiled the information and photographs of Induri Caves, Maval, amazing, simple but questions-thrower cave.

Indoori is a village in Maval Taluka, north east of Talegaon Dabhade, in Pune district in the state of Maharashtra in India. The village is located near the base of the isolated hill on the Deccan plateau. Another important village Navlakh Umbre, which happned to be the junction of several trade routes is located near Induri hill. This Induri hill has unique Induri caves. There are several other caves in this region at Shelarwadi, Nanoli and Bhamchandra hills. Most of these caves are late Hinayana Buddhist caves. Induri caves which is a group of caves was reported by R. L. Bhide in the Bhandara hill, near Induri village in Maval Taluka in Pune district. He reported four caves at this location. Actually there are six caves if carefully seen.This cave group consists of a chaitya with stupa and three vihara caves and two incomplete or damaged vihara caves. These caves can be dated to the second-third century CE on the basis of the architectural features and are Hinayana caves. These caves were frequented by Sant Tukaram and locally are known as Vitthal Rakhumai Cave. The caves are located at about 32 Km from Pune and about 5 Km from Talegaon Dabhade.

Cave#1: East of Induri village across the forest, midway up the hill, the Induri cave group os located. The cave#1 is located on the north side of the cave group. Now there is a shrine of Hindu deities Vitthal Rakhumai in this cave. The cave is simple hall with two internal cells. There are no traces of Stupa or any other Buddhist symbol in the cave. There are no benches in the internal cells. But there is a bench in the main hall on two sides. The cave is located close to the ancient trade route. The cave is void of any ancient ornamentation. Outside the cave in verandah there are two benchs on either side of the door. The front wall of the hall seems to have been collapsed. The wall is now in brick and mortar. The bench on south side is a recess bench of the type typically seen at Shelarwadi caves. Further in front of the cave there are steps carved in the rock to reach this cave, with again couple of benches on either side. It is said that Sant Tukaram used to visit the caves often and the cave is locally known as Vitthal Rakhumai Cave. The monks from Varkari Sampradaay stay in this cave who look after the shrine and mainly study the scripts of Varkari Sampradaay sants such as sant Tukaram, Sant Dnyaneshwar and other sants.

Cave#2: Further south of the Cave#1, there is a small incomplete groove in the rock as if the work for cave was started.

Cave#3: Further south of the Cave#1 and#2 there is a small open elevated levelled rock. This open cell does not have rock cut roof. The three side walls have rectangular slots. There is no front rock wall. There is a large stupa at the center of this rectangular open chaitya. It seems like there was a wooden roof and wooden front wall. This can be gueseed based on several sockets on the three walls around Stupa and in the floor in front. There must have been a wooden staircase to reach this elevated chaityagriha. The stupa is about 3 meter in diameter. There is a rail pattern ornamentation on the stupa. The top of the stupa has been partially damaged due to exposure to open atmosphere and the Hermika and Yashti is absent, today. There are few sockets on the back side of Stupa just below the rail pattern. It seems that there was some wooden work done here on Stupa to cover up the deformity in the rock. There are also 6 small sockets on the floor around Stupa. It means there was some wooden structure or panels all around Stupa.

Cave#4: Further south of the Cave#3, again at the elevated level, there is a small cave which there is a single cell with door. This cave does not have any ornamentation. Outside the cave in verandah there is a recess in the wall on one side.

Cave#5: Above the Cave#1, at the elevated level, there is a small cave#5, which is a single cell without roof or front wall. This cave does not have any ornamentation. The cave has a bench in it.
Cave#6: Above the Cave#1, at the elevated level, there is a small cave#6 adjascent to Cave#5, which is a single cell with partially collapsed roof and no front wall. This cave does not have any ornamentation. The cave has a bench in it. The cave has pole sockets in the floor for the door. Infront of the cave #5 and #6 at the distance of about a meter, there is a series of sockets in the floor, which indicate that there was a verandah made out of wooden/brick structure in front of Cave#5 and Cave#6.

Cistern#1: In front of the cave#1, there is a rock cut underground water cistern which has been modified recently by making a concrete top.

Cistern#2: In front of the cave#2, there is a rock cut underground water cistern which has been modified recently by making a concrete top.

The long bench at Yelghol suggests that many people used to gather here either for some ritual or for some function.