Me Sahyadri Nov 2018 B

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 Bhamchandra caves, Khed Taluka, strange cave complex with lots of later and recent alterations.

Navlakh Umbre is a village in Maval Taluka, north of Talegaon Dabhade, in Pune district in the state of Maharashtra in India. The village is located just south of a hill range called as Tasubai hill range. Tasubai hill range is spread west-east. At the eastern end of the hill range there is a hill called as Bhamchandra hill. North of the Tasubai hill range there is Bhama river basin. South of Tasubai hill range, there is Indrayani river basin. Bhamchandra hill is named after Bhama river. Near villages Vasuli, Bhamboli and Shinde, there is cave complex called as Bhamchandra caves in Bhamchandra hill. There are several other caves in this region at Shelarwadi, Nanoli and Induri hills. Most of these caves are late Hinayana Buddhist caves. Bhamchandra caves was studied by James Burgess in 1880. There are total 6 caves and 5 water cisterns here today. These caves were frequented by Sant Tukaram. Locally these caves are known as Bhamchanda or Bhamchandra Cave. Sant Tukaram has mentioned the Bhamchada dongar (hill) in his poems (abhang). He has also mentioned his spiritual experience at this location. The caves are located at about 40 Km from Pune and about 18 Km from Talegaon Dabhade.

Cistern#1: North of Shinde village, midway up the hill, the Bhamchandra cave group is located. On the pathway one comes across the water cistern#1. The water cistern carved in the scarp of the hill, is a typical water cistern seen in the other caves of the Bhama region such as Gadad, Nigade etc. The water cistern is partially open and partially covered large cistern with about 24000 liter water holding capacity. Unfortunately the water cistern was seen empty in November. The locals call this cistern as Sita’s bath (Sitechi Nhani)

The Cave#1 is located about 5 meter west of the cistern#1. Now there is a shrine of Hindu deities in this cave. The main deity in the cave is Lord shiva and Shiva lingam is worshipped in the main sanctrum. Rough sculptures of Ganesh and other deities is also worshipped here. In this cave the front wall of stone structure has been built. Inside the cave there is a hall or Mandap with 4 columns, typically seen in the hindu temples. The geometry of the cave is irregular rectangle. The alignment of pillars, parallelism of the walls is far from perfect is probabaly the work of not so perfect artisans. The cave also has inner garbhagriha in which Shiva lingam is worshipped. The corner pillars in the garbhagriha are irregular in dimensions. The door entering the garbhagriha is framed with the stone work which is not part of original cave work. The frame has typical dwarrakshaks on either side, Ganesh at Lalatbindu, Kirtimukh at lower side. This frame work is also rough and is worn out.

Cistern#2: The water cistern carved in the scarp of the hill, adjascent to cave#1. The water cistern is partially open and partially covered cistern with about 11400 liter water holding capacity. The water cistern was full of water in November 2018.

Cistern#3: The water cistern carved in the scarp of the hill, west of cave#1. The water cistern is open and was full of water. The cistern is modern cistern carved by Varkari monks in recent times.

The Cave#2 is located about 10 meter west of the cave#1. There was a small cave in the scarp here roughly of about 2-3 meter depth. This cave is recently enlarged to house more monks. The cave is about 8 meter by 10 meter in dimensions. It is used by monks of Varkari sanpradaay and is a large hall without front rock wall. The front wall is made of steel. This is recently modified cave.

Cave#3: At the corner of scarps where two scarps at 90 degrees to each other meet, there are narrow steps to reach the upper cave namely Cave#3. This is a small upper cave which is accessible after climbing up the steps in the scarp. The cave is irregular in shape and do not have any chisel marks. The entrance is framed using modern work. There is a modern mural of Sant Tukaram in this cave depicting dhyana and shrine of Vitthal Rakhumai.

Cistern#4: The water cistern carved in the scarp of the hill, west of cave#2 and south of the steps leading to upper cave. The water cistern is open and was empty. The cistern is modern cistern carved by Varkari monks in recent times.

Cave#4: The natural cave is close to the Cave#3. The cave is located adjascent to cave#3, on west side. This is a natural cavern, which is a long tube cave.

Cave#5: The natural cave is enlarged and is being used by Varkari monks. The cave is located adjascent to cistern#5, on west side. This cave also is modified in modern times.

Cave#6: This is a small natural cave in the west side, in the cliff and has a rock wall in front. The cave is about 2 meter by 2 meter in size.

Cistern#5: The water cistern carved in the scarp of the hill, close to Cave#6.

Maruti temple and Rokdoba well : At the west side base of the hill, there is a hanuman temple and old well said to have been built 100 years back by a Varkari names Rokdoba.

Bhamchandra cave complex is strange, consisiting of natural caverns modified in past and recent times with rough work. The main cave houses lord shiva and the other caves are now occupied by Vaishnavaite Varkari sampradaay monks. The original cave has been carved later as compared to caves in Nane Maval.