The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s5.20

c7.s5.20

The caves of Kuda are purely Buddhist, and form a large series of twenty-six. Almost all of them are plain and, except in size, much alike. Five of them, one unfinished, are *chaityas* or temple caves containing the sacred relic-shrine or *dághoba*; the other twenty-one are dwelling caves or *lenás* as they are called in the inscriptions. These *lenás* generally consist of a veranda with a door and window opening into a cell or cells in which are rock-cut benches for the monks to sleep on. The doors are almost all grooved for wooden frames. The walls of almost all the caves were plastered with earth and rice chaff and on several of them are remains of painting. There are in all twenty-four inscriptions, six of them in one cave, the sixth, which is the only cave with sculpture. Five of these six inscriptions belong to the fifth or sixth century after Christ; all the rest are in letters of about the first century before Christ and record the names of the giver and the nature of the gift, whether a cave, a cistern, or both. Several of the figures are women and one of them is a Bráhman's wife. It is worthy of note that the name Shiv forms part of the name of several of the givers. The caves in the neighbourhood of Mahád are mere cells. One group of twenty-nine of about the first or second century after Christ are at Pále about two miles north-west of Mahád, and two groups of the same age at Kol, about a mile to the south. The Pále group has one inscription of about A.D. 130 and the second Kole group has three short inscriptions of about the same time. There is a third group of a few cells and cisterns in a hill to the north-east of Mahád, and one cell in a hill to the south near the road leading to Nágothna. In the hills above the old port of Cheul are ten caves of about A.D. 150, all plain and much ruined. It is probable that, besides those mentioned above, many other small caves exist in hills and other places not generally accessible, and one such may be mentioned in the hill-fort of Asheri.