About Maharashtra

Portugal gifted Mumbadevi (Bombay) as Catherine de Braganza’s dowry when she married Charles II in the 17th century. Now called Mumbai, it was made up of seven islands connected with reclaimed land. It was developed as a metropolis under British rule. Mumbai, the commercial capital of India has many colonial buildings, but more famous in Maharashtra are its rock-cut cave temples. There were also many man-made caves. These caves, where the monks renounced the world and lived together, came to be called viharas and the caves where stupas were built and prayers offered, were called chaitya caves. Chaitya caves had high ceilings and were monumental. The oldest Buddhist monasteries in Gandhara are made of brick. Hence the cave monasteries in the Deccan plateau are second in the hierarchy of monasteries. Rock caves are found all over India, but the greatest number is in the Deccan plateau.

The most interesting aspect of the cave temples, with their pillars and beams is that they were built according to wooden structures. Wooden structures built using this technology have long since broken, but these rock caves are a historical resource. When Hinduism adopted the idea of cave temples, the caves were transformed dynamically and became rich and bright. Hindus went one step further and started carving on the rocks from the top, thus creating the \"rock-cut temples\" that are 3-dimensional and look exactly like the temples built in masonry. The Kailasanatha Temple in Ellora is the largest of these rock-cut temples. Evolving from cave temples to rock cut temples was like evolving from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages.