Bhaja Caves

These caves were excavated one to two hundred years before Christ was born. It took six to eight hundred years of excavation to create what you see in these pictures.
The rafters in the main hall, Chaitya Hall, which help resist the inward thrust of the mountain are made of teak. Two thousand year old wood...

Bhaja Cave Carvings

He rests....where one rested two thousand years ago...

Though he cheats...his head rests on a "backpack"...I don't believe they had pillows back then....

Stone windows

This is a stone window...imagine being able to chisel into solid stone without "accidentaly" "breaking the window... 

These are ancient bathroom views....Bhaja

Views of the mountain side

...a hammer and a chisle...individual marks...two thousand year old markings...

Mango Tree...no mango's today...March is the season.

Company...noisy company...they were full of complaints...

Coming back down...Bruce and Krishna taking a break...waiting for Sarah...

Laundry in the spring at Bhaja Cave

The Sacred Hindu Bull

The Brahman cattle have a greater ability to withstand heat than European cattle. They have more sweat glands, and also an oily skin, thought to help repel pesty insects.  They have a short hair coat that is smooth. They are also more resistant to parasites and disease.  Plagerized from wiki.

Surviving concrete...the Banyan Tree...representing immortality.

Giant Ganesh

Ganesh,  the Hindu god of wisdom and the remover of obstacles, son of Shiva and Parvati. This fella sits way off above the highway we drove on today on the way to Bhaja Caves.

The art of communication...so much to learn...

I have to take an antibiotic everyday to help guard against malaria. I can't swallow pills so I was looking for applesauce to empty the capsule into. We asked the front desk if they could send up a dish of applesauce. They hesitated and said that they didn't have any applesauce redi made They would make a bowl of it and send it up, it would take one hour.  I know things move slowly in India so I didn't think anything of waiting an hour while they whirled some apples in a blender.

About an hour later our applesauce arrived at the door. The bowl was hot...I opened it up to find that they had prepared a large bowl of apple gravy, complete with parsley, cinnamon and cloves. Now all I needed was a ham.