Summary:
The antiquity of the caves which may have been dwellings of Buddhist monks — is yet to be established; archaeologists studying them, however, believe they could be older than the Trirashmi caves.
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Almost two centuries after a British military officer documented the Trirashmi Buddhist caves — also known as Pandav Leni — in a hill in Nashik, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has found three more caves in the same area.
The antiquity of the caves — which may have been dwellings of Buddhist monks — is yet to be established; archaeologists studying them, however, believe they could be older than the Trirashmi caves.
The Trirashmi or Pandav Leni caves are a group of 25 caves that were carved out of Trirashmi Hill between the 2nd century BC and 6th century AD.
The caves complex was documented in 1823 by one Captain James Delamaine; it is now an ASI-protected site and a tourist destination.
Salim Patel, a ‘multi-tasking staffer’ at the ASI’s Nashik division, stumbled upon two of the caves on May 22.
Following the chance finding, a wider search of the area by Senior Conservation Assistant Rakesh Shende, who heads ASI Nashik, led to the discovery of the third cave.
ASI officials said the first two caves were discovered during the annual pre-monsoon cleaning of a drainage line on the hill.
Patel was looking for a place to dump the soil, dry grass and dry wood that had been removed when he spotted a cavity.
“I went closer and removed the tree branches covering the cavity.
I saw two cave-like structures that had been carved out of the rock.
I immediately informed my seniors, including Shende sir, who were at the spot,” Patel said.
Atul Bhosekar, director of the Mumbai-based Trirashmi Research Institute of Buddhism, Indic Language and Scripts, who has been studying the caves for nearly three decades, said he had visited the site of the new discovery.