Stupas and Vajrayana figures including Akshobhya and Mahachandaroshana, with Shiva and Nath Panth images in the later cavesSilahara in the later phase—
Sacred since
200 CE
first attestation / structure
Standing structure
3rd c. CE Hinayana beginnings; Vajrayana work in the 10th-11th c.
Silahara in the later phase
History & significance
About thirty caves in Ratnagiri district, some 160 km south of Mumbai, begun by Hinayana Buddhists in the third century with the stupa in Cave 5 and taken over by Vajrayana Buddhists who cut Cave 10 in the tenth or eleventh century. Shaiva and Nath Panth worship followed under the Silaharas, making the group a rare record of successive sects at one site.