DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

266 BUDDHIST CAVE-COMPLEXES [8.5
burned in the jungle to convenient depots where lorries can pick it up for
carrying to the cities. Thus, the passes hdp us demarcate the routes
quite efficiently. The principal route extended from the harbour of Ohaul
to Junnar up NSnekhat, and portions of it are still in use. Dilapidated
Junnar has a Sunday market from which the hinterland is supplied by
as many as 300 pack-animals coming down the slippery pass of Nanghat,
mostly on Monday morning — an unforgettable sight. The most
notable feature of these routes even when in disuse are the great
Buddhist monastic caves situated at junctions, and the strategic though
much later medieval forts nearby. These form so certain an indication that
it was possible to rediscover (Times of India, March 19, 1958) two
immense cave-complexes near Thanale and Karsamble, not marked
on the map nor cited in any Gazetteer, simply by noting two good
passes at Vagjai and Savasni on the main route, dominated by medieval
forts (Korigad above and Sudhagad below). The cave should logically
have been there, and so they were. The entire facades of these two
complexes, of 28 and 37 large caves respectively, have vanished by
exposure to the torrential monsoon, but enough remains to show that
they were luxurious monastries, richly painted like Ajanta, and with
special inner cells which could only have been meant as treasure
rooms. There are individual cells all along the routes, not more than
five miles apart. Some, like those on Tufcarama’s hills of Bhimchander
and Bhandara beyond Dehu developed from natural caves, and are
marked by excellent microlith sites as well as by the cults of villages
now moved down the valley. But the most impressive groups (Kondane,
Junnar, Karle, Bhaja, Beda, Nasik, Karad, Shirwal, Ellora, Ajanta) are
either at the junction of the major routes or termini as at Mahad,
Kuda and Kanhen.
The sitting of the Buddhist abbeys is quite logical. The first monks
travelled along primitive tracks ; they were excellent food-gatherers in
those days (SN 239 ff, and many Jataka stories) while caravans would
provide company at need. Their best changes of gaining an audience
was at the four-ways; t they had the special mission of putting an end to
the sacrifices that took place at the cult-spots. In fact, the monk is