1) AJANTA CAVES.
The Ajanta Caves are approximately 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments dating from the 2nd century BCE to about 480 CE in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state in India. The caves include paintings and rock-cut sculptures described as among the finest surviving examples of ancient Indian art, particularly expressive paintings that present emotions through gesture, pose and form.
They are universally regarded as masterpieces of Buddhist religious art. The caves were built in two phases, the first starting around the 2nd century BCE and the second occurring from 400 to 650 CE, according to older accounts, or in a brief period of 460–480 CE according to later scholarship. The site is a protected monument in the care of the Archaeological Survey of India, and since 1983, the Ajanta Caves have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
2) AURANGABAD CAVES.
The Aurangabad caves are twelve rock-cut Buddhist shrines located on a hill running roughly east to west, close to the city of Aurangabad, Maharashtra. The first reference to the Aurangabad Caves is in the great chaitya of Kanheri Caves. The Aurangabad Caves were dug out of comparatively soft basalt rock during the 6th and 7th century.
The caves are divided into three separate groups depending on their location:[1] these are usually called the "Western Group", with Caves I to V (1 to 5), the "Eastern Group", with Caves VI to IX (6 to 9), and a "Northern Cluster", with the unfinished Caves X to XII (9 to 12). The carvings at the Aurangabad Caves are notable for including Hinayana style stupa, Mahayana art work and Vajrayana goddess.
3) CHAITYA BHOOMI.
Chaitya Bhoomi (Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Mahaparinirvan Memorial) is a Buddhist chaitya and the cremation place of B. R. Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Indian Constitution. It is situated besides Dadar Chowpatty (beach), Mumbai. Chaitya Bhoomi is a revered place of pilgrimage for Ambedkar's followers, who visit in millions annually on his death anniversary (Mahaparinirvan Diwas) on 6 December.
The Chief Minister of Maharashtra, the Governor, the Minister and many other politicians pay tribute to Ambedkar every year on 6 December in Chaitya Bhoomi. Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, has also visited. Chaitya Bhoomi hosts a memorial to Ambedkar and has been graded an A-class tourism and pilgrimage site by the Government of Maharashtra.
4) DEEKSHA BHOOMI.
Deekshabhoomi is in Nagpur, Maharashtra, a location regarded as a sacred place, prernabhoomi (inspiring land) of social revolution being atheist and a preparations for social actions against class conflicts, discrimination, inequality also the first pilgrimage centre of Ambedkarite Buddhism in India.
Millions of pilgrims visit Deekshabhoomi every year, especially on Dhamma Chakra Pravartan Din i.e. Samrat Ashoka vijaya dashmi ("Mass Conversion Ceremony Day") and 14 October, the memorial day when B.R.Ambedkar embraced and converted to Buddhism here. His final religious act was to embrace Buddhism and envisioned making India The Buddhist nation ‘A Prabuddha Bharat’ Today, the largest stupa in the world is erected in his memory at the site.
5) THE DRAGON PALACE TEMPLE.
The Dragon Palace Temple, also known as the Lotus Temple of Nagpur, is a Buddhist temple in Kamptee, Maharashtra, India. The temple was established in 1999 with funds from the Japan-based Ogawa Society, a charitable trust. The temple complex encompassing the Dragon Palace houses a carved sandalwood idol that is associated with the Buddha, and the building is a pilgrimage site for practitioners of the faith.
The Dragon Palace Temple was founded in 1999 on land purchased by Sulekha Kumbhare and Noriko Ogawa. Kumbhare was at the time serving as the mayor of Kamptee, while Ogawa was the president of a Japanese company with business connections in the area. Ogawa was also the head of the Ogawa Foundation, a charitable trust that contributed to Buddhist charitable causes.
The foundation envisioned the Dragon Palace Temple as both a place for Buddhist education and meditation, as well as a symbol of Indo-Japanese friendship. This original plot of 10 acres was expanded by 40 acres in 2003.
6) ELLORA
Ellora is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, India. It is one of the largest rock-cut Hindu temple cave complexes in the world, featuring Buddhist and Jain monuments with artwork dating from the period 600–1000 CE.
Cave 16 features the largest single monolithic rock excavation in the world, the Kailash temple, a chariot-shaped monument dedicated to Lord Shiva. The Kailash temple excavation also features sculptures depicting the gods, goddesses found in Hinduism as well as relief panels summarizing the two major Hindu Epics.
There are over 100 caves at the site, all excavated from the basalt cliffs in the Charanandri Hills, 34 of which are open to public. These consist of 17 Hindu (caves 13–29), 12 Buddhist (caves 1–12) and 5 Jain (caves 30–34) caves,each group representing deities and mythologies prevalent in the 1st millennium CE, as well as monasteries of each respective religion.
7) THE GHODESHWAR CAVES.
The Ghorawadi caves, also known as Ghoradeshwar caves or Shelarwadi caves, are around 25 km (16 mi) northwest of Pune, India, were originally Buddhist caves, and now contain carvings and statues of Buddhist and Hindu deities.
They are close to the NH4 highway connecting Pune and Mumbai. The caves were carved out of a single rock formation around the 3rd and 4th century CE. There are nine rooms for meditation adjoining the chaityagriha.
An inscription in Brāhmī script on one of the walls says that the Chaityagriha is dedicated with affection to the Buddha and the Samgha by the daughters of "Dhapar", who was a disciple of "Bhadantsingh". The chaityagriha is now known as Shri Ghorwadeshwar Temple.
The caves are situated at the top of a hill. Several caves contain representations of deities including Vitthal, Rakhumai and Saint Tukaram. It is said that Saint Tukaram used to meditate at Ghorawadi caves and also at places like Durga Tekdi near Nigdi, Bhandara and Bhamchandra near Dehu.
Buddhist Legend
The caves were earlier known as Chaityagriha or Chaittagriha (in Pali) caves which carried various inscriptions on it by Buddhist scholars stating these caves were built as a sign of affection to Buddha and the Sangha of Buddhist scholar Dhapar.It still contains various ancient Buddhist relics. Some evidences prove the existence of Buddhist Vihara here.
8) THE GLOBAL VIPASSANA PAGODA.
The Global Vipassana Pagoda is a Meditation dome hall with a capacity to seat around 8,000 Vipassana meditators (the largest such meditation hall in the world) near Gorai, north-west of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
The pagoda was inaugurated by Pratibha Patil, then President of India, on 8 February 2009.[1] It is built on donated land on a peninsula between Gorai creek and the Arabian Sea. The pagoda is to serve as a monument of peace and harmony.
The Global Vipassana Pagoda has been built out of gratitude to Sayagyi U Ba Khin (1899 - 1971), Vipassana teacher and the first Accountant-General of Independent Burma, who was instrumental in Vipassana returning to India, the country of its origin by key person Acharya S.N Goenka.
9) KANHERI CAVES.
The Kanheri Caves are a group of caves and rock-cut monuments cut into a massive basalt outcrop in the forests of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, on the former island of Salsette in the western outskirts of Mumbai, India.
They contain Buddhist sculptures and relief carvings, paintings and inscriptions, dating from the 1st century CE to the 10th century CE. Kanheri comes from the Sanskrit Krishnagiri, which means black mountain.
The site is on a hillside, and is accessible via rock-cut steps. The cave complex comprises one hundred and nine caves. The oldest are relatively plain and unadorned, in contrast to later caves on the site, and the highly embellished Elephanta Caves of Mumbai.
Each cave has a stone plinth that functioned as a bed. A congregation hall with huge stone pillars contains a stupa (a Buddhist shrine). Rock-cut channels above the caves fed rainwater into cisterns, which provided the complex with water.
Once the caves were converted to permanent monasteries, their walls were carved with intricate reliefs of Buddha and the Bodhisattvas. Kanheri caves were built in the 1st century and had become an important Buddhist settlement on the Konkan coast by the 3rd century CE.
10) THE MAHAKALI CAVES.
The Mahakali Caves, also Kondivite Caves, are a group of 19 rock-cut monuments built between 1st century BCE and 6th century CE. This Buddhist monastery is located in the eastern suburb of Andheri in the city of Mumbai (Bombay) in western India.
The monument consists of two groups of rock-cut caves – 4 caves more to the north-west and 15 caves more to the south-east. Most caves are viharas and cells for monks, but Cave 9 of the south-eastern group is chaitya.
Caves in the northwest have been created mainly in the 4th – 5th century, while the south-eastern group is older. The monument contains also rock-cut cisterns and remnants of other structures.
Caves are carved out of a solid black basalt rock,(volcanic trap breccias, prone to weathering).The largest cave at Kondivite (Cave 9) has seven depictions of the Buddha and figures from Buddhist mythology but all are mutilated.
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