1500 to 2000 year old Buddhist monastery (monument) near SEEPZ, Andheri, Mumbai - Mahakali / Kondivita Caves

Mahakali Caves | 2000 years old Ancient Monument | Mumbai, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRhPq6fAjb8 , 9 min. 32 secs., published on 14th June 2022 by ME and MOU. The voiceover seems to be in Bengali which I do not understand. But the video has good visuals of the Caves and so I have shared it. Also the video was published only around 3 months back and so the video footage may be of this year - 2022.

This ancient site is of interest to me because I have spent so many years working in SEEPZ (btw 1984 to 2002), and have also lived for a few years in the early 1990s, very close to Mahakali Caves. I recall visiting these caves in early 1990s, which is around thirty years back! At that time, I do not recall seeing any information board there but the video above shows what seems to be an old Archaeologial Survey of India (ASI) board at around 9 seconds. I think I may have not spotted the board in my visit. Further, the site was not clean. I also do recall seeing some sculptures there. I think I was the only person then at the site i.e. I don't recall seeing anybody else there at that time. So it was a quite abandoned sort-of place then.

I recall visiting a Hindu temple close to these caves and on the way to these caves. The caves are on a hilltop, if I recall correctly (IIRC), with the road (called Mahakali Caves Road) ending just before the hilltop. IIRC, I had to climb a walking path to get to the caves and the hilltop.

BTW the Sathya Sai Baba Mumbai main centre, Dharmakshetra is very near to these caves, and is on Mahakali Caves Road.

I don't think I knew then that these caves had been a Buddhist monastery. I presumed it to have been a Hindu monastery as the Mahakali Caves name led me to that presumption. I think a few years back (2010s or early 2020s), I came across some article on Mahakali Caves which mentioned that it was an ancient Buddhist monastery. But I did not spend much time then in knowing more about its history.

It is my on-going reading of Romila Thapar's book on Early India history that has given me the background to better appreciate this Buddhist monastery history (but Thapar's book does not mention this Kondivita/Mahakali Caves). Specifically, it was her account on Sopara Buddhist 'stupa' (place of worship with relics) which is very close to Mumbai, that triggered me digging up more info. on Sopara 'stupa' from the Internet, and that made me understand that Buddhism flourished in these parts which are very close to Mumbai, in the early 1st millennium AD/CE. Note that Mumbai proper was unimportant then as compared to Sopara which was an important port for Indo-Roman trade two thousand years ago.

Given below is an extract (slightly modifed) from my post: Romila Thapar seems to view Chandragupta Maurya (350-295 BCE) as first Indian emperor but Wikipedia seems to differ, https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2022/06/romila-thapar-views-chandragupta-maurya.html :

Fascinatingly Nalla Sopara near Mumbai is close to a famous ancient port town called Sopara that dates to Mauryan times! The [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maurya_Empire,_c.250_BCE_2.png ] map shows Sopara on the Western coast of India and does not have any other nearby cities on the coast!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nala_Sopara#Sopara states that Sopara was an important port town from 3rd century BCE (Mauryan empire times) to 9th century CE, and that a stupa and rock edicts of Ashoka have been found there. Hmm. Nalla Sopara railway station name was familiar to me as a Western railway suburban station but I had no idea that it was close to a 3rd century BCE ancient town with relics from that period! If I had known it during my Mumbai days, I would surely have visited it.

सोपारा स्तूप की कहानी | A Tale of the Sopara Stupa (Hindi language video), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiGKmyd5CeQ , 12 min. 40 secs. has pics of some of these relics. I am happy that even if I could not see them in person, this youtube video shows me pics of it. Many thanks to "Live History India" for the video. 

--- end extract from post ---

Now about these Kondivita/Mahakali caves which are very near SEEPZ. From Maharashtra Government Tourism page, https://www.maharashtratourism.gov.in/-/mahakali-caves (slightly modified):

The Mahakali Caves, also known as Kondivita caves, is a group of 19 rock-cut caves. It is at Andheri, a western suburb of Mumbai in Maharashtra. It is a group of Buddhist caves with Chaitya and viharas. Some caves have beautiful sculptures and also remains of inscriptions.

...

These [caves and artifacts inside like sculptures] were carved between the 1st century CE to 6th century CE. Some of the sculptural panels in the main Chaitya (Buddhist Prayer Hall) date back to the 6th century CE. The site was a major center of esoteric Buddhism in the later period. The site also has the remains of a brick Stupa above the caves, on the top of the hill. Caves 1 and 9 are important caves at the site. They are Buddhist prayer halls. Many Buddhist and Shaivite monasteries co-existed in this region for centuries. The Jogeshwari cave in the proximity is an example of this co-existence.

--- end extract from Maharashtra tourism page ---

The above web page has a gallery of hi-resolution pics of these Kondivita/Mahakali caves. https://www.maharashtratourism.gov.in/documents/58735/892426/Mahakali++Konkan+%282%29.jpg shows sculpture inside the cave (sculpture is damaged) and a stupa. Low-resolution version of above mentioned pic is given below:

Additional info. from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahakali_Caves :

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.[3: Bavadam, Lyla (18–31 July 2009). "In a shambles". Frontline. Archived from the original on 25 January 2013. Retrieved 28 October 2009.]

--- end extract from wiki page ---

So the sculpture panels in these caves that I saw in my visit in early 1990s may have been 1500 years old!

I think one can then conclude that Buddhism would have been flourishing in these parts of Mumbai then, even if Hinduism too was flourishing then (in parallel). I am fascinated to know this 1500 to 2000 year old Buddhist history of a place with testimony available today of rock-cut caves, stupa, sculpture and cells for monks, very close to where I worked and lived for some time.

I think I should also mention the well known Kanheri caves in the outskirts of Mumbai in this post. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanheri_Caves :

The Kanheri Caves (Kānherī-guhā [kaːnʱeɾiː ɡuɦaː]) 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[1] to the 10th century CE. Kanheri comes from the Sanskrit Krishnagiri, which means black mountain.[2]

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 Pagoda). Rock-cut channels above the caves fed rainwater into cisterns, which provided the complex with water.[3] 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.[4]

Most of the caves were Buddhist viharas, meant for living, studying, and meditating. The larger caves, which functioned as chaityas, or halls for congregational worship, are lined with intricately carved Buddhist sculptures, reliefs, pillars and rock-cut stupas. Avalokiteshwara is the most distinctive figure. The large number of viharas demonstrates there was a well organized establishment of Buddhist monks. This establishment was also connected with many trade centers, such as the ports of Sopara, Kalyan, Nasik, Paithan and Ujjain. Kanheri was a University center by the time the area was under the rule of the Maurayan and Kushan empires.[2] In the late 10th century, the Buddhist teacher Atisha (980–1054) came to the Krishnagiri Vihara to study Buddhist meditation under Rahulagupta.[5]

[References:]

1. Ray, Himanshu Prabha (June 1994). "Kanheri: The archaeology of an early Buddhist pilgrimage centre in western India" (PDF). World Archaeology. 26 (1): 35–46. doi:10.1080/00438243.1994.9980259.

2. "Kanheri Caves". Retrieved 28 January 2007.

3. "Mumbai attractions". Archived from the original on 9 November 2007. Retrieved 28 January 2007.

4. "Kanheri Caves Mumbai". Retrieved 31 January 2007.

5. Ray, Niharranjan (1993). Bangalir Itihas: Adiparba in Bengali, Calcutta: Dey's Publishing, ISBN 81-7079-270-3, p. 595.

--- end wiki extract ---

I recall visiting Kanheri Caves with my friends, in the late 1980s I think, and being very drawn to one Buddha statue there. My friends had to ask me to move on and join them as I was watching the Buddha statue there for a long time 😊. Compressed version pic of one such Kanheri Caves statue is given below.

Courtesy: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Mumbai_03-2016_94_Kanheri_Caves.jpg (has high-resolution pic)

At the time of my visit over thirty years ago, Kanheri Caves was well maintained and had lots of visitors, in striking contrast to Mahakali Caves around that time.

Elephanta Caves near Mumbai is another famous site, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephanta_Caves , which I have visited in my Mumbai/Dombivli years. While there are a few Buddhist caves and stupas there, it is dominated by Hindu statues. 

Hmm. Some of the areas in and around Mumbai were heavily under Buddhist influence from around 3rd century BCE (Mauryan era) to perhaps the 10th century CE (as above wiki page mentions Kanheri being a place of Buddhist study in the 10th century). Who knows, maybe Mahakali Caves monastery was also an important Buddhist centre, even if of lesser importance than Kanheri, during this period of over a millennia. That is a great learning for me, especially as there were few Buddhists in Mumbai during my years there. That Buddhist following got reduced so drastically in Mumbai and surrounding areas, after flourishing for over a millennium, perhaps in parallel to flourishing Hinduism then, is a telling note about the ebb and flow of religious communities in a place over centuries and millennia.

[I thank Wikipedia and maharashtratourism.gov.in, and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extract(s)/pic(s) from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]