Speaking Archaeologically Buddhist Caves of the Western Ghats Ep.03: The Karla Caves 

Karla Cave is the largest Hinayana Buddhist chaitya (temple) in India. Karla caves is one of the most famous Buddhist rock-cut cave sites in India with only 15 caves within. The main Chaityagriha is one among the largest in India. It is important from architectural, sculptural and inscriptional points of view.

Super

The caves are beautifully documented .Thank you Speaking Archaeologically for this wonderful information !!

I have visited the Karla caves so many times little did I know about the significance of each structure. It is fascinating to look at the inscriptions and the information that they provide about the past and the iconography express so much about the lifestyle of the people. The documentation is done so beautifully giving us the view of all the aspects of the cave!

I remember studying about these caves for the very first time during my second semester in college and absolutely mesermised by the minute detailing it has regarding it's architecture. This video is visual treat for anybody like me who has only studied it in book and never visited the site actually. Thank you so much for the video! 🌼

I remember searching about these caves when I had just recently visited the Pandavleni caves to see the parallels between the two chaityas. The video was really informative, especially with respect to the structure of the chaitya. I also love how iconography and object analysis of the sculpted frieze has been discussed in detail here. Also, it was a delight to revisit the Brahmi inscription at the end

So this video has been an introduction to me for Karla caves. I learned how to document the site in terms of photography as well as videos and how each detail is important to tell the societal practices like the clothing worn during the said era. Also, the architectural differentiation between cave 18, being the oldest, and cave 4 interested me since both of them are chaityas. So it made me think why cave 4 was made in a more simple architectural sense in comparison to cave 18 or were there any economical issues or Buddhist sentiments of leading a simple life was involved and if so then why was cave 18 so ornate in comparison. Also I wasn't aware of mahasangika sect of buddishm, so that's another thing, which i learned.

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I recently visited karla caves and was very disappointed..the place doesn't promote tourism and there is not even a board showing the route towards d caves..when we reach the site we feels like it is a piligrimage site rather than a archeological site..the caves are given very less importance than the temple.. inside the caves there were no guides or english boards which could tell us any information about the caves or history or any details..as a layman i couldn't understand anything and was wondering what all this was..one of my friendsthought it is some kind of jail..i only found one english board telling vague details abt the site which is kept a little away frm the site that no one sees it easily..and only 2 caves are accessible to the publicand the rest we don't even know where they are ..there were hardly any people visiting the caves rest of them where just piligrimsto the temple..for a normal tourist who climbs 200 steps to reach the top ends in disappointment..it is very sad that such significant archeological structures are not promoted by the tourism department to the world

Carbon dating of wooden ceiling?