SATERI CAVE
22.500000,78.416700
Description
This sizeable (note 1) and almost horizontal tunnel cave penetrates the lower end of a south-north trending ridge built up of Triassic (Upper Gondwana: Talchir) Pachmarhi Sandstone (note 2). During monsoonal rains the cave functions (note 3) as a seasonal stream cave and drains a stream of water (2 m to 6 m wide stream bed) from an allochthonous catchment area in the east-south-east to west-north-west. SITUATION: In dense jungle of the Satpura National Park and at a distance of about 20 km along the road from somewhere in Pachmarhi town (KUSCH 1996). To reach the site officially, KUSCH (2003: 105-106) recommends to travel by »jeep« (4WD car) approximately north from Pachmarhi towards Matkuli (note 4) up to a Satpura National Park checkpoint (note 5) some 7 km along the road from somewhere in the widespread settlement area of Pachmarhi. Leave the metalled road in an unspecified direction (probably for the left-hand side / west) for a motorable fair weather road, which, passing by –>Dhana Boi Shelter at milestone 14 (or kilometre 14?), to reach after another 7 km (from the checkpoint along the road) the village of Barkachhar (note 6). From this hamlet, characterised by a giant Bo tree with aerial roots (note 7), continue westwards along the motorable track for another kilometre. Ford a riverbed with stagnant pools (in January / February), traverse a wide curve to the left-hand side that swings back to a long curve to the right where a narrow motorable track leads south. One may leave the car at the fork (one kilometre or 35 walking minutes in difficult terrain from the cave) or continue some 300 m to a shallow plain where the car must be left anyhow. From the shallow plain leads a narrow path south to an elevated height (25 walking minutes from the cave) that overlooks three valleys. Visible from the western rim of the north-south trending ridge is a Rocky Needle, about 40 m high, which lies a couple of hundred metres west-south-west (250°) and offers a conspicuous landmark. From the elevated height take a footpath, which leads, initially towards west and into a streambed (mostly dry in January / February) before traversing a slightly sloping escarpment below shallow rocky outcrops. Later, the path turns to the right-hand side and descends across massive rock to a point where the path climbs down across loose rocks in the bottom of a rift (or narrow gully?) and gains a plain area bordered in the east by a creek. Here, the path splits into two. Path One, following the creek, leads to the left / eastern part of the valley, and Path Two (right / west), along the foot of cliffs below the Rocky Needle (note 8), ascends into the western part of the valley. APPROACH 2a: Sateri Cave is reached from the path below the Rocky Needle by keeping to the left-hand side (south-east) and by trying to climb down from the ridge through dense vegetation into the valley in the south. This approach is difficult insofar as trees and shrubs obstruct the entrance almost entirely. APPROACH 2b: The easier approach to the cave is by taking a route somewhere between Path One and Path Two: Ascend across rocky slabs to a height and descend into a broad valley in between the two valleys mentioned above. Cross the riverbed (dry in January / February), walk downstream for some 50 m and climb up the escarpment on the right-hand side (west) to the cave entrance below a hillock rising from the spur south-southwest of the Rocky Needle.CAVE DESCRIPTION (after KUSCH 2003: 107-108): Both entrances lie at the foot of a 20 m high rock face at 905 m asl. About 15 m inside the vaulted eastern entrance (a more than 25 m wide, 12 to 16 m high insurgence) the passage decreases in size (20 m wide, 7 m high) and continues (25 m wide, 12 m high) for 30 m to the eastern entrance (a 21 m wide and 11 m high resurgence). The floor of the cave (marked with a two to six metre wide stream bed) is covered with loose or compacted sand and fallen rocks and boulders and rises some 4.5 m at the northern cave wall where a slightly descending side passage (initially 11 m wide and 2 m high) runs after 30 m (on average 15 m wide) into a low crawl (at least 10 m across fallen slabs) not pushed to a conclusion but housing bats.CULTURAL HISTORY - archaeology: KUSCH (2003: 108-115, illustrations 3 to 13; Attention: illustrations 11 and 12 are printed upside down) describes in detail about 50 shallow cupolas (3 cm to 10 cm in diameter), 11 bore-holes (to hold posts?), lithic tools (microliths), pottery remains, part of a broken glass bangle, and 7 rock art sites. The cave paintings (mostly in white, some ochre) depict human figures (warriors, bowmen, riders, swordsmen), animals (cattle, horses, elephants). CAVE CLIMATE: Air temperature 16.1°C (25.01.1997 17h00, KUSCH 2003: 108) but 19.4°C when the temperature in front of the cave was 19.5°C in the shade (26.01.1997 13h00, KUSCH 2003: 108). CAVE LIFE: Quills of porcupine (Hystrix) and about 30 or 40 small and lively bats (Chiroptera) were observed on 25th and 26th January 1997 by KUSCH (2003: 107-108).
NOTE 1: On average 20 to 25 m wide, 12 or 16 m high and 50 m long, complete with a lateral passage (up to 7 m high and about 30 m long) at a level above the ceiling of the main tunnel. Approach, cave and rock-art is described (in German language) by KUSCH (1996: 19-22, illustrations 9-12 give four monochrome photographs showing landscape, cave and rock paintings) and KUSCH (2003: 105-115, illustrations 1-13). NOTE 2: The compact sandstone is a quartzitic conglomerate that consists of a ferrugineous concretion containing dense hematite, a mineral of the Kaolinite group and quartz (KUSCH 1996: 21-22; KUSCH 2003: 108).NOTE 3: »Sateri Cave« (KUSCH 2003) is called »Sateri Shelter« (KUSCH 1996, after "Satpura National Park Staff") because it contains rock art —Indian archaeologists consider a true cave as a shelter when used by man but call an archaeologically barren rock shelter a cave. NOTE 4: Matkuli N22°36': E078°27' (Everest 1830, Survey of India sheet 55-J/06, India Road Atlas, Eicher Goodearth 2006: 71 G2) lies 22 km along the road from Pachmarhi town. NOTE 5: This checkpoint (no name known) lies probably on the left (western) side of the road from Pachmarhi to Matkuli and perhaps near N22°00'30": E078°27' (Everest 1830, Survey of India sheet 55-J/06). NOTE 6: »Watkaschar« (KUSCH 1996: 15) and »Wat Kaschar« (KUSCH 2003: 105) is the wide-spread village of Barkachar near N22°30'15": E078°24'30" (Everest 1830) at approximately 990 m asl (Survey of India sheets 55-J/06 and 55-J/07) and about 6 km on foot from Pachmarhi via the Jambudip Pahar (circa 1100 m asl). Local informants are believed to have spelled Barkachar as "Watkaschar" (KUSCH 1996: 15) or "Wat Kaschar" (KUSCH 2003: 105) though English speakers use the letters "sh" for the German "sch": »Was den Ort Watkaschar betrifft, so hatte ich den Namen bei den Einheimischen im Ort selbst erfragt und mir aufschreiben lassen. Da kann es schon vorkommen, dass der offizielle Namen anders lautet [Heinrich Kusch, personal correspondence 2004.04.18].« NOTE 7: »Bo Baum« or bo-tree (KUSCH 2003), in Hindi "bar" or "bargat" (*), is the Indian fig-tree (Ficus indica or Ficus bengalensis Linne). The name appears to have been first bestowed popularly on the famous tree of this species growing near »Gombroon« (the old name in European documents of the place on the Persian Gulf now known as Bandar Abbas), under which the "banyans" or Hindu traders settled at that port, had built a little "pagoda" (shrine). So said Tavernier in 1650 (**).PLINIUS "Pliny" (s.a. circa 70 AD: Histroria Naturalis.- edited by Philemon Holland, vol. 1: 360): »First and foremost, there is a fig-tree there (in India) which beareth very small and slender figges. The propertie of this Tree, is to plant and set it selfe without mans helpe. For it spreadeth out with with mightie arms, and the lowest water-boughes underneath, do bend so downeward to the very earth that they touch it againe, and lie upon it; whereby, within one years space they will take fast root in the ground, and put foorth a new Spring round about the Mother-tree: so as these branches, thus growing, seems like a traile or border or arbours most curiously and artificially made …« Ben JOHNSON (1624: Neptune's Triumph): »… The goodly bole being got To certain cubits' height, from every sideThe boughs decline, which, taking root afresh,Spring up new boles, and these spring new, and newer,Till the whole tree becomes a porticus,Or arches arbour, able to receiveA numerous troop.« * The Hindi "bargat" is the "Bourgade" of BERNIER (1699: Voyages …, Amsterdam) edited by CONSTABLE (1891): 209. ** Jean Baptiste TAVERNIER, circa 1650 (published 1676-1679: Les six voyages en Turquie, en Perse, et aux Indes.- vol. 1, liv. 5, ch. 23; edited by BALL, Valentine 1889, vol. 2: 198): »Cet Arbre estoit de même espece que celuy qui est a une lieue du Bander, et qui passe pour une merveille; mais dans les Indes il y en a quantité. Les Persans lappellent Lul, les Portugais Arber de Reys, et les Français l'Arbe des Banianes; parce que les Banianes ont fait bâtir dessous unde Pagode avec un carvansera accompagné de plusieurs petits ètangs pour se laver.« NOTE 8: Immediately below the rocky needle (and a bit above the path) lies –>Durga Shelter, reached by clambering up a slanting rock face.
History
EXPLORATION HISTORY: The cave has been known to autochthonous "tribals" since time immemorial. 1880ies: Unidentified "forest rangers" (forest department officers) became aware of the cave (Heinrich Kusch, personal communication 1987 with Mr. Pantane, Bhopal, Director of Satpura National Park). 1987.02.14: Heinrich Kusch, guided by unrecognised "local hunters" arranged by Dr. Singh (Pachmarhi) and Mr. Pantane (Bhopal, Director of Satpura National Park), and assisted by B.P. Nandadeva (Colombo, Sri Lanka), Ch. Surindra (New Delhi), E.O. Tillner (Stein am Rhein, Switzerland), Lothar Wanke (Granz, Austria) and F. Weber (Stuttgart, Germany) collected rock samples and estimated some 60 m of passage length (KUSCH 1996, 2003: 106-107). 1990 February: Heinrich Kusch and Irene Kusch were not allowed to investigate the cave because the permit was "not issuable" (read: the Director of Satpura National Park was on leave). 1997.01.25 and 1997.01.25: Heinrich Kusch and Irene Kusch, assisted by S.S. Thakur (Pachmarhi) and L. Wanke (Graz, Austria), mapped some 80 m of passage length (survey length 133.57 m, vertical range of 4.99 m).