DEN DINE RESTAURANT

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

A west-facing cave entrance (vaulted, up to 18 m wide and 3 m high) leads to a spacious and dimly daylight-lit, vesicle-shaped cave chamber (up to 5.5 m high) with a vaulted ceiling and a level floor (partly levelled by man?) of dry soil deriving from the laterite in which the cave has formed. Parts of the floor show a knobby surface resulting from many feet walking across it. In the far (eastern) corner and to the right-hand side of a Hindu cult spot, steps descend 1.6 m into a sunken depression (4 to 6 m wide) with vertical walls (obviously a man-made excavation) from where a roundish, door sized continuation leads to an interior, dark cave chamber, again with a vaulted ceiling above a level floor. From northern corner continues a man-sized (up to 1 m wide and 2 m high) and apparently artificial or artificially enlarged gallery which turns back in a wide bend (7 m long) to the main chamber above and forms kind of a round-about gallery allowing circular traffic (note 1). ETYMOLOGY: Dn Dine Restaurant as such is not the name of the cave but that of the restaurant inside the cave which serves as a place where people pay to sit, drink beverages, and to eat meals that are served on the premises. SITUATION: At the base of a 10 m or 12 m high, west-facing cliff face exposing the laterite forming the plateau of the Table Land (note 2) east of Panchgani, from the market of which it is reached by walking or driving up to where the horse carts wait for exited Indian tourists. Keep to the left (northish) and proceed (perhaps 500 m or so) along the western edge of the plateau and watch out for a signboard indicating the spot from where steps descend down the cliff and past a toilet to the entrance of the cave and restaurant. IDENTITY: The Den Dine Restaurant and the nearby –>Plinth & Tobacco Cave seems to be the Caves indicated on the Panchgani Town Map (SALUNKE 2003). CULTURAL HISTORY - human use (February 2007): Altogether 12 tables cut from sliced tree trunks and 41 chair (partly moveable) are put up by sinking their legs into the ground. Erected against the southern wall are structures serving as office, kitchen and dormitory. Flower pots complete the interior design focussing on sort of an apparently not seriously venerated cult spot, which rather seems to serve as a decoration and consists of a plinth made from soil and a printed poster (circa 1 by 0.7 m) of a guru above a burning oil lamp and a -tali- (stainless steel plate with compartments) with pious offerings. There is no electric installation. (partly moveable) are put up by sinking their legs into the ground. Erected against the southern wall are structures serving as office, kitchen and dormitory. Flower pots complete the interior design focussing on sort of an apparently not seriously venerated cult spot, which rather seems to serve as a decoration and consists of a plinth made from soil and a printed poster (circa 1 by 0.7 m) of a guru above a burning oil lamp and a -tali- (stainless steel plate with compartments) with pious offerings. There is no electric installation.