BHIM CHULA

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

A south-west facing, vaulted cave entrance (8 m to 10 m wide and 5 m to 6 m high) gives access to a solitary, daylight-lit, vesical-shaped (note 1) single chamber cave or rock shelter in laterite, where a man-made staircase ascends some 6 m to allow people climbing up from the talus slope below to gain the level of the plateau above (the final 2 m climb up is across polished hand and foot holds) by popping up from the ceiling window (an irregularly shaped collapse pothole entrance, 3.5 m to 2.2 m wide) secured by a sturdy iron railing (with a gate too narrow for horse or motorbike riders) fixed on a square socket of allochthonous, cement mortared basalt rocks. A gap in the railing is just wide enough to allow access to people on foot but too narrow for over-exited horse or motorbike riding tourists. SITUATION: At the very edge of the locally south-east facing cliff limiting the southern part of the Table Land (note 2) adjacent east of Panchgani town (note 3). The cliff entrance is visble high above the left-hand side (north) from the road to Rajpuri (N17°55': E073°50') but the plateau entrance (marked by its iron railing) is easier got at by walking or driving from the market at Panchgani past the water works up to the Table Land and by keeping right. SALUNKE, Ravi (2003: Panchgani Town Map) indicated Bhim Chula (Devils Kitchen) adjacent south of the Table Land. CULTURAL HISTORY - Cave legend: The cave name Devil's Kitchen designed by the tourism industry seems to hint to a place from which mist is occasionally rising but the original Marathi name -Bhim Chula- translates into Stove of Bhim as the cave resembles a giant stove with two openings, where the lateral, lower one is for feeding fire wood while the cooking pot is placed on the top hole. Bhim, by the way, is the strongman of the Pandava brothers (note 4) and famous for performing large scale feats. Needless to say he put whole trees into this stove to cook his food (note 5). I do not know the whereabots of Bhim's pot and ladle.ble high above the left-hand side (north) from the road to Rajpuri (N17°55': E073°50') but the plateau entrance (marked by its iron railing) is easier got at by walking or driving from the market at Panchgani past the water works up to the Table Land and by keeping right. SALUNKE, Ravi (2003: Panchgani Town Map) indicated Bhim Chula (Devils Kitchen) adjacent south of the Table Land. CULTURAL HISTORY - Cave legend: The cave name Devil's Kitchen designed by the tourism industry seems to hint to a place from which mist is occasionally rising but the original Marathi name -Bhim Chula- translates into Stove of Bhim as the cave resembles a giant stove with two openings, where the lateral, lower one is for feeding fire wood while the cooking pot is placed on the top hole. Bhim, by the way, is the strongman of the Pandava brothers (note 4) and famous for performing large scale feats. Needless to say he put whole trees into this stove to cook his food (note 5). I do not know the whereaboble high above the left-hand side (north) from the road to Rajpuri (N17°55': E073°50') but the plateau entrance (marked by its iron railing) is easier got at by walking or driving from the market at Panchgani past the water works up to the Table Land and by keeping right. SALUNKE, Ravi (2003: Panchgani Town Map) indicated Bhim Chula (Devils Kitchen) adjacent south of the Table Land. CULTURAL HISTORY - Cave legend: The cave name Devil's Kitchen designed by the tourism industry seems to hint to a place from which mist is occasionally rising but the original Marathi name -Bhim Chula- translates into Stove of Bhim as the cave resembles a giant stove with two openings, where the lateral, lower one is for feeding fire wood while the cooking pot is placed on the top hole. Bhim, by the way, is the strongman of the Pandava brothers (note 4) and famous for performing large scale feats. Needless to say he put whole trees into this stove to cook his food (note 5). I do not know the whereabots of Bhim's pot and ladle.