AI, Pitalkhora (Cave of)

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

An unidentified sacred hole of dubious nature and character (a natural temple cave or a ruined man-made -cave- temple?) is associated with the mother goddess Ai at the Buddhist rock temples at –>Pitalkhora (note 1). SITUATION: In the Satamal (Satmala, Chandora) range on the northern fringe of Aurangabad district on the Ghai ghat (pass) near (south) of the village of Patna (note 2). CULTURAL HISTORY - Cave legend: The goddess, usually called here -Ai-, was shikaring [hunting] the Daityas (Rakshasas) [demons] in these parts, shortly after she slew [Mahisha] the buffalo devil [note 3] further south. She -flushed- a Daitya in the precipices about the Ghai Ghat and hunted him round the cliffs till they came to a ravine called Ganw Dhara, where the poor Daitya, being hard pressed, dived into the solid rock, and burrowed to a fabulous depth, as easily as a mole in an English tulip-bed. However, the goddess was not to be easily beat, and she got him out somehow, and finished him with her tridnt. In honour of which event [the legendary architect] Heman Panth built the little temple [sacred to Bhawani] in the valley and devout Hindus make a pilgrimage there twice a year, and present iron tridents to the goddess, some of them as big as cart axles, and nail horse-shoes to her door … The hole which the Daitya made is shown to this day, and is neither more nor less, to my thinking, than the remains of a ruined chaitya cave. There is a long inscription on the west face of the temple which the Pandit, whom I sent to copy it, failed to decipher, and the stone is too much covered with oil and other beastliness for rubbing off (SINCLAIR 1872: 296).nt. In honour of which event [the legendary architect] Heman Panth built the little temple [sacred to Bhawani] in the valley and devout Hindus make a pilgrimage there twice a year, and present iron tridents to the goddess, some of them as big as cart axles, and nail horse-shoes to her door … The hole which the Daitya made is shown to this day, and is neither more nor less, to my thinking, than the remains of a ruined chaitya cave. There is a long inscription on the west face of the temple which the Pandit, whom I sent to copy it, failed to decipher, and the stone is too much covered with oil and other beastliness for rubbing off (SINCLAIR 1872: 296).