GUPTA GODAVARI GUFA, Chitrakoot: Lower cave

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

A modified natural sacred cave / temple cave (note 1), somewhat zigzagging through a horizontal maze, developed in tectonically stressed arenaceous dolomite and calcareous sandstone of Vindhyan (Precambrian) age in the –>Chitrakoot (also: Chitrakut) kshetra, Karwi tahsil, Banda district. SITUATION: The Guptagodavari Caves + Spring is indicated on the Survey of India sheet 63-C/16 (1977 edition). The cave entrance lies 12 vertical metres below and some 25 m west of the Upper –>Gupta Godavari Gufa. CAVE DESCRIPTION 1994: The lower Gupta Godavari is rather narrow with a stream perpetually gushing out of the crevices at the end of the serpentine tunnel (DUBEY & SINGH (1994, figure 10 gives a line drawing showing pilgrims wading through knee deep water). CAVE DESCRIPTION 1999: Gupt-Godavari … [is] long and narrow with a stream of water running along its base (MADHYA PRADESH STATE, Tourism Development Corportation 1999a). CAVE DESCRIPTION 2000: A nice little cave with a small perennial strem (0.2 to 0.5 m deep, 27°C, 10 to 15 l/s on 19.12.2000) issuing from a low sump. The rift passages (1 to 3 m wide and up to 3 m high) are joint controlled (vertical, 100-280°, 030°-210°) and show –in the lower part of the cross section– flow forms hinting to extensive abrasion during high water conditions. With the exception of thin flowstone (micro gours) at one spot on the cave wall, secondary calcite formations are absent (HDG 2000.12.19). CAVE DESCRIPTION 2002: … two caves Gupt Godavari and Sota’ [see: Sota Cave] exist in the two hillocks which are within half a km distance from each other. In the [Lower] Gupt Godavari cave, a stream of water flows inside the cave gallery. The source of the stream is known to be the stored rain water in the nearby reservoirs [in Upper Gupta Godavari Gufa] … (Vadava 2002 Mss: Thesis, page 110).CAVE POTENTIAL - outlook: The -terminal- sump is a possible diving spot (up to 2 m wide, 0.5 m high, -clear- water, 27°C). Otherwise, it is not easy to exten the mapped part of the known cave considerably but more metres could be gained by pushing the non-illuminated leads to a conclusion. This, however, would considerably disturb the traffic of pilgrims. CULTURAL HISTORY -- rock art (epigraphy): DUBEY & SINGH (1994) report a long Devanagari inscription in two parts of Samvat 1811 (1754 CE) at the cave entrance. CAVE LIFE: On 19th December 2000 I noticed numerous, noisy and water churning human cave visitors in addition to pigmented shrimps (Crustacea: Decapoda, up to 3 cm long) and tiny pigmented fish (up to 5 cm long). About 10 relatively small sized bats (Chiroptera) with very long tails supervised the flow of visitors from inaccessible ceiling fissures high above. the mapped part of the known cave considerably but more metres could be gained by pushing the non-illuminated leads to a conclusion. This, however, would considerably disturb the traffic of pilgrims. CULTURAL HISTORY -- rock art (epigraphy): DUBEY & SINGH (1994) report a long Devanagari inscription in two parts of Samvat 1811 (1754 CE) at the cave entrance. CAVE LIFE: On 19th December 2000 I noticed numerous, noisy and water churning human cave visitors in addition to pigmented shrimps (Crustacea: Decapoda, up to 3 cm long) and tiny pigmented fish (up to 5 cm long). About 10 relatively small sized bats (Chiroptera) with very long tails supervised the flow of visitors from inaccessible ceiling fissures high above.