PAJYARE RA KOTLA 1

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 30/04/2016

A north-south running rift cave, apparently sacred and containing calcite formations (speleothems) »in profusion«, starts with a rock shelter of unknown dimensions, which, facing in an unrecognised direction, leads to a more than 30 m high rift passage not pushed to a conclusion. ETYMOLOGY: The »Second Cave« (HODGSON 1970b: 3) is one of the »three caves in the Souy area« (HALL 1971: 6-7) and has been recorded as »Pajyara Ra Kotla 1« not only by Conway (1971 undated, unpublished: Map) but also by CHABERT & CONWAY (1972) and Glennie (undated 1972 Mss).The strange expression"pajyare" is suspected to stand for a sensible term like "pañcavaktra" (also: panjavaktra, five-faced), a common designation of Shiva in the Hindu areas of Himachal Pradesh (VOGEL, J.P. 1902: 40-41), which is applied, for example, to the main lingam in the cave at –>Triloknath (Trilokpur), near another Kotla village in the Beas / Vyas valley (Kangra district). SITUATION: Conway, J (ca. 1971 s.a. "Map of Caving District Arki" without coordinates) shows the location of this cave a little north-west above –>Pajyare Ra Kotla 2 and thus at a distance of about a kilometre south of one »Darla Ghat« (ghat = ford; gad, khad = stream), which lies about 8 km in a direct line NNW of Arki (31°09'N: 76°58'E: 1045 m). CAVE DESCRIPTION: »The second cave [without recognised name] is just above [the Pajyare Ra Kotla 2] and consists of a rock shelter with a shaft [vertical range? requiring tackle?] in the corner descending into a well decorated chamber. The floor drops away into an immense rift at least 100 feet [30.5 m] high and 15 feet [4.6 m] wide, again with magnificent formations in profusion« (HODGSON, D 1970b: 3). CAVE POTENTIAL: Since the cave was visited by sports cavers in search of recreational adventure tourism, one can safely assume that »British Speleological Expedition to the Himalayas 1970« explorers, eqipped with inadequate lights of their time and determined to break depth records, made no attempt to consider looking out for possible high level continuations.