The Karla Bhaja Caves tour from Pune begins with hotel pickup at 8 am in a private air conditioned vehicle. Lonavala is approximately 50 kilometres from Pune, a drive of around one hour on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway through the Western Ghats.

The Karla Caves are the first destination, a complex of 16 rock cut Buddhist caves carved between the 2nd and 5th centuries on a hillside above the ancient trade route. The caves were patronised by successive Buddhist communities — the earlier Theravada tradition and the later Mahayana tradition — and the evolution between them is visible in the artistic style and iconography across the complex. The great chaitya griha in Cave 8 is the highlight of the Karla Bhaja Caves tour from Pune — one of the largest rock cut prayer halls in India, its horseshoe arch entrance, tall interior colonnade and distant stupa creating an architectural sequence of extraordinary power. The wooden ribs on the ceiling, installed by the original 1st century builders, are two thousand years old and still in place. Your guide explains the Buddhist theology expressed in the architecture, the role of the stupa as the focus of meditation, and the significance of the horseshoe arch window that floods the hall with morning light.

Cave 12 at Karla is the second essential stop — a residential monastery whose pillared hall is covered in sculptures of couples in poses of remarkable naturalism and sensuality, a reminder that the Buddhist tradition of this period engaged fully with the entire range of human experience.

The Bhaja Caves are reached after a climb of 200 steps up the hillside to a complex of 22 caves set 400 feet above the valley, dating from the 2nd century BC. The chaitya here has a vaulted horseshoe ceiling of great elegance and a pillar showing the Buddha in his pre-iconic forms — the Bodhi tree, the lotus, the elephant, the wheel and the throne — from the period before Buddhist art depicted the Buddha in human form. In one of the smaller caves your guide will show you the carving of a woman playing a drum that historians believe to be the earliest known depiction of a tabla, a finding that pushes the known history of one of India’s most beloved musical instruments back by over a thousand years.

Hotel drop in Pune by 4 pm.

This private Karla Bhaja Caves tour from Pune is fully inclusive. We take care of hotel pickup and drop in a private air conditioned vehicle, your expert cultural guide throughout the day, all entry fees and lunch.