The cave below was inhabited thousands of years ago by followers of Mahavira (599-529 BC) who renounced the world at age 30 to become a wandering thinker and ascetic. He was the 24th great philosopher of Jainism and his image was chiseled above the cave 1,000 years ago. Jainism, like Buddhism, is an offshoot of Hinduism and perhaps a more disciplined reaction to some of the excesses of the earlier religion.
Tamarind tree. The pod is soaked and pulverized as a major ingredient in Indian cuisine.
At the base of the cave are lotus and lily pond where people wash clothes, bathe and do their kitchen clean up.
This Hindu temple is next to the ponds at the base of the cave. This is a typical entrance.
Next to the temple we climbed these stairs to overlook the rice fields and tiny villages and find more sculptures with the early Jain thinkers' images.
Inside the Shivite temple this priest has his ritual ash and is wearing a dhoti. We took off our shoes, rang the bell, received the ash to our foreheads, made a prayer, received prasand (rice balls blessed by the gods) on a banana leaf.
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