Mandapeshwar Caves

Mandapeshwar Caves
The Mandapeshwar Cave
Location	Borivali, Maharashtra, India
Difficulty	easy

The Mandapeshwar Caves (Marathi: मंडपेश्वर गुंफा) is an 8th Century rock-cut shrine dedicated to Shiva located near Mount Poinsur in Borivali, a suburb of Mumbai in Maharashtra, India.

The caves are situated in Mount Poinsur, Borivali, a suburb of Mumbai. Originally, the caves were on the banks of the Dahisar River but later the course of the river changed. The name of the neighbourhood was derived from this temple. It is believed that the name of Mount Poinsur, on which the Saint Francis D'Assisi High School is situated, is a corruption of the name "Mandapeshwar". The Mandapeshwar caves are smaller and lesser known as compared to the Kanheri caves in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Borivali East. The ruins of an old Portuguese-built church stand on top of the caves. The Immaculate Conception Church is located to its south end. There is an open ground in front of the caves which is used as a playground and parking area by slumdwellers from the slum in front of it. The Swami Vivekanand Road runs in front of this cave.

The caves are believed to have been built approximately 1500 to 1600 years ago, nearly around the same time as Jogeshwari caves (which were built between 520-550 CE).

Most of the early rock-cut temples and rock-art in India was created by Buddhist monks. The monks were the missionaries of the revolutionary message of the Buddha and the best places to spread the new message where the nodes of trade routes. Maharashtra and many of its hills in the Western Ghats fit their purpose. The monks would dig out prayer halls or chaitya-grihas in the caves, while building votive stupas and dwelling places for themselves. Here they would meditate and influence the passing traders and anyone else who happened by. The hills around Mumbai were at the juncture of the sea trade routes. During the occupation of the khaneri caves, the Buddhist monks found another location where they created a hall of paintings. The cave was created by the Buddhist monks and then they hired travelling Persians to paint. The Buddhist monks asked the Persians to paint the life of Lord Shiva.