Weekend trip to Bedse caves - Pune

[neoonwheels]

Hi,

I had been to a place called "Bedse caves" near Pune. Its about 45 KM on old Mumbai - Pune highway near Kamshet. Its a beautiful place and less crowded, thanks to the fact very few people knows about it.

I started at 10:30 and took old Pune-Mumbai highway. I will not say it was a good drive till I reach end of Nigadi. After that it was fairly good. Typical 2 lane highway tarmac road. I spotted Indica V3 on this route while driving in opposite lane. After driving for about 40 KM I reached Kamshet. You have to take a left turn under arch to reach Bedse village. Its about 9 KM from this arch. Road in Bedse village is almost non existent. Had to do off roading of about a 1 KM to reach the base of the hill where the caves are situated.

Finally I reached at the base of the hill and started trekking. It has got well built stairs to reach the caves. There are 2 caves, one is meditation hall and the other is well I dont know. Following is an extract about the Bedse caves from Wiki.
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Wiki:
The caves can be traced back up to 1st Century BC. There are two main caves. The main cave which is the Chaitya (prayer hall) has a beautiful Stupa. Both the caves have some carvings also. The caves are facing eastwards. So it is recommended to visit the caves early morning, as in sunlight the beauty of carvings is enhanced.


A very famous incident is told about the caves. Until around 1861, the carvings on the walls and the Stupas were in proper condition. A British Officer, after hearing about this arranged his visit there. When the local officer came to know about this, he urgently employed labor to clean and paint the walls of the caves.
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Also while returning back saw an upcoming Ganesh temple built by Birla. The idol is 80ft tall and is a good sight from NH4 highway. It took 2 years to build the idol as per the people working there.

Following are few pics I have taken of Bedse and ganesh idol:

[deepaktpatil]

Seems to be a good place for weekend visit. Had never heard of it, thanks for posting log.

[Sidz]

Wow....I never knew this even after being in Pune for so many years now.

Thanks for sharing this!!

Can you upload some more snaps??

Cheers,
Siddharth

[neoonwheels]

Following are few other snaps. I guess Shiv-Parvati pair is also carved. If it is true then even 1st century people were worshiping Shiv-Parvati.

[alpha1]

Cool visit.

You may consider Bhaja Caves the next.
Bhaja/Bhaje caves are next to Malvale village.

How to reach:
Travel further on the NH till you reach a milestone which says : Lonavla 7 km.
Further up there is a right turn which lead to Malvale station.

Cross the railways station, cross the expressway, and you will reach the Bhaje village.
Climb up the Bhaja caves.

If you want more fun, you can pick a trail to Lohagad fort and/or Visapur fort.

Karla caves are also nearby.

[snaronikar]

Nice pics. IMO, the narration could have been more little better if you had included the details of the road conditions, FE and the directions etc.

[neoonwheels]

Originally Posted by snaronikar

Nice pics. IMO, the narration could have been more little better if you had included the details of the road conditions, FE and the directions etc.

My bad. I was a bit lazy . In a couple of days, will post road conditions, directions, etc etc