page_title: Lenyadri
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Lenyadri / Other viharas (monk dwellings) / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Lenyadri Suleman caves Second group Chaitya
context_page_description: Lenyadri, sometimes called Ganesa Lena, Ganesh Pahar Caves, or Suleman Caves, represents a series of about 30 rock-cut Buddhist caves, located about 4.8 kilometres north of Junnar in Pune district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Other caves surrounding the city of Junnar are: Manmodi Caves, Shivneri Caves and Tulja Caves.
  Cave 7, originally a Buddhist vihara, has been adapted as a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Ganesha. It is one of the Ashtavinayak shrines, a set of the eight prominent Ganesha shrines in Western Maharashtra. Twenty-six of the caves are individually numbered. The caves face to the south and are numbered serially from east to west. Caves 6 and 14 are chaitya-grihas, while the rest are viharas. The latter are in the form of dwellings and cells. There are also several rock-cut water cisterns; two of them have inscriptions. The layout of the caves, in general, are similar in pattern and shape. They generally have one or two sides with two long benches for occupants' use.
  The caves date from between the 1st and 3rd century AD; the Ganesha shrine situated in Cave 7 is dated to the 1st century AD, though the date of conversion to a Hindu shrine is unknown.
context_section_description: Passing round the east end of the hill, after a walk of fully a 1.61 kilometres (1.00 mi), or about 6.4 kilometres (4.0 mi) from the town, in another spur of the Sulaiman Pahar, is a group of caves in the face of the hill, 120 metres (390 ft) above the level of Junnar, and facing S.S.W. They are usually represented as inaccessible, from the precipice in front of them being almost perpendicular; they are very difficult of access, and dangerous to attempt for any one not accustomed to climbing. 
  The most easterly of them is a small Chaitya-cave only 249 centimetres (8 feet 3 inches) wide, and 680 centimetres (22 feet 4 inches) in length, or 467 centimetres (15 feet 4 inches) from the door to the dagoba, which is 147 centimetres (4 feet 10 inches) in diameter and 284 centimetres (9 feet 4 inches) high. The walls are not straight, nor the floor level. The side aisles have not been begun, and altogether no part of the interior is quite finished, except the upper part of the dagoba. To the top of the architrave or triforium is 487 centimetres (16 feet), and to the centre of the roof 553 centimetres (18 feet 2 inches). Outside, the façade is carved with Chaitya  window ornaments, some enclosing a dagoba, and others a lotus flower; while the rail ornament is abundantly interspersed in the usual way. The fronton round the window is also carved with a geometrical pattern. The details of this cave seem to indicate that it is perhaps as early as those at Bedsa and Karle, and consequently it is among the earlier excavations about Junnar. 
  Next to it, but higher up and almost inaccessible, are two cells; then a well; and, thirdly, a small vihara, with three cells, two of them with stone-beds. Some rough cutting on the back wall between the cell-doors resembles a dagoba in low relief, but it is quite unfinished. Outside are two more cells and a chamber or chapel at the end of a veranda that runs along in front both of the vihara and the cells.
caption: The small Chaitya cave.
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