Pataleshvar Temple (Pune)

 temple, road

Information Provided By Amol N. Bankar , ancientcoinsofindia@yahoo.co.in
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Short Information : Pataleshvar or Panchaleshvar cave temple is an example of Rock cut architecture. Located in the city of Pune in the Maharashtra state of India, . The cave is a Shiva temple and the buildings is carved of black basalt rock . The oldest extant structure in the city is the rock-cut temple of Pataleshvar, from the 8th century AD. The cave-temple complex is also called Panchaleshvara cave. The black basalt rock has been carved into pillars, seating areas, rooms, and so on. Notable is the heart of the cave, a cube-shaped room about 3-4 meters on each side, that houses a lingam. The temple is carved out from single rock of Size 52 Meters in length , 27 Meters in width and of height 5 to 10 Meters . Unlike other caves such as Ellora, Pataleshvar is fairly simple with a very few ornate carvings . Patala is term used for whatever is below ground . here the temple is much below the ground level hence it is referred as Pataleshvara .

Photo by Andrea Kirkby