Seventh century rock cut caves explored at Mustabada

Two rock cut caves hewn into a hill at Mustabada village on the outskirts of Vijayawada was explored on Friday by the Cultural Centre of Vijayawada and Amaravati CEO, Dr E Sivanagi Reddy as part of the campaign ‘Preserve Heritage for Posterity.’

Reddy said that the two caves were known as Sitarama gruha which were on the way to Siva temple of the village. The Sitarama cave had a big open porch supported by two pillars at the front span, another two spans were without pillars, has walls on either side which forms a small vestibule and a square Garbhagriha. The wall on the left side of the cave was carved with the image of Trivikrama, an aspect of Vishnu with his retinue.

The interesting thing was the two sculptures of dwarapalas standing in Tribhanga posture were similar to that of Nataraja cave at Mogalrajpuram.
He said that the other cave was located at a distance of 50 meters ahead of Sitarama cave which was dedicated to Umaramalingeswara, with a Sivalinga of considerable size, at the centre of the Garbha Griha.

Basing on the iconographical features and the style of art of Trivikrama and Dwarapala sculptures, Dr Reddy dates the caves to Seventh century AD, the early phase of the Eastern Chalukyan rule. He surmises, that the caves might have been hewn during the Satavahana times, First or second centuries AD, as rainy retreats of the Buddhist monks. During the Eastern Chalukyan times, when Buddhism started declining, these caves might have been appropriated.

Reddy sensitised the villagers about the historical significance and heritage value of the two caves which were not been published or reported anywhere. The village heritage activists M Srinivas Choudary, V Prabhakar were the care takers of the caves. Buddha Vihara secretary M Sudhakar was also accompanied to the caves.