Bedsa
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Bedsa
Village in the Maval taluka of Poona District, Bombay, 5 miles south-west of Khadkala station on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, which gives its name to a group of caves of the first century A.D Population (1901), 171. The caves lie in 18° 43' N. and 73° 35' E., in the Supati hills, which rise above Bedsa village to a height of about 300 feet above the plain, and 2,250 feet above sea-level. The two chief caves are a chapel or chaitya and a dwelling cave or layana, both of them imitating wooden buildings in style. The chapel is approached by a narrow passage 40 feet long between two blocks of rock about 18 feet high. A passage 5 feet wide has been cleared between the blocks and the front of two massive octagonal columns and two demi- columns which support the entablature at a height of about 25 feet. The veranda or porch within the pillars is nearly 12 feet wide, and 30 feet 2 inches long. Two benched cells project into it from the back corners and one from the front, with, over the door, an inscription in one line recording : ' The gift of Pushyanaka, son of Ananda Shethi, from Nasik.' The corresponding cell in the opposite end is unfinished. Along the base and from the levels of the lintels of the cell doors upwards the porch walls are covered with the rail pattern on flat and curved surfaces, intermixed with the chaitya window ornaments, but without any animal or human representations. This and the entire absence of any figure of Buddha point to the early or Hinayana style of about the first century after Christ. The dagoba or relic shrine has a broad fillet or rail ornament at the base and top of the cylinder, from which rises a second and shorter cylinder also surrounded above with the rail ornament. The box of the capital is small and is surmounted by a very heavy capital in which, out of a lotus bud, rises the wooden shaft of the umbrella. The top of the umbrella has disappeared. The relic shrine is now daubed in front with red lead and worshipped as Dharmaraj's dhera or resting-place. There is a well near the entrance, and about twenty paces away stands a large unfinished cell containing a cistern. Over the latter is an inscription in three lines of tolerably clear letters which records : ' The religious gift of Mahabhoja's daughter Samadinika, the Mahadevi Maharathini and wife of Apadevanaka.' This inscription is of very great interest, being one of the earliest mentions of the term Maharatha yet discovered. A relic shrine or dagoba lies a short distance from the chapel cave and also bears a short inscription.
