Lohani Cave & Temple Ruins, Mandu, Madhya Pradesh India

These caves are located on the way from Mandu village to Royal Enclave. These caves are ordinary excavations without much of carvings and without any inscription. In plan they represent a few rock-cut cells meant primarily for residence, perhaps for Shaiva Jogis. In front of the caves is a rock-cut cistern. After cleaning the debris from the caves, some 80 images were found which are kept in the local museum in the dharmashala of Hoshang Shah’s Tomb. On exploration, the entire surroundings of the caves were found scattered with carved fragments representing ruins of Hindu temples, mostly Shiva, which once stood there, but were presumably destroyed and their materials used in later Muslim buildings.

To the south of the caves is standing a monolithic pillar of about 5 m high which probably adorned the front of a temple. Many of Hindu relics are found near Champa Baodi and from inside Dilawar Khan’s mosque. There is also reason to believe that within the massive walls of Hindola Mahal such materials, Hindu temple elements, now lie embedded in huge quantities, for some of them can now be seen peeping out of the core of their fallen masonry.