Roads less Travelled: Barobar caves and Mountain man path
With a special reason to celebrate a hot summer weekend, we set out on a road trip to a couple of unusual destinations. The first, a set of ancient caves carved out whale rocks, the Barabar caves, said to be the oldest surviving rock-cut caves in India dating from the Maurya Empire (322–185 BCE) . The caves look like a couple of conjoined-twin whales from the top and has three carved out cave sets with a large hall and a small room each, inside. What impressed me was the shine of inside walls, a distinct polish, that has endured centuries; and still reflected ones images quite clearly. For comparison, I took a photographs of the inner polished wall and an external hard surface, and was impressed by the difference. The last time I thought of visiting this place was twenty years ago, but was advised not to venture into left wing insurgent territory. Thanks to much better governance and law and order prevailing in Bihar, visiting this place no longer posed as a security threat....