INDIA'S DECCAN UPLAND: HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY OF WESTERN INDIAN BUDDHIST CAVES

The paper discusses the geographical factors and the historical geography of western India and proliferation of the Buddhist caves in the early centuries of Christian era where the Buddhist monastic establishments in the area negotiated the sustaining factors like water conservation and how monsoon showers forced them to adopt certain architectural format in the excavation of the Buddhist caves and how there was strategic shifts of Buddhist excavation activities only in the region of Mulaka and Aparanta by discussing briefly the develop-ments in historical regions of Mulaka and impacts from neighboring Vidarbha, which played an important role along with dynamics of patronage and politics of preference at certain site in the later Mahāyāna developments