Pataleshwar, Pune: History, Timings & Visitor Guide

Pataleshwar is open every day, usually from early morning to late evening with a break in the afternoon. Darshan and aarti timings change with the season and on festival days.

• MorningOpens early morning (around 5 to 6 AM)
• AfternoonShort break around midday at many temples
• EveningEvening aarti around sunset, closes by about 8 to 9 PM

Ask the temple office on arrival for the day's aarti schedule.

Dress Code & Temple Rules

• DressModest, traditional clothes covering shoulders and knees
• FootwearRemove before entering; use the shoe stand
• PhotographyNot allowed inside the sanctum
• Not AllowedLeather items, tobacco, alcohol, non-veg food
• QueueFollow queue lines and staff instructions on festival days

The Pataleshwar Caves are in the northern side of Pune, on a rocky hill immediately west of the sangam (confluence) of the Mula and Mutha rivers – sites recommended for temples in historic Sanskrit texts on temple architecture. Surveys of this site done in the 19th-century refer to it as the "Panchaleshvara cave", "Bhamburde caves of Pune", "Pandoo caves", or "Panchaleshvara temple"; they mention it to be situated in a village north of Pune. However, as the Pune city has grown, this site is now a part of Shivajinagar (Pune), surrounded by urban structures. The Pataleshwar caves are about 150 kilometres (93 mi) from Mumbai.

The 19th-century survey reports mention a damaged drainage system, which caused rain water to flood the caves for many months of the year. The ASI has attempted to correct this.

The complex of the cave is a part of a 19th-century community garden as reported in the earlier colonial era survey reports. This garden is now more elaborate. There are a few recovered architectural ruins stored in it. The Pune office of the Archaeological Survey of India is located in the adjacent property.

Architecture of Pataleshwar

The Pataleshwar caves are a monolithic excavation of a rocky hillock that gently swells and forms the terrain here. Its entrance is about a 20 feet long path from the east of the complex. It was originally an excavated tunnel but one that collapsed. It was, for a period, restored with a masonry. The path leads into an open court that is nearly a square (95 feet at its maximum in north–south, by 90 feet across east–west).

The floor of this open mandapa was cut into the basaltic rock, part of the vast Deccan Traps. It features a circular shape Nandi mandapa, all cut out of the original rock to monolithically reveal the Nandi shrine and the Nandi. This mandapa had sixteen pillars, twelve along the circumference and four inside to support the roof of the Nandi mandapa. However, four of the eastern pillars and the roof above they supported is now lost. The shilpins (artists) cut the floor around the Nandi mandapa to provide for an annular cistern about 2 feet deep, one that likely held any liquids used to wash or ceremonially rinse the Nandi. The Nandi sits on a pedestal, also monolithically carved out of the natural rock.