The Pataleshwar Caves, also referred to as the Panchaleshvara temple or Bhamburde Pandav cave temple, are an 8th century rock-cut Hindu temple from the Rashtrakuta period located in Pune, Maharashtra, India. Dedicated to Shiva, it was a monumental monolithic excavation with a notable circular Nandi mandapa and a large pillared mandapa. It is a temple of three rock-cut cave sanctums, likely dedicated to Brahma-Shiva-Vishnu originally, but currently to Parvati-original Shiva-Ganesha. A garden now surrounds the site, new idols have been placed elsewhere in the complex. The interior of the caves have suffered damage from vandalism. Outside, the monument shows the effects of natural elements over the centuries. The Pataleshwar temple is a protected monument of India and managed by the Archaeological Survey of India. Location 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 from Mumbai. Architecture 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,