MYSTERY HUNT: The Mysterious Caves of Son Bhandar

Hollowed out of a single giant rock, the Son Bhandar cave of Rajgir in Bihar is believed to be the doorway to the riches of Bimbisara, a Magadhan king who loved hoarding treasures. Son Bhandar literally translates to ‘store of gold’.

Caves have always been a subject that raise plenty of curiosity and a lot of interesting stories. Of late caves have large number of visitors, who come to these wonderful structures that are man-made or natural. One such interesting structure is the Son Bhandar caves found at Rajgir in Bihar. The town of Rajgir is host to many events that are considered to be important in the history of the country. Buddha is said to have given sermons to Bimbisara, the King of the Magadha empire, at Rajgir.

The Son Bhandar caves are two rock cut caves that are located at the foot of the Vaibhar Hills. The caves were hollowed in the cliff of the hill during the 3rd and 4th century AD. Inscriptions found inside one of the caves narrates that the caves were constructed by the Jain saint Muni Vairadevi as an abode for the Jain ascetics during that time.

The Store of Gold

Son Bhandar in translation means the store of gold and a legend goes saying that there is treasure hidden in its walls. The cave is carved out to be a guard, which has a rectangular chamber, a vaulted ceiling that stands on the vertical wall which rises to a height of 1.5 m. This feature is found in the older Mauryan rock cut structures.

Going by the legends, the cave is said to have a passage, which would take you to a treasury of gold, although the entrance to this cave is hidden in such a manner that it still remains a mystery. The passage is said to be going through the Vaibhagiri mountain and would reach the Saptapami caves on the opposite side of the mountain ranges. Some believe that this treasure belongs to Jarasandha, while a few say it belongs to Bimbisara. Going by Bimbisara's legend, it is said that when his son Ajatashatru restricted his father from the powers of a royal, his mother is said to have secretly hidden some wealth, which was later donated to a Tirthankara.

The Password

On the wall of the cave, there is a trace of carving which resembles that of a doorway and next to it is a 'difficult to understand' inscription in the Sankhilpi or Shell script. It is said that this inscription is a password and the person who would read it could open the door and enter the passage. The same inscription has been found in Java and Burma and these too, have never been decoded.

One can also find a black mark above the mysterious doorway, the mark is that of a cannonball launched by the British, who tried to break the wall to enter the passage but remained as an unsuccessful attempt.

According to this inscription these caves were built by inspiration of a Jain muni Vair for Jain ascetics. Sculptures of Teerthankaras were also carved in these caves. From architectural aspect; these caves are analogous to Nagarjuni cave and Barbar caves of Mauryan era. Therefore it can be concluded that construction time should not be much differ from above mentioned caves. These caves should be related to digambar sect of Jainism as Xuanzang wrote in his book about Vaibhar hill of rajgir that the place was occupied by Digambar Jaina monks for meditation purpose. After some centuries these caves were converted by Hindus as Lord Vishnu sculpture was also found from mound of a cave.

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