Building Kṛṣṇagiri: The Monuments of the Northern Hill at Kanheri, Maharashtra

The article examines the surviving remains on the Northern Hill at Kanheri, including a large stone stūpa, a temple, monumental stairway lined with votive stūpas, and foundations for a gateway and maṇḍapa. A first-century CE inscription recording the donation of the path to the hilltop points to the area’s early ritual significance, before the caitya hall (Ccave 3) was completed in the second century CE. The article considers whether the hilltop stūpa may be the ‘pratyekabuddha śikhara caitya’ represented in an eleventh-century Nepalese Prajñāpāramitā manuscript illustration identified with Kṛṣṇagiri. Decorative motifs on the ruined base of a temple behind the stūpa suggest that this structure was built in or around the eleventh century, possibly under the Śilāhāras. Together, the archaeological, epigraphic, and visual evidence identifies the Northern Hill as a significant ritual center and shows how built monuments shaped Kanheri’s sacred landscape over time.