Son Bhandar Caves

Two Jain caves cut into the base of the Vaibhar Hills at Rajgir, easy to reach and quickly seen. The main one is a rectangle with a trapezoidal doorway and a vaulted ceiling, borrowed straight from Barabar, but the rock is softer and the polish and finish are visibly poorer. That is honest information: if you have already been to Barabar this will read as a lesser copy. A dedicatory inscription in the larger cave is in 4th-century Gupta script, which is how the usual date is arrived at, though some scholars push the caves back to Mauryan times.