Banoti

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several wa ...

is a remote and desolate location off the village of Banoti in the

Soegaon Soegaon or Soyagav is a town and a Taluka in Aurangabad district in the state of Maharashtra, India. It is the headquarter of Soegaon Taluka and located in base of Ajanta hills on Aurangabad- Jalgaon Highway in western India. The city is about ...

taluka of the Aurangabad district in the

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

state of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. This waterfall is least known in spite of being quite picturesque and enchanting. Access to the place is difficult without involving a long trek from the nearest village of Banoti. The importance of the waterfall is linked to

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

, since there is an ancient Buddhist monastery of the fifth century CE. The monastery (or its remains) is not accessible (except with the help of a climbing rope). The existence of such an ancient monastery adjacent to the Banoti waterfall is largely unknown to the modern world except for some references in archaeological works.The Banoti rock-cut cave temples are mentioned in the following publications: Spink, Walter M. Ajanta: ''The end of the Golden Age''. Vol. 1. Brill, 2005; Cohen, Richard S. "Nāga, Yakṣiṇī, Buddha: Local Deities and Local Buddhism at Ajanta." ''History of Religions'' (1998): 360-400 (395); Singh, Rajesh Kumar. "The Early Development of the Cave 26-Complex at Ajanta." ''South Asian Studies'' 28, no. 1 (2012): 37-68 (63); Brancaccio, Pia. ''The Buddhist Caves at Aurangabad: Transformations in Art and Religion''. Brill 2010, p. 91. It was, indeed, this waterfall that cradled the ancient Buddhist monastery of Banoti, which was contemporary to the Ajanta cave temples. The waterfall, however, is not large, its optical width being nearly 20 ft and elevation nearly 200 ft. It is a seasonal waterfall that runs during

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

season.

Facts

Relative location and approach

* Nearest habitation or human settlement: Banoti village (nearly 20 km trek) * Nearest possible camp: Fardapur (via Soegaon: 48 km) * Nearest district headquarters/ city: Jalgaon and Aurangabad * Nearest serviced airport: Aurangabad, Maharashtra (148 km)

Other location and approach

* Amruteshwar (Lord shiva) temple via banoti chaufuli 1 km. * Lord shanidev temple via banoti chaufuli 1 km. * Lord ganesha temple MSEB, Banoti. * Naygaon ford Via banoti- Naygaon 4 km.

Major rail heads

* Jalgaon, Maharashtra (108 km via Fardapur; 73 km via Pachora) * Bhusawal (97 km via Pachora and Jalgaon; 105 km via Fardapur and Jamner) * Aurangabad (116 km via Kannad) * Pachora (19 km via Gondegaon) * Chalisgaon (43 km via Nagad)

References

External links