Cunningham mentions “There are several short inscriptions on the jambs of the doorway, as well as on the outside. In the principal inscription, which is on two lines outside, the author speaks of this cave as the “auspicious cave”, evidently alluding to the fact of its former occupation by the Buddha for the purpose of meditating after his noonday meal. This inscription, which is not later than A.D. 200, and is perhaps earlier, records that a certain “Muni, named Vaira Deva, of powerful dignity, was able to obtain emancipation, having shut himself up for spiritual enjoyment in this auspicious cell, a retired abode of Arhantas, fitted for an ascetic for the attainment of liberation. On the east jamb of the door also the same epithet is applied to this cave, as if it was a well known name for it. This cave is excavated in the south face of the hill, where there is a natural scarp for about one hundred yards in length.”

D.R. Patil mentions that it has however, not been studied carefully whether the inscription refers to the Jain Chaumukha, mentioned above, or to the rock-cut images in both the caves, which may not stylistically belong to the 3rd or 4th century AD. These are therefore points which are open to doubt and need further examination. In the reading as given by Bloch, the expression “akarayad” may refer to the installation of an image rather than to the excavation of the cave. If it refers to the excavation then the cave will have to be dated to the 3rd or 4th century AD. But it is pointed out that like the well known Lomas Rishi Cave at Barabar, here too there seems to have been an attempt to obliterate an earlier inscription and the present one inscribed in its place as a careful examination of the spot may show. Architecturally there is much stronger reason to suppose that the cave belongs to the 2nd or 3rd century BC. There are besides a number of crude carvings on the exterior of the front wall which also need careful examination so as to be more certain about the date of the cave. 

To be continued....