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Cave chronicle
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Belum Caves: a miracle in stone, says PRINCE FREDERICK
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AN ANDHRA Pradesh tourism brochure led me last week to a village called Belum, northwest of Cuddapah. Until a couple of years ago, this nondescript village, which derives its name from the Sanskrit for cave, was a blank space on the tourist map. Today, it has to cope with the constant rumble of wheels that carry tourists from afar to its caves that are distinguished by spellbinding stalactite and stalagmite formations.
No sooner had I lowered myself into these underground passageways than a group of bats accorded me a welcome that left me scared. Following a spiral course, these blind creatures whizzed around me. This, however, was the only eerie and unsettling moment I experienced in these caves, which are provided with well-laid stone pathways illuminated by coloured lights, stairs complete with iron railings, oxygen shafts that enrich the air supply and information plates every 100 metres or so.
Marvel in stone
For these reasons, the caves, which extend up to 3225 metres, look so unlike what we generally know of caves that you are tempted to believe that an architect's hand had shaped them. The truth is: nature is that architect and time, the tool. Millions of years of sedimentary filling have given birth to this marvel in stone: but human hands have also contributed to Belum Caves' unique charm.
In 1999, the maintenance of the caves fell into the hands of the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Corporation, and in what seems to be just a wink of time, it turned the caves into something dramatically beautiful. As I footed the one-and-a-half kilometres that have been made accessible to the public, my eyes kept popping out in dazed wonder at the naturally formed columns and chambers, which the locals have named variously, according to their light. A chamber that is replete with stalactites has been named `Voodalamari', after the roots of the banyan tree. A passageway widens into a spacious chamber called Mandapam, named so because it looks like a conference hall. The locals hold that saints lived in these caves and that they still resonate with the rhythm of traditional chants. Belum Caves are open to the public everyday from 10 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. The Punnami Guest House offers dormitory facilities; a restaurant and a bar also operate at Belum Caves.
How to get there
Belum Caves is 420 kilometres from Chennai. Reach Cuddapah by bus or train and then brace yourself for a journey that is marked by constant stops and change of buses. From Cuddapah, I had to take a bus to Proddatur and then another to Jammala Madagu, one more to Kolimigundla; and the home stretch from Kolimigundla to Belum Caves was covered by a mini-bus.
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