At a walked designed by the DAG, Dr Suraj Pandit explained that Kanheri began as a satellite settlement of Sopara — now known as Nala Sopara, then a major trading hub with a shipping port — before emerging as an independent monastery around the 2nd century CE. The caves primarily functioned as residential and meditation spaces for monks.
Watch Kasturi Walimbe take a tour of the Kanheri, collecting more information on the monastery, in #ThePrintVideo.