Karla Caves

N. R. Sardesai was a star pupil of principal Cecil Burns at Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay, and mastered the technique of realistic painting across every medium. This impressionistic watercolour of the entrance to the grand chaitya hall of the Karla Caves in the Western Ghats, close to Lonavala, sums up Sardesai’s genius in using light—a late afternoon sun casting long shadows—to obliterate everything but the accentuated architectural forms with bright smudges of colour representing people and providing a perspective to this marvel of Buddhist art.