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PLACES
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KUSRUD
Kusrud (Patan T; 17° 15' N, 73° 50' E; RS. Karad 26 m. E;
p. 982) is a small village about six miles due south of Patan on Karad-Ciplun road. On way from Patan to Kusrud the Koyna is
to be crossed where ferries are run in the season. It has near it a curious cave temple. The cave is on the north slope of a hill spur about a quarter of a mile south of the village and three hundred feet above the plain. A red spot in the slope marks its existence and a scramble up shows it to be a natural cave about fifty feet long and thirty-eight deep with a stream from the hill top pouring over the edge of the rock. The cave contains a large stone image of God Ganapati painted red and about four feet high and four feet wide. Behind it on a crescent is a row of rude life-size sculptures made of mud and cowdung. The figures are of men and women and are represented standing in various attitudes. Some of the men have the large head-dresses given to kings and Gods in the old representations and the women have wooden bangles on their wrists and the arms above the elbow. A passage about five feet wide behind the row of figures leads to a chamber about ten feet square in which is a Mahadev ling. There is another chamber at the north-west corner of the large cave. These chambers are hewn out of the rock, but the large cave is natural. The God Ganpati sculptures are probably not very old. The execution is fair in some but the people of the place ascribe them an untold antiquity. To guard against their being injured by wild animals, the front of the cave was blocked up by a mud and stone wall about ten feet from the edge of the cave thus having a verandah formed by the overshadowing rock.
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