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Jaina Rock-cut Caves in Western India favoured trade to any other profession as evident from its literary works and received support of the mercantile community throughout its history. A study of Jaina inscriptions from Maharashtra points to the fact that though rulers of almost all the dynasties, especially Shilaharas of Kolhapur, granted donations to Jaina establishments, it was mainly patronised by traders in the post-10th century CE period. In south Maharashtra powerful trade guilds like Vira Bananjus, Mummuridandas and Ubhayanānādesis gave liberal donations to the Jaina establishments. The inscriptions from the caves under study do not provide much information about the patrons of these caves, except stray references to the names of a few persons. However, the fact that most of the Jaina caves post-date 9th 10th century CE and were excavated on important trade routes, which became very active during this period due to revival of trade throughout the country suggests that they could have been primarily patronised by traders. After the 10th century CE, structural architecture became more popular than cave architecture and except Panhale. Bhamachandra and Anjaneri, no caves of any other faith were excavated in Maharashtra, but the Jainas still continued excavating caves. It was mainly because with the revival of commerce, trade routes became important, many of which passed through hills, a characteristic feature of Maharashtra. Therefore, the caves could have been patronised by traders moving on these trade routes. Again, since mountains were considered more sacred by the Jainas, who developed temple-cities on the top of high hills during this period in other parts of the country, the caves could have been excavated here for forging association with the hills. The caves were preferred to temples in the western, hilly parts as rock-cut architecture was a prevalent tradition in the region and caves could be excavated with limited resources.
Due to commerce picking up, contact with western and central India appears to have increased, which is reflected in iconograhic and stylistic trends of the caves. While the caves of pre-10th century CE period display 'southern'imprint on architecture as exemplified at Ellora and on the Jina icons in terms of ardhapadmāsana, the absence of the śrivatsa and the simple parikara, the caves of post-10th century CE period carry ‘northern' or west Indian and central Indian influences. The padmāsana, śrivatsa, elephants on the throne as well as the parikara top, a number of attendants for Jina icons speak of relations with north Indian art idiom. Again, the sculptures at Anjaneri, Ankai and Mohida are stylistically closer to central Indian examples.
With the increased trade relations, the Svetambaras came into more contact with this region. Maharashtra was predominantly populated by the Digambaras as all the cavesites and most of the Jaina remains belong to the Digambara sect. Even today, the indigenous Jainas are Digambaras, who, except for the religion, are very similar to rest of the Marathi population as far as the language, festivals, traditions and other cultural activities are concerned. The Svetāmbaras were present in northern Maharashtra, the area physically closer to the Svetāmbara-dominant Gujarat, from gth century CE onwards. However, with an exception of a 8th century icon from Chahardi in Jalgaon district, all the Svetāmbara remains in northern Maharashtra post-date 10th century CE. In the 12th_ 13th century CE, Svetāmbara merchants of Gujarat were very active in the Yadava capital, Devagiri, where they built temples with the permission of the famous Yadava minister Hemadri. These merchants probably had trade relations and economic interests in a large and prosperous city like Devagiri, which were strengthened by building temples
