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Description and Chronology of Caves
39 chaumukhas, many of the chaumukhas from Ter have their upper portions rounded. The chaumukhas of Ter have kalaśa on top. The plain head without uşaņişa, very short neck, acute bend in waist and slender legs are some of the common features. At both the sites the hands either follow the curves of body or are kept straight on sides. As at Dhārashiva, the devotee figures dominate the pedestals of a number of icons from Ter. The Ter icons can be dated to around 13th century CE. The pañchatirthika in Cave II follows a slightly different style with bow shaped eyebrows, hair on the shoulders, prominent srivatsa, long ears, ornamental chhatra and occurrence of chauri bearers, though there are a number of devotees on the pedestal. The figure of Parśvanātha with Ambikā and Kshetrapala in Cave IV is very crude and could be of much later date. It definitely does not form the part of assemblage of other icons.
It is difficult to date the icons carved on the back walls of the cells to the right of the shrines in Caves II and III as both were painted in the last century. The cementing on the pedestal of the icon in Cave III and of the halo as well as the designs around the icon in Cave II is definitely new, perhaps done along with the painting of the icon. These icons do not seem to form part of the original plan. They appear to be independent donations as loose icons. Moreover, the occurrence of triple chhatra suggests a date later than the shrine images, which do not have triple chhatras. They were possibly carved in 12th century when the site was reoccupied. Similarly, the cell at the end of the verandah in Cave III with a portion of the rock left in the centre to be carved into an image is also a later conception, most probably dated to the time of reoccupation of the site.
Claim of Buddhist origin of the site
Burgess considered these excavations as Jaina. However, according to Dhavalikar, these caves, at least Caves II, III and IV were originally Buddhist, owing to their similarities with the Buddhist caves at Ajanta and also because there are no evidences for the existence or popularity of Jainism in Mahārashtra at such an early date (1965: 141). He supports his theory with the evidence from the 10th century Sanskrit text 'Brihatkathakoşa' (1968a & 1968b). This text is a collection of stories by Harispratihārya. One of the stories, "Karakandamahārājakathānakam' deals with the exploits of the king Karakanda, the king of Anga. While on a campaingn in Daksinapatha, he was encamped at Tera and was informed about a cave in the jungle nearby by the local Bhil king, Siva. He visited the cave with thousand pillars' and worshipped the Jina icon. However, he thought that the 'granthi or the 'knot' on the simhasana of Jina was inappropriate and got it removed. Dhavalikar has identified this cave with Cave II at Dhārasiva and the knot with the wheel on the throne. He has argued that by mistake this Jaina king worshipped the icon of Buddha with wheel on the throne and when he realized it he tried to remove the wheel, which in the case of icon in Cave II is damaged even now, because according to him, wheel does not occur frequently on Jaina icon. According him the icon in the shrine with snake-hood is that of Buddha protected by Muchilinda snake, a type of icon, which occurs commonly at Nagarjunakonda. The Jina icons on the façade were executed later on by Karakanda. However, the problem is well settled by Mirashi who has pointed out that the wheel on Jina throne is quite a common feature, similarities with Ajanta only indicate that the
