They are simple and small, yet the artwork and iconography is more sophisticated than Akkanna Madanna Caves.

[1] It is a centrally protected monument of national importance and managed by Archaeological Survey of India.

The five cave temples are in different rocky sites of Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh.

They began to be called after the village east of "Bezwada" (Vijayawada) where they were re-discovered by the 19th-century archaeologists in the 19th century.

The locale itself was renamed between the late 17th and early 18th century apparently after the Golconda Sultanate was dismissed by Aurangzeb of the Mughal empire.

Given the simplicity of Caves I, II–V and the iconography, some scholars place them in the 6th-century and credit the Vishnukundins dynasty.

The entablatures here include playful elephants, lions, bulls and mythical fused animals.

A notable aspect of this dancing Shiva and Naga (snake) is that it reflects the Odisha-tradition; it was likely carved by a shilpin from Odisha.

This iconic style of Nataraja becomes a standard relief on the sukanasi or the ceiling in the Eastern Chalukyan temples of later times.

Thus, like other parts of India, Chalukyan artists were reverentially including Shaiva and Vaishnava themes within the same temple before the 7th century.

[8] On the western wall is a niche, likely a secondary shrine for an unknown deity.

Cave III is larger of the two, with auxiliary shrines to the main rock-cut temple.

Cave III is notable for the traces of Durga Mahisasuramardini bas-relief in the sanctum, though it is gouged out and damaged.

The floor of this cave is restored with a thin layer of plaster poured in modern times.