Every morning at the Momai Mata temple, near the southern tip of the Gujarat peninsula, a Hindu priest offers prayers. The temple, carved out of rock in an ancient cave by Buddhist monks, is one in a complex of 62 caves chiseled into the rocky slopes of Gujarat’s lush Sana Hills where thousands of monks once worshipped.
But on a signboard next to the Momai Mata temple reading “Relics of a Buddhist past,” the word “Buddhist” has been erased, an indicator of simmering tensions as Hindu chauvinists have taken over the complex.
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