The Buddhists were the first to build caves in Western India. Their caves fall into two categories: the chaitya and vihara. Rock cut edifices are copies of structural ones, also sometimes enshrine the reliefs of some venerable Buddhist monk. They are deposited in a reliquary in a small hole cut in the dome of the stupa. Consequently the early rock-cut caves are just copies of wooden structures in stone. There were numerous wooden attachments in the early caves.

The rock-cutting activity of the Hindus starts from the sixth century and the early cave temples are located in Mumbai at Jogeshwari and the nearby island of Elephanta. Excavation work in Ellora began almost at the same time. A most noteworthy feature of Hindu cave temples is that they are richly adorned with exquisite sculptures of gods and goddesses on their walls. Monolithic architecture reaches its zenith in Ellora Cave 16 (Kailash), a lofty monolithic temple carved in a huge block of stone isolated from the surrounding hills. The Jainas too carved their cave temples at Ellora, which are not very different in concept from their Hindu counterparts.