Udayagiri and Khandagiri Caves

About

The Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves rise upon two neighbouring hills three kilometres south of Bhubaneswar, the capital of the eastern Indian state of Odisha. Once known as the Kattaka Gumpha or Cuttack caves, they form one of the most important early Jain monastic complexes in India and are protected as monuments of national importance.

The two hills are identified in the celebrated Hathigumpha inscription as Kumari Parvata, the venerable mountain of the maiden. Carved partly from natural rock shelters and partly through deliberate excavation, the caves were created in the first century BCE, during the reign of the Mahameghavahana king Kharavela, whose conquests and pious works are recounted in the Hathigumpha inscription itself.

Most of the caves were prepared as small dwelling cells for Jain ascetics, providing places of seclusion for meditation, study and the practice of austerities. The cells are arranged around courtyards and verandas, often with raised stone pillows where the monks slept and with finely sculpted entrances bearing the imagery of yakshas and yakshis, processions, dancers and elephants.

Udayagiri, the Hill of Sunrise, contains the more elaborate caves, including the famed Rani Gumpha or Queen's Cave with its multi-storeyed plan and richly sculpted friezes. Khandagiri preserves additional cells and an active Jain temple at its summit dedicated to Mahavira, drawing worshippers to a site sanctified by more than two thousand years of practice.

History

The principal phase of excavation belongs to the rule of King Kharavela in the first century BCE, who according to the Hathigumpha inscription was a devoted patron of Jainism and undertook these caves as residences for the ascetics of the order. Through subsequent centuries the caves passed in and out of monastic use, and additional shrines were added at Khandagiri, where a working Jain temple remains active to the present day. The complex has been intensively studied by epigraphers and archaeologists since the nineteenth century and is administered by the Archaeological Survey of India.

Significance

Udayagiri and Khandagiri stand among the earliest substantial witnesses to Jain monastic architecture in India and to the patronage of King Kharavela, whose Hathigumpha inscription is one of the most important historical documents of ancient Odisha. The continued worship at Khandagiri's summit temple links the rich archaeological inheritance of the hills to the living Jain devotion of the region.