Udayagiri & Khandagiri Caves
Location : 6-km from Bhubaneswar Railway Station, District Puri, Orissa
Locally Known As : Gumpha
Famous As : A Jain Pilgrimage Centre
Architectural Style : Rock-cut Architecture

INTRODUCTION
One of the earliest of Jain rock-cut shelters, the caves of Udayagiri command a
unique position in eastern India in the fields of history, rock-cut
architecture, art and religion.

HISTORY
The records, found incised on the walls of some of these caves, furnish the
supreme evidence of the existence of a powerful dynasty, the 'Chetis' (Chedis).
They reveal that some time in the 1st century B.C. or slightly earlier, the
rulers of the Cheti dynasty, who called themselves 'Mahameghavahanas', came
into power in Kalinga.

Of the rulers of the dynasty, only the names of 'Kharavela' and 'Kudepasiri' or
'Vakradeva', together with that of a prince, 'Vadukha', are known from the
inscriptions in the Udayagiri caves, though their mutual relationship is not
known.

While Kudepasiri and Vadukha are known only as the donors of two of the cells
of the lower storey of Cave-9 (Manchapuri) of Udayagiri, many details are
available about Kharavela from his famous inscription engraved on the brow of
the rock over Cave-14 (Hathi-gumpha) of the same hill. The inscription, in
seventeen lines, is largely defaced and indistinct, with the result that its
full text cannot be made out and its interpretation is not always above doubt.
But the following facts seem to be well-established.

The third king of his dynasty, Kharavela was a powerful ruler. As a prince, he
acquired great proficiency in games and received good education. He was
installed as 'Yuvaraja' (crown prince) when he was sixteen and succeeded to the
throne when he was twenty-five. Almost immediately thereafter he launched
Kalinga on an ambitious career of conquest, leading expeditions far and wide.
In the second year of his rule he led his troops to the west without caring for
the Satavahana king 'Satakarni' and reached the river Krishna, where he
threatened the city of Asika.

In his fourth year he captured the capital of a prince named 'Vidyadhara' and
subdued the 'Rashtrikas' and 'Bhojakas' in the north Deccan. Four years later,
he stormed 'Gorathagiri' (Barabar hills, District Gaya) and harassed the ruler
of 'Rajagriha' (Rajgir, District Nalanda). A 'Yavana' (Indo-Greek) king is said
to have fled to Mathura out of fear.

In his eleventh year he destroyed the city of 'Pithuda' (Masulipatam region)
and next year threatened the rulers of 'Uttarapatha' (north India) and defeated
King 'Bahasatimita' of Magadha (south Bihar). He brought back with him booty
from Ariga (east Bihar) and Magadha, including a Jain-cult object
(Kalinga-fina), which had been taken away long ago by 'Nanda', the ruler of
Magadha. Next he snatched treasures from the 'Pandyan' king in the extreme
south. Thus, the brunt of Kharavela's sword was felt throughout a large part of
India.

Kharavela was as great in peace as in war. In the first year of his rule he
rebuilt the gates and walls of 'Kalinganagara', his capital, which had been
devastated by a cyclone. In the fifth year he enlarged a canal, said to have
been excavated by a Nanda king three hundred years ago. In the 'Kumari-Parvata'
(Udayagiri Khandagiri) he excavated, in the thirteenth year, caves for Jain
ascetics and erected at an enormous cost, on the 'Pragbhara' in the
neighbourhood of the monastic retreats, a certain structure with hundreds of
stones collected from different quarries and pillars with core of cat's eye
gem. No doubt Kharavela was a ruler of great accomplishments.

In spite of his claiming an eclectic attitude by honouring all sects and
repairing temples of all gods, Kharavela was undoubtedly a Jain and espoused
with great zeal the cause of his faith, which appeared to have been the state
religion of Kalinga and which had received a set-back not only when the Nandas
of Magadha (4th century B C) carried away the 'fina' of Kalinga, probably as a
trophy, but also with Buddhism gaining foothold under the Mauryan king Asoka
(circa 273-36 B C) when he annexed Kalinga to his empire.

It is obvious that during the rule of the Mahameghavahanas the hills were
honeycombed with caves. In addition, Kharavela's chief queen is known to have
been the donor of the upper storey of Cave-9 ('Svargapuri') of Udayagiri. It is
also almost certain that the majority of the caves originated during this
period. At the same time, an earlier origin of the Jain establishment on the
hills is not entirely ruled out. It is also not unlikely that the Kalinga-fina
removed by the Nanda king and recovered by Kharavela had its original
enshrinement on the hills and was reinstalled here by Kharavela.

After the fall of the Mahameghavahana dynasty, Jainism is not known to have
enjoyed royal patronage, but the religion doubtless continued to have its
stronghold on the hills, despite the political vicissitudes, through which the
country passed. The rise of the 'Lakulisa-Pasupata' sect, which transformed
Bhubaneswar into a 'Saiva' centre and the growing influence of which was
ultimately responsible for the decline of Buddhism in that city and its
surroundings, hardly affected this Jain centre, whose inscriptions show that it
continued to be inhabited under the 'Bhaumas' and their successors, the
'Somavamsis'.

However, during the rule of the latter, Khandagiri, called Kumaraparvata in an
inscription of the fifth year of 'Udyotakesari' (11th century) in Cave-11,
acquired greater prominence and a few of the old cells were converted into
sanctuaries by the carving of reliefs of Tirthankaras and the Sasana-devis on
the walls. This period also saw the construction of structural temples,
suggested not only by the above-mentioned inscription recording the setting up
of the images of twenty-four Tirthankaras, but also by the discovery of a large
number of nude chlorite images of different Tirthankaras and enormous numbers
of architectural fragments lying in some areas on the hill.

The prolonged Digambara association of the Khandagiri caves during the reign of
the 'Gangas' and their successors, the 'Gajapatis', is proved by the crude
reliefs of the Tirthankaras on the walls of Cave-9 (Trisula-gumpha) of
Khandagiri, which are not earlier in date than the 15th century and may be even
later. Evidence regarding the cells being tenanted in this period by the
monastic fraternities is, however, lacking.

The period thereafter is blank in the history of Khandagiri till the
construction of the temple on the crest. Stirling, who noticed the temple in
1825, noted it as "a neat stone temple of modern construction". He does not
make any mention of Jain monks living in the caves, though the place was
'frequented by the Jain or Parwar merchants of Cuttack, who assemble here in
numbers, once every year, to hold a festival of their religion'. It is thus
evident that the Jain occupation of the hill was continuous, if with occasional
breaks from even before the time of Kharavela down to the present day.