Twin Monolithic architectures: Udayagiri & Khandagiri Caves

Udayagiri & Khnadagiri Caves

                                              ----Symbols of religious diversity in India

Hello Friends!!! have you ever thought about a city which is rooted and drowned in Hinduism but responsible to protect the diverse religious characteristics of India by preserving these twin caves call 'Udayagiri & Khnadagiri'. 

    

    Udayagiri caves

    Photo@sahelibasu

Situated in Bhubaneswar these heritage architectures are the major tourist pooling sites. While going home to Kolkata I had a 6 hours break in Bhubaneswar. So, as always I pulled out all possible information about the near about side scenes.

I decided to visit Udayagiri & Khnadagiri as I am very passionate towards historical and religious architectures. lets take a quick look about the history of it. The exact location is in Bhubaneswar, khurda district. These two are the earliest rock cut Jain caves which were curved by Jain monks and artisans from the times of king Kharavela.  These two monumental caves are not only manifests the genius architectural sense of ancient India but also shows the early inscriptions of love, tolerance and religious description.

   Udayagiri cave view
   photo@sahelibasu

The Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves are believed as wonders among all the monumental architectures from first century BC.  There are multiple caves located in Udayagiri premises. Udayagiri means - hills of sunrise. The main purpose of these caves were shelter, meditate and prayer in solitude. The different caves depicts various scenes like royal procession, hunting expedition, court scenes etc.

The most beautiful and largest cave is 'Rani Gumpha' or Queens cave.  There are other several caves as well like 'Haaati gumpha', 'Alkapuri Gumpha', 'Jaya vijay Gumpha' etc. They all are numbered clearly to avoid any confusion.

Part of Udaygiri cave
photo@sahelibasu22

All the caves are carved in sandstone and each one is different in character also their rooftops are very low in height. You can experience the silence and sacred feeling of the place. This gives you an unique feeling like the whole evidence of history or a spectacular architecture of first century BC is standing still between a full fledged on growing metro city. the site was giving me a feeling of changing time, progress, urbanization and a lost past. These monumental heritages bridged the history and time together. These helps us to remember the glorious past of India and an endeavour to cherish the diversity which signifies our beloved India.

You may experience a spectacular view from the top of Udayagiri cave. The thin white line of urban architecture from a stone carved cave builds a connection between centuries of history and religion.

View from Udayagiri cave
photo@sahelibasu

Khandagiri : Its very close to the Udayagiri cave. From the main road one can see the easy trails. They are marked very clearly from the entrance to the summit.  The caves of Khnadagiri are located at the height of 118 ft. There are several caves resides in a single premises. 'Khandagiri' means broken hills. There are 15 caves in Khandagiri.

A heritage of 2000 years old was the shelter of many Jain scholars. The caves are beautifully carved with inscriptions, motifs and relief sculptures. These caves presents the first occupation of Jain and Buddhists.

    Khandagiri cave 
    Photo taken from Tripoto.com

These two twin caves are the primary attraction of Odisha tourism. Good to see the maintenance and the security provided by the state government. Hope it remains same.

Thanks for reading!! See you soon guys.