Udayagiri Caves

-period rework of a Mauryan capital. Udayagiri, means the 'sunrise mountain'. The region of Udayagiri and Vidisha was a Buddhist and Bhagavata site by the 2nd century BCE as evidenced by the stupas of Sanchi and the Heliodorus pillar. While the Heliodorus pillar has been preserved, others have survived in ruins. Buddhism was prominent in Sanchi, near Udayagiri, in the last centuries of the 1st millennium BCE. According to Dass and Willis, recent archaeological evidence such as the Udayagiri Lion Capital suggests that there was a Sun Temple at Udayagiri. The Surya tradition in Udayagiri dates at least from the 2nd century BCE, and possibly one that predated the arrival of Buddhism. It is this tradition that gives it the 'sunrise mountain' name. The town is referred to as Udaygiri or Udaigiri in some texts. The site is also referred to as Visnupadagiri, as in inscriptions at the site. The term means the hill at 'the feet of Vishnu'. ==Location==

, Vidisha, Sanchi and the Heliodorus pillar. Udayagiri Caves are set in two low hills near Betwa River, on the banks of its tributary Bes River. The site is connected to the capital Bhopal by a highway. Bhopal is the nearest major railway station and airport with regular services. Udayagiri is slightly north of the current Tropic of Cancer, but over a millennium ago it would have been nearer and directly on it. Udayagiri residents must have seen the sun directly overhead on the Summer solstice day, and this likely played a role in the sacred of this site for the Hindus. ==History==

The site at Udayagiri Caves was the patronage of Chandragupta II, who is widely accepted by scholars to have ruled the Gupta Empire in central India between c. 380-414 CE. The Udayagiri Caves were created in final decades of the 4th century, and consecrated in 401 CE. This is based on three inscriptions: • A post-consecration Sanskrit inscription in Cave 6 by a Vaishnava minister, the inscription mentions Chandragupta II and "year 82" (old Indian Gupta calendar, c. 401 CE). This is sometimes referred to as the "inscription in Chandragupta cave" or the "Chandragupta inscription of Udayagiri". • A Shaiva devotee's Sanskrit inscription on the back wall of Cave 7, which does not mention a date but the information therein suggests it too is from 5th-century. • A Sanskrit inscription in Cave 20 by a Jainism devotee dated 425 CE. This is sometimes referred to as the "Kumaragupta inscription of Udayagiri". , paying homage to Varaha, avatar of Vishnu, in Udayagiri Caves (Cave 5), circa 400 CE. These inscriptions are not isolated. There are a number of additional stone inscriptions elsewhere at the Udayagiri site and nearby which mention court officials and Chandragupta II. Further the site also contains inscriptions from later centuries providing a firm floruit for historical events, religious beliefs and the development of Indian script. For example, a Sanskrit inscription found on the left pillar at the entrance of Cave 19 states a date of Vikrama 1093 (c. 1037 CE), mentions the word Visnupada, states that this temple that was made by Chandragupta, and its script is Nagari both for alphabet and numerals. Many of the early inscriptions in this region is in Sankha Lipi, yet to be deciphered in a way that a majority of scholars would accept it. Between the 5th century and the 12th century, the Udayagiri site remained important to Hindu pilgrims as sacred geography. This is evidenced by a number of inscriptions in scripts that have been deciphered. Some inscriptions between the 9th and the 12th centuries, for example, mention land grants to the temple, an ancient tradition that provided resources for the maintenance and operation of significant temples. These do not mention famous kings. Some of these inscriptions mention grant from people who may have been regional chiefs, while others read like common people who cannot be traced to any text or other inscriptions in Central India. One Sanskrit inscription, for example, is a pilgrim named Damodara's record from 1179 CE who made a donation to the temple. The Delhi pillar is accepted by most scholars as one brought to Delhi from another distant site in India, but scholars do not agree on which site or when this relocation happened. If the Udayagiri source proposal is true, this implies that the site was targeted, artifacts damaged and removed during an invasion of the region by Delhi Sultanate armies in or about the early 13th-century, possibly those of Sultan named Iltutmish. This theory is based on multiple pieces of evidence such as the closeness of its design and style with pillars found in Udayagiri-Vidisha region, the images found on Gupta era coins (numismatics), the lack of evidence for alternate sites so far proposed, the claims in Persian made by Muslim court historians of Delhi Sultanate about the loot brought to Delhi after invasions particularly related to the pillar and Quwwat-ul-Islam, and particularly the Sanskrit inscription in Brahmi script on the Delhi Iron Pillar which mentions a Chandra's (Chandragupta II) devotion to Vishnu, and it being installed in Visnupadagiri. These proposals state that this Visnupadagiri is best interpreted as Udayagiri around 400 CE. Archaeological scholarship . Gupta period. Gwalior Fort Archaeological Museum. The Udayagiri Caves were first studied in depth and reported by Alexander Cunningham in the 1870s. The working hypothesis then became that the Lion Capital platform stood on a Buddhist stupa, and that if excavations were done in and around the Udayagiri Caves hills then the evidence will emerge. Such an excavation was completed and reported by archaeologists Lake and Bhandarkar in early 1910s. No evidence was found. at Udayagiri Caves. The archaeological excavations in the 1910s in the area of the nearby Heliodorus pillar yielded unexpected results, such as the inscription of Heliodorus, which confirmed that Vāsudeva and Bhagavatism (early forms of Vaishnavism) were influential by the 2nd century BCE, and which linked the Udayagiri-Besnagar-Vidisha region politically and religiously to the ancient Indo-Greek capital of Taxila. Willis and team have proposed that, perhaps Udayagiri was a Hindu and Jaina site all along, and that the evidence collected so far suggests that the Saura tradition of Hinduism may have preceded the arrival of Buddhism in this region. Many of the artifacts found in the area are now located in the Gwalior Fort Archaeological Museum. ==Description==

The caves were produced on the northeast face of the Udayagiri hills. They generally have a square or near-square plans. Many are small, but according to Cunningham, they were likely more substantial because their front showed evidence that each had a structural mandapa on pillars in their front. The caves at Udayagiri were numbered in the nineteenth century from south to north by Alexander Cunningham, and he reported only 10 lumping some of the caves together. He called the Jain cave as number 10. Later studies identified the caves separately, and their number swelled to 20. A more detailed system was introduced before mid 20th century by the Department of Archaeology, Gwalior State, with Jain cave being number 20. Due to these changes, the exact numbering sequence in early reports and later publications sometimes varies. The complex has seven caves dedicated to Shaivism related caves, nine to Vaishnavism, and three to Shaktism. However, a few of these caves are quite small. The significant caves include iconography of all three major traditions of Hinduism. Some of the caves have inscriptions. Caves 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 13 have the most number of sculptures. The largest is Cave 19. In addition, there are rock-cut water tanks at various locations, as well as platforms and shrine monuments on the top of the hill related to Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Shaktism. There were more of these before the excavations of 1910s, but these were destroyed in the attempt to find evidence of Buddhist monuments underneath. Cave 1 Cave 1 is the southernmost cave and a false one because one of the side and its front is not of the original rock but added in. Its roof is integrated from the natural ledge of the rock. It moulding style is similar to those found in Tigawa Hindu temple. The mandapa inside the temple is a square with side, while the sanctum is 7 feet by 6 feet. Outside, Cunningham reported four square pillars. The back wall of the cave has a deity carved into the rock wall, but this was damaged by chiseling later at some point. The iconographic markers are gone and the deity is unknown. Cave 2 Cave 2 is to the north of Cave 1, but still on the southern foothill isolated from the main cluster of caves. Its front wall was damaged at some point, and the interior has been eroded by weather. It is about in area and the only traces of two pilasters are visible, along with evidence underneath its roof of a structural mandapa. The doorjamb has some reliefs, but these are only partially visible. ) sculpture in Cave 3. Cave 3: Shaivism Cave 3 is the first of the central group or cluster of shrines and reliefs. It has a plain entrance and a sanctum. Traces of two pilasters are seen on both sides of the entrance and there is a deep horizontal cutting above which shows that there was some sort of portico (mandapa) in front of the shrine. Inside there is a rock-cut image of Skanda, the war god, on a monolithic plinth. The mouldings and spout of the plinth are now damaged. The Skanda sculpture is desecrated, with his staff or club and parts of limbs broken and missing. The surviving remnants show an impressive muscular torso, with Skanda's weight distributed equally on both legs. Cave 3 is sometimes called the Skanda temple. Willis has described the relief as the "iconographic centre-piece of Udayagiri". The Hindu legend has roots in the Vedic literature such as Taittariya Samhita and Shatapatha Brahmana, and is found in many post-Vedic texts. He, as the hero in the legend, descends into the ocean, finds her, she hangs onto his tusk, he lifts her out to safety. The good wins, the crisis ends, and Vishnu once again fulfills his cosmic duty. The Varaha legend has been one of many historic legends in the Hindu text embedded with right versus wrong, good versus evil symbolism, and of someone willing to go to the depths and do what is necessary to rescue the good, the right, the dharma. The panel shows (the number corresponds to the attached image): Of special note also is the figure of seated Ganesha in this cave, to the left of the entrance, and the rectangular niche with seated goddesses, located to the right. The Ganesha is potbellied, has modaka (laddu or rice balls, sweetmeat) in his left hand and his trunk is reaching out to get one. This makes the cave notable as it sets the floruit for the widespread acceptance and significance of Ganesha in the Hindu pantheon to about 401 CE. The presence of all three major traditions within the same temple is also significant and it presages the norm for temple space in subsequent centuries. In addition to Durga, Cave 6 depicts the Hindu matrikas (mother goddesses from all three traditions). One group of these divine mothers are so "badly destroyed", states Sara L. Schastok, that only limited information can be inferred. The matrikas are prominent because they are placed immediately to the right of Visnu. The outline of the seated matrikas in Cave 6 suggests that they are similar to early Gupta era iconography for matrikas such as those found in Badoh-Pathari and Besnagar archaeological sites. Outside the cave is a panel with an inscription that mentions Gupta year 82 (401 CE), and that the Gupta king Chandragupta II and his minister Virasena visited this cave. In the ceiling of the cave is an undated pilgrim record of somebody named Śivāditya. Cave 7: Shaktism Cave 7 is located a few steps east of Cave 6. It consists of a large niche containing damaged figures of the eight mother goddesses, each with a weapon above their head, carved on the back wall of the cave. The cave is flanked by shallow niches with abraded figures of Kārttikeya and Gaṇeśa, now visible only in outline. The Passage There is a passage prior to Cave 8 which consists of a natural cleft or canyon in the rock running approximately east to west. The passage has been subject to modifications, the sets of steps cut into the floor being the most conspicuous feature. The lowest set of steps on the right-hand side are eroded. Sankha Lipi or shell inscriptions – so-called because of their shell-like shape, are found on the upper walls of the passage. These are quite large. Those inscriptions have been cut through to make the caves, which means they existed before the caves were created around 401 CE. The inscriptions had not been deciphered, and proposed interpretations have been controversial. The upper walls of the passage have large notches at several places, indicating that stone beams and slabs were used to roof over parts of the passage, giving it a significantly different appearance from what can be seen today. Cave 8 Cave 8 was named the "Tawa Cave" by Cunningham, after its crown that looks like the Indian griddle which locals use to bake their daily bread and call the baking plate as Tawa. The cave is a bit to the right of the passage. It is excavated into a hemispherical dome-shaped rock and has a large nearly flat rock crown. It is about 14 feet long and 12 feet broad. The cave is badly damaged, but contains a historically significant inscription. Outside the cave, the empty hollow remnants provide the evidence that there was a mandapa outside this cave. To the sides of the entrance are eroded dvarapalas (guardian reliefs) with a bushy hairstyle found for dvarapalas in other caves. The cave is notable for its lotus carving on the ceiling. The famed early 5th-century Sanskrit inscription in this cave is on its back wall. It is five lines long, in a Vedic meter. Some parts of the inscription are damaged or have peeled off. The inscription links the Gupta king Chandra Gupta II and his minister Virasena to this cave. It has been translated as follows: The inner light which resembles the sun, which pervades the heart of the learned, but which is difficult find among men upon the earth, that is the wonder called Chandragupta, Who * * * (damaged), Of him, like a saint among great kings became the minister [...], whose name was Virasena, He was a poet, resident of Pataliputra, and knew grammar, law and logic, Having come here with his king, who is desirous of conquering the whole world, he made this cave, through his love to Sambhu. – Cave 8 inscription; Translators: Michael Willis / Alexander Cunningham The inscription does not give a date, but the inscription in Cave 6 does. The "love to Shambhu (Shiva)" is notable given the Varaha panel and royal sponsors of the Gupta era also revere Vishnu. Caves 9-11 The three caves are small excavations to the side of Cave 8. All three are next to each other. Their entrance opens north-northwest, and all have damaged Vishnu carvings. Cave 9 and 10 are rectangular niche like openings, while Cave 11 is a bit bigger and has a square plan. Cave 10, the middle one is a bit higher in its elevation. Cave 12: Vaishnavism Cave 12 is a Vaishnavism-related cave known for its niche containing a standing figure of Narasimha or the man-lion avatar of Vishnu. The Narasimha carving is flanked below by two standing images of Vishnu. Cave 12 is notable for having the clearest evidence that the cave was excavated into a rock with pre-existing inscriptions. The script is Sankha lipi, probably several versions of it given the different styles, all of which remain undeciphered. It is this which confirms that Udayagiri and Vidisha were inhabited and an active site of literate people before these caves were produced. Further, it also establishes 401 CE as the floruit for the existence and the use of Sankha lipi. The cave also has a flat top with evidence that there was likely a structure above, but this structure has not survived into the modern era. Cave 13: Vaishnavism Cave 13 contains a large Anantasayana panel, which depicts a resting figure of Vishnu as Narayana. Below the leg of Vishnu are two men, one larger kneeling devotee in namaste posture, and another smaller standing figure behind him. The kneeling figure is generally interpreted as Chandragupta II, symbolising his devotion to Vishnu. The other figure is likely his minister Virasena. Cave 14 Cave 14, the last cave on the left hand side at the top of the passage. It consists of a recessed square chamber of which only two sides are preserved. The outline of the chamber is visible in the floor, with a water channel pierced through the wall on one side as in the other caves at the site. One side of the doorjamb is preserved, showing jambs with receding faces but without any relief carving. Caves 15-18 Cave 15 is small square cave without separate sanctum and pitha (pedestal). Cave 16 is a Shaivism related cave based on the pitha and iconography. The sanctum and the mukha-mandapa are both squares. Cave 17 has a square plan. To the left of its entrance is single dvarapala. Further left is a niche with Ganesha image. On the right of the entrance is a niche with Durga in her Mahishasura-mardini form. The cave has an intricate symmetric lotus set in a geometric pattern on the ceiling. Cave 18 is notable for including a four armed Ganesha. With him is a devotee who is shown carrying a banana plant. Cave 19: Shaivism File:100 Old Inscription (33653734866).jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.85|Cave 19 inscription by some pilgrim Kanha. The "१०୯३" is Nagari for "1093", a year that is 1036–37 in Georgian calendar. The cave also includes a somewhat damaged image of Ganesha on its floor, where is depicted carrying an axe while looking in his left direction. ==Significance==

According to Willis, Udayagiri's Hindu history long predates the 4th century. It was a center of astronomy and Hindu calendar-related activity, given its sculptures, sundials, and inscriptions. These made Udayagiri a sacred space and gave it its name that means "sunrise mountain". It was likely first modified by the king Samudragupta in mid 4th-century. His descendant Chandragupta II reworked these caves a few decades later, to revitalize the Hindu king concept to be both the paramount sovereign (cakravartin) and the supreme devotee of the god Vishnu (paramabhāgavata). This evolved the role of Udayagiri from it being the historic center for Hindu astronomy into an "astro-political node". Chandragupta II thereafter came to be titled as Vikramaditya – literally, "he who is the sun of prowess – in Indian texts, states Willis. According to Patrick Olivelle – an Indologist and a professor of Sanskrit, Udayagiri was important to the Gupta Hindu kings who were "polytheistic with remarkable tolerance" in an era where the popular religion was "basically henotheistic". According to Heinrich von Stietencron - an Indologist and professor of Comparative Religion, the Udayagiri Caves narrates Hindu thought and legends with far deeper roots in the Vedic tradition. The Stietencron proposal does not explain the presence of a bowing figure in front of the Vishnu Varaha. The royally dressed man has been broadly interpreted as king Chandragupta II acknowledging dharma and duty symbolized by Vishnu Varaha as above the king. Stietencron states that it indeed is a norm in the Hindu sculptural art tradition to not represent transitory achievements of mortal kings or any individual, rather they predominantly emphasize spiritual quest and narrate ahistoric, symbolic legends from Hindu texts. The Udayagiri Caves are significant, states Stietencron, because they are likely a political statement. According to Julia Shaw, the Udayagiri sculptures are significant because they suggest that the avatara concept was fully developed by about 400 CE. The full display of iconography across multiple caves for Vishnu, Shiva and Durga suggests that Hinduism was thriving along with Buddhism in post-Mauryan era in ancient India. The Udayagiri temples represent, state Francis Ching and other scholars, the "earliest intact Hindu architecture" and display the "essential attributes of a Hindu temple" in the form of sanctum, mandapa and a basic plan. According to James Harle, the Udayagiri caves are significant for being "a common denominator of the early Gupta style". He states that Udayagiri temples are, along with those as Tigawa and Sanchi, probably the earliest of surviving Hindu temples. The Udayagiri temples are the only that can be confidently linked to the Gupta Empire, states George Michell. While new ancient temples are being identified every year on the Indian subcontinent but their dating remains uncertain. the Udayagiri Caves can be dated and they are earliest accepted examples of surviving rock-based north Indian temple. ==See also==