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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.