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THE KHANDAGIRI MONUMENTS
Coming down to the main road by a flight of steps in front of Cave-17,
and going up the road for about 15m, the visitor will find a track to his
left leading to the top of the Khandagiri hill. Following this track for a
few metres, the first cave on the hill will be encountered.
CAVE-1
(TATOWA-GUMPHA 1):
Cave-1, the first of the two known as Tatowa-gumpha, from the figures of
parrots carved on the arches of their doorways, consists of a low cell,
with two doorways, fronted by a benched verandah. The ceiling of the
verandah is supported on a pillar, octagonal in the middle and square
below and above, with the characteristic chamfering of the corners and two
pilasters. On the inner face of the pillar is a bracket, relieved with
lotuses, honeysuckles and rosettes.
Guarding the entrance to the cave and standing in front of the pilasters
are two sentries, clad in dhotis and scarves and armed with swords. The
sidewalls of the verandah each have a shelf. The floor of the verandah is
at a much lower level than that of the cell. The eaves projecting over the
verandah have fallen away.
Entrance to the cell is provided by two doorways flanked by pilasters
crowned by a pair of addorsed animals, bulls in the case of the right
doorway and lions in the left. From the top of the capitals spring the
semi-circular arches (makaara-tarana), one relieved with a creeper and the
other lotuses alternating with honeysuckles, issuing from the mouths of a
makara.
The spaces between the arches and sidewalls have patterns simulating the
barrel-shaped roof supported on brackets and crowned by a row of finials
carved against a background of railing-motif. Similarly roofed structures
are common in the reliefs of Bharhut.
Between the two arches is a short one-lined inscription calling the cave
that of 'Kusuma', an inhabitant of 'Padamulika'.
CAVE-2 (TATOWA-GUMPHA 2):
A
flight of modern steps built on the right side of Cave-1 will lead to
Cave-2. Though similar to Cave-1, this cave is more spacious and its
decoration more elaborate. The ceiling is comparatively high and is
curved. There are three doorways ornamented with arches and pilasters.
The shafts of the pilasters are octagonal above and square below, resting
on carved ghatas, the latter placed on stepped bases; over the bell-shaped
lotus are neckings, cables and, in one instance, the bead-and-reel, above
which are the abaci crowned by the capitals consisting of animals- a pair
of spirited lions amidst trees on the left doorway, a set of four
elephants on the middle and a pair of life-like bulls on the right.
The arches are decorated with a series of honeysuckles with a lotus at
the top (on the left), lotus alternating with plants (in the middle) and
vine (on the right) and have on either side doves and parrots on the right
and middle arches and a pair of deer on the left. Crowned by a nandipada
the arches have on the underside ribs reproducing the rafters of the
wooden prototypes.
The semicircular space below the arches and above the door-openings is
filled with a honeysuckle in the central and a garland with a lotus and
lotus-buds in the side ones. Like Cave-1, the façade of the cell is
relieved with the barrel-shaped roof with pinnacles, flanked, however, by
a lion on the left and an elephant on the right; the railing-motif occurs
here below the roofline.
A major portion of the two pillars supporting the ceiling of the verandah
is of modern restoration. Projecting from the pillars and pilasters and
supporting the ceiling are cut-out brackets relieved with a variety of
motifs; the inner brackets are better preserved and contain:
(i) Honeysuckle alternating with lotus in the two outermost ones.
(ii) A danseuse in the company of a musician playing on a stringed
instrument under a tree.
(iii) A female devotee holding a tray of flowers in her left hand and the
stalk of a flower in her right, in the two middle ones. The hairstyle,
dress and ornaments of these archaic figures are especially noteworthy.
On the back wall of the cell are painted in red pigment on a thin plaster
letters of the Indian alphabet in Brahmi characters of the 1st century
B.C. and A.D. some of the letters occur repeatedly. Presumably one of the
recluses attempted to improve his writing by practising on the wall.
CAVE-3 (ANANTA-GUMPHA):
Farther ascending by the same flight of steps, the visitor will find
Cave-3, called Ananta-gumpha after the figures of twin serpents on the
door-arches. Similar on plan to the preceding, it is one of the most
important caves on the Khandagiri hill, on account of its reliefs.
The general disposition of the reliefs is more or less identical with
those of Cave-2 and some of the caves of Udayagiri, but the motifs in some
cases are unique. The long cell has a convex ceiling and is of a
sufficient height to admit a man standing. The floor of the verandah,
which was originally lower, has been raised to the top-level of the bench
by masonry.
On the back-wall of the cell is carved a nandipada on a stepped pedestal
flanked on either side by a set of three symbols- a triangle-headed symbol
on a stepped pedestal, a srivatsa also on a stepped pedestal and a
svastika, regarded by the Jain's as auspicious. In medieval times the
image of a Tirthankara was carved below the right hand srivatsa and
svastika but was left unfinished.
The interest of the cave lies in the sculptured façade of the
cell, the beauty of which is, however, substantially undermined by the
damage to the wall (done deliberately, as suggested by chisel-marks)
between the first and the second doorways, together with parts of the
tympana over them. All the four doorways are flanked by pilasters, from
the capital of which spring the arches, the latter crowned by either a
srivatsa or a nandipada.
The pilasters have ghata-bases resting on stepped pedestals and have
capitals consisting of a set of animals, bulls and lions recognizable in
two sets, resting on an abacus above an inverted bell-shaped lotus. The
ghata is also decorated with lotus-petals. What, however, distinguishes
these pilasters from others is the ornamentation of the shafts, differing
in each pair- vertical rows of the bead-and-reel in the first, the
diamond-shaped jali-pattern in the second, spiral flutings alternating
with a vertical line of the bead-and-reel in the third and flowers between
compartments in the fourth, all between half-lotus medallions below and
above.
The faces of the arches, which have on the underside representations of
beams, are embellished with carvings. The two central ones depict a
running frieze with boys chasing animals including lions and bulls. The
first arch contains rosettes within loops of garlands and the fourth a
procession of twelve geese, with spread wings, in two groups proceeding
from opposite sides, each holding in its bill the stalk of either a
lotus-bud or a blue lotus as if to offer it to the sacred tree depicted
below the arch.
The motifs on the tympana are also different in each case. The first
depicts the flattened front view of a royal elephant attended by a smaller
one on each side (the right one missing) holding the stalks of a lotus and
buds. On the second tympanum is carved the figure of a turbaned royal
personage, wearing heavy kundalas, a necklace and bangles, under an
umbrella, with a female figure holding a fly-whisk on either side and
driving a chariot drawn by four spirited horses.
Above them are the representations of the moon, surrounded by stars, and
the sun, which symbolize the stellar world. The left hand of the figure is
placed on the waist and the right on his chest. The figure has generally
been identified with 'Surya'. A demonish pot-bellied dwarf holding a
spouted water-pot in his left hand and a banner in his right hand stands
at the right end of the relief near the right wheel of the chariot.
The next tympanum shows 'Sri' or 'Lakshmi' in the lotus-lake with stalks
of full-blown lotuses entwining round her arms and being bathed with water
from pitchers held by two elephants standing on lotuses on her sides. A
pair of birds is seen pecking at the seed-vessels of the lotuses.
The fourth tympanum depicts a sacred tree, which may be a pipal, within a
railing under an umbrella, being worshipped by a woman offering a lotus
and a man with folded hands with two dwarfish figures bringing a tray of
offerings and spouted jars. The perspective rendering of the railing is
noteworthy. The tree may be the kevala-tree of a Tirthankara.
The spaces between the arches are relieved with semi-divine beings flying
in haste, from pillared halls with barrel-vaulted roofs, with garlands and
trays of flowers and garlands towards the arches containing the objects of
worship. The one on the extreme left almost snatches away in his haste a
garland from the tray borne on the head of a fierce-looking dwarfish gana
with ling ears. Above them and extending along the entire length of the
verandah and continuing along the side-walls runs a railing interrupted
only at those places where there are groups of stepped merlons, each
alternating with a blue lotus. The latter motif occurs on the railings of
Bharhut in an identical form.
The inner bracket of the left pilaster has a dwarf supporting an
elephant, the latter carrying two figures, one of them with a banner. Its
counterpart on the right contains an elephant above a lotus. The three
inner brackets of the pillars have two women with folded hands separated
by a floral band made up of stylized honeysuckles and lotuses.
The corresponding outer brackets are relieved with pot-bellied demonish
ganas, with long ears, in the attitude of supporting the superstructure.
Both the outer brackets of the pilasters depict cavaliers, the left one
above a lotus.
The inscription on the outer side of the architrave between the left
pilaster and the first pillar of the verandah calls the cave that of the
monks of 'Dohada'.
The space in front of the cave has been levelled to form a spacious
courtyard. The footpath on the right side of the cave leads first to the
'Deva-sabha' and next to the Jain temple on the top of the hill, but the
route recommended here is different.
Retracing his steps to Cave-2, the visitor will take the track to the
right and continuing to encircle the hill will first meet a nameless cave,
open on the front, with its floor dug to a considerable depth at a later
period.
Immediately beyond this, at a slightly higher level, to the right of a
rock-cut flight of steps, is Cave-4, named after a tamarind tree, which
once stood near it. It consists of a single small dwelling cell with two
entrances and a benched verandah with a pillar of the usual type.
The pilasters, flanking the doors, have plain ghata-bases resting on a
stepped pyramid, shafts ribbed in the middle, square otherwise, and
crowning elements each consisting of a bell-shaped lotus capped by a
square abacus, on which rest a pair of crouchant elephants (in the left
pair of pilasters) and lions (in the right).
The arches above the pilasters are plain and have a pointed finial at the
top. The inner bracket of the pillar is relieved with the figure of a
woman carrying a lotus-bud in both of her hands and the outer with a
trotting elephant. The delineation of the elephants, as in most of the
caves, is strikingly naturalistic. The pilasters are unfinished and only
the outlines of the octagons are drawn.