Vidhisha was an important city in ancient India. It stood on the trade route connecting the north and south India. It finds mention in many ancient stories, specially the stories of the traders. Besides the popular Sanchi Stupa there are many important and interesting places to explore in Vidhisha like Udaigiri Caves.
Udaigiri Caves
Cave temples are the first temples that used to exist before the temples were built on the land and on raised platforms. Later, these evolved into various styles of temple architecture.
Udaigiri Caves are about 20 Hindu and a Jain cave temple on a hill. They were built sometime in the late4the and early 5th century by Chandragupta II during early Gupta period as per the inscription in Cave 6. This makes these caves the earliest known and dated Hindu Temples. It is sometimes also called Vishnupadagiri.
Udaigiri literally means the hill of rising sun. We see similar hills at Rajgir in Bihar and in Odisha near Bhubaneshwar. Does this mean it was a center of Sun worship at some point in time? Probably yes. It is also located almost on the Tropic of Cancer which means it was aligned to the movement of Sun.
Located close to confluence of Bes river with Betwa, this may have been a part of Vidhisha that is referred in Kalidasa’s Meghdoota. It may have been a sacred pilgrimage with so many temples located on a hill. Archaeological evidences suggest that it was a city as far back a 6th BCE.
It is believed that the Iron Pillar, an engineering marvel, at Delhi’s Qutub Minar Complex was originally at Udaigiri.
Cave temples here indicate a square mandapa in front of the garbhagriha. Pillars can be seen in some caves. Reliefs can be seen on doorjambs. There are niches with Murtis carved in the rock.
Cave 5 at Udaigiri Caves
Cave 5 is the most important piece of work that you notice here. It has a giant sculpture of Vishnu’s Varaha Avatar on the wall. It is the signature sculpture of these caves.
Vishnu as Varaha can be seen holding the earth as a woman. Surrounding him are all the deities like:
Brahma on a lotus and Shiva on Nandi just above the earth
12 Adityas, 8 Vasus, 11 Rudras, Agni, Vayu and Rishis in the panels on right of Varaha
Gupta kings and their ministers can be seen closer to the ocean at the bottom
On Varaha’s left feet is Shesha and on the right is Lakshmi
On the top left are many sages led by Narada who…
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