Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c13.s2.10

c13.s2.10

According to an inscription carved on the rock of a shallow natural cave on Udaigiri, called the Hathi Gumpha, the mean date of these excavated chambers corresponds to about B C 160. This inscription records, among other information, the chief episodes in the reign of king Kharavela, ruler of Kalinga, the ancient Orissa, including his conquests of a great portion of the north and east of India. Kharavela was by religion a Jain, and appears to have been personally interested in the priestly community who had selected these hills as a place of retreat. It is just possible that the small group of Ajivika hermits responsible for the excavated chapels in the Barabar hills, having lost the protection of Asoka on the death of that monarch, migrated to Orissa, not only to be under a Jaina ruler, but in order to continue their system of living in cells cut in the rock.