The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.77.1

v2.c16.77.1

**Ganesa Gumpha :**—A counterpart of this frieze occurs in a cave above and a little to the north-east of the Rānī Naur right on the highest crest of Udayagiri (Plate I. A). The cave is one-storeyed, and is divided into two compartments with a verandah in front (Plate XXVII). The four sides of the latter are of different dimensions, [10] the front line being 30 feet, the off line 31 ft., the left side 6′ 6″ and the right side 7 feet. It is faced by a range of five massive square pillars, of which two have fallen and disappeared. The tops of the pillars have brackets projecting forwards with female figures carved on them, to afford a sort of ornamental support to the caves of the roof, which come out a good deal beyond the line of the architrave, but without any indication of a regular cornice. The flight of steps leading to the verandah is flanked by a crouching elephant on each side, holding by its trunk a mass of lotus-stalks bearing leaves and buds and one open flower, artistically displayed in the centre of the bundle (C. 6 Plate XX). There are figures of elephants in bas-relief at the two ends of the architrave. These elephants probably have led in some way to the cave's being called Gaṇeśa Gumphā or 'the Cave of Gaṇeśa', the elaphocephalic god, for there is nothing else to justify the attribution of the cave to a Hindu divinity. The rooms are quadrangular in shape, but their sides, like those of the verandah, are unequal, the average being 15 feet x 7 feet, (Plate XIV).