The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.s2.100.3

v2.c16.s2.100.3

Tradition has it that even at Udayagiri they demolished a great number of caves to devote the stones to the erection of the temple which now crowns the top of Khaṇḍagiri, and there is nothing to show that they spared the images which could be much more readily employed in building than the walls of the caves. That the image in the Ananta Cave has escaped is probably due to the fact of its being cut in low relief on the back-wall into the living rock, and could not be easily removed. Of course they brought no iconoclastic zeal to bear upon the remains they found around them, nor looked upon the destruction of images as an act of religious merit in the same way as the Moslims did, and so they removed only what they required, and spared what was not wanted by them. Doubtless these facts only [39] indicate the probability of Buddhist remains having been removed or destroyed, but do not prove that there were Buddhist images and emblems in the caves; but the bas-relief of Buddha in the Ananta Cave is unquestionable, and so are the Chaityas with Buddhist images on the Deva Sabhā. The Chaityas are particularly Buddhist, no other sect in India having ever raised or worshipped them, and they leave no doubt of at least the principal cave on Khaṇḍagiri being Buddhistical.