The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.s2.103

v2.c16.s2.103

Now, the Ananta Cave has an inscription in identically the same Lāṭ character which occurs on several of the Udayagiri caves, and its evidence fully justifies the assumption that the latter were bored and originally occupied by the followers of the same religion who excavated the Ananta shrine. According to James Prinsep, the Lāṭ character was current from the fifth to the third century before Christ, when Aśoka recorded his edict on the Dhauli Hill, Bhuvaneśvara was a large and flourishing seat of Buddhism. Then that city was bounded on the one side by Khaṇḍagiri and on the other by Dhauli,⁴⁴ and the latter place was doubtless selected for the edicts, because it was a part of a large and thriving Buddhist city, for it would be puerile to believe that the edicts were set up in an uninhabited place, or amidst a hostile Hindu population; and if Dhauli, Bhuvaneśvara and Khaṇḍagiri were at the time Buddhist, we cannot but accept the Buddhism of the caves of Udayagiri,—the premisses lead inevitably to the conclusion, and cannot be avoided. The evidence of the rails in the Udayagiri friezes may be argued to be inconclusive, but these occur so frequently in connexion with Buddhist remains, that until the contrary is shown by irrefragable evidence, they may very reasonably be accepted as a Bddhist peculiarity. General Cunningham, adverting to the Sāñchi rails, says: “The style is evidently characteristic and conventional, as it is found wherever the Bauddha religion prevails. It is in fact so peculiar to Buddhism, that I ventured to name it ‘the Buddhist railing.’⁴⁵ This peculiar railing is still standing around the principal Tope at Sāñchī and Andher; and some pillars and other fragments are still lying around the great Topes at Seoni and Satadhārā. The same railing was placed around the holy bodhi trees,⁴⁶ and the pillars dedicated to Buddha.⁴⁷ The balconies of the city gates⁴⁸ and of the King’s palace⁴⁹ were enclosed by it. It formed the bulworks of the State Barge.⁵⁰ It was used as an ornament for the capitols of columns, as on the northern pillars at Sāñchī,⁵¹ and generally for every plain band of architectural moulding At Sāñchi, it is found in many places as an ornament on the horizontal bars which separate the bas-reliefs from each other.”⁵² Admitting, however, for the sake of argument that the rails do not afford as positive evidence as do Buddhist images, still they may be taken in conjuction with the other facts as strong collateral proof in favour of the Buddhism of the Udayagiri remains. It is likely that the Ananta Cave was the sanctuary or church of the congregation who dwelt in the caves of Udayagiri, and the latter as dwellings needed no separate images ; but it is also probable that the larger caves, like the Rānī Naur, Vaikuṇṭha, and Svargapuri, had their separate *lares* and penates in the form of statues which have been destroyed by the profane hands of the Hindu ascetics who have held possession of the caves for more than eleven centuries, seeing that Heouan-Thsang, in the middle of the seventh century, did not notice the place, and at least two centuries before the time of the Chinese traveller Bhuvaneśvara was the metropolis of the Hindu sovereigns of the Keśāri dynasty.⁵⁸