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Odisha Part 11: Discovering the Jaina Heritage of Odisha at the caves of Udaygiri and Khandgiri

The Hindu and Buddhist history of Odisha , or rather, ancient Kalinga, is rather well known to everyone. Who hasn’t heard of the grand temples of Odisha – Puri, Lingaraj and Konark, or the great war of Kalinga which inspired Ashoka to convert to Buddhism? In contrast, very few know of the Jaina heritage of this region. This is quite a pity, since, just around 7 km from the city, is one of India’s most ancient inscriptions, which throws light on the Jaina heritage of Odisha. This inscription is the Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela, in the hills of Udaygiri. Udaygiri and Khandgiri are two hills located opposite each other, and both are testaments to the rich Jaina heritage of Odisha. The caves at Udaygiri are older, while Khandgiri is relatively newer, but has lasted much longer, and continues to be a place of pilgrimage for Jains even today. These hills, from inscriptions and excavations of caves, shrines and rock beds, appear to have been a haven for Jaina monks, right from the ...
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My Book Review is on the Penguin Blog!!!!!!

A hard-core book lover, I have been following the Penguin Blog for some time, and was thrilled when they launched  Blog a Penguin India Classic. All I had to do was sign up on their site and send them a mail with my postal address. They would send me one of their Indian Classics (a random choice) and all they wanted in return was a review of the book! The opportunity was too good to resist, and I immediately sent them a mail. I expected the book after perhaps a week or so, but imagine my surprise when it landed on my doorstep the very next day!!
The book I received was 'Divya' , by the talented Hindi author Yashpal. Now, my knowledge of Hindi classics is sketchy, thanks to the useless state board Hindi syllabus in my school. I have always wanted to read translations, but have put off buying these books because I have never been able to decide which books are really good translations, and worth buying. As to the library that I belong to, they have none of these books. What a pity.
The book seemed interesting, and having a bit of spare time, I started reading it, and found that I just couldn't put  it down!!!! I finished it within two days (remember I am a wife, daughter-in-law and mom - otherwise, in my carefree college days, I would have finished it in one sitting!)  and the very next day, sat down to write a review. This proved to be rather difficult, for I have never written a review before. I must thank Ramya of Ramya's Bookshelf. I went to her site (which I have been following for a while) and re-read a couple of reviews before starting again. I finally finished writing it yesterday and sent it to them.
Surprise! Surprise! I received a mail today from them saying that they were putting up my review on their site, and even better, mine would be the first one to be posted!!!! I am so thrilled! Check it out here.



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  1. AnonymousMarch 26, 2009 at 11:24 PM

    well done again!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sujatha BagalMarch 28, 2009 at 7:40 AM

    good for you, I say!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousAugust 10, 2010 at 5:35 PM

    Pretty cool blog you've got here. Thanks for it. I like such themes and everything that is connected to them. I definitely want to read a bit more on that blog soon.

    Anete Kuree

    ReplyDelete

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