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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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Where have all the other birds gone?

The two black kites in our colony are presently the most visible ones around. All the bulbuls, sunbirds and robins seem to have disappeared! I wonder why that is so.

Meanwhile, the absence of birds has given me very little opportunity of using my camera, so I jumped at the chance when the kite came to sit on our terrace for a while, giving me some good pics... Here they are....












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  1. MridulaJanuary 20, 2010 at 10:11 AM

    The bird seems to be sitting close. I hope the smaller ones do come back too.

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  2. SrinivasJanuary 20, 2010 at 11:04 AM

    Good shot

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  3. chitraJanuary 20, 2010 at 11:39 AM

    I liked the third one..

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  4. sriJanuary 20, 2010 at 11:41 AM

    very good shots, U seem to be very good at birds photography , u should take that seriously and do something abt it :)

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  5. AartiJanuary 20, 2010 at 10:08 PM

    Wow... Lovely shot! sure hope the other birds come back :)

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  6. sandeepJanuary 21, 2010 at 10:18 AM

    nice shots anu ... lets blame the absence of birds on urbanization. i also dont see many birds i used to see earlier. looks like they are moving to suburbs :(

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  7. Bhavesh ChhatbarJanuary 22, 2010 at 1:36 PM

    Beeeeeeeautiful takes Anu. I really liked them. And the small birds will come back when these 2 will go off :) Happens at my home too, not often; they usually like to stay together!

    About your query on my post The Day, first of all, thanks so much for your kind suggestions. Actually I tried providing INR option too, but the payment gateway I'm using doesn't support INR currency for now. In future, there surely will be an option to pay in INR.

    Regarding website designing; it's one of my professions! Sounds odd, but I'm a photographer, a website designer, a writer, and some more. Good or bad I don't know, but I can do it all. Let me know your website design plan, and I'll be able to help you out :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. HaddockMarch 31, 2010 at 11:16 PM

    Wow.....the eagle in all its elegance.

    ReplyDelete

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