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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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The Resident Reptile

This one is a permanent resident of our colony, and can be relied on to appear every now and then, reminding us of his presence, especially as a warning to kids not to venture into the bushes! Capturing him on camera has never been easy, even though he comes out to bask in the sun,  because he seems to be more wary of the kids than they are of him, and he is the first to disappear when they mark their arrival with whoops and shouts.

I saw the chap this week as I left to collect Samhith from school, and he didn't seem to be bothered much by me, and continued to absorb the warm sun rays after a sudden spate of rainfall.


As I clicked on and on, happy that I had my camera with me for once, he turned to regard me, as if wondering what I was doing!


Incidentally, for those of you who are interested, this one is an Indian (or Oriental) Garden Lizard, also called a Changeable Lizard. It is NOT a chameleon, though it does change its colours, but much more slowly.

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Comments

  1. IndraniOctober 28, 2010 at 8:51 AM

    Great captures Anu, he seems to be knowing he is getting famous. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bindhu UnnyOctober 28, 2010 at 4:00 PM

    Nice shots, Anu. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. chitraOctober 28, 2010 at 8:21 PM

    Recently we were observing a chameleon and were surprised to see it was not changing colours. May be it is a slow process.
    This one looks like a mini iguana.

    ReplyDelete
  4. indicaspeciesOctober 28, 2010 at 8:50 PM

    Good to learn about this Garden Lizard. Thank you for this post.

    ReplyDelete
  5. ArtiOctober 28, 2010 at 9:11 PM

    Nice clicks Anu... He too seems very curious!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anuradha ShankarOctober 28, 2010 at 10:24 PM

    @Indrani: Thanks... yes, he does seem to love the publicity!

    @Bindhu: Thanks.

    @Chitra: samhith was asking me the same thing sometime back, which is why I searched a bit on the net before simply labeling it as a chameleon! and yes, it does look like a mini iguana... i was trying to get samhith to understand about evolution that way...

    @Celine: thanks.. i learnt a lot too thanks to writing the post :)

    @Atri: thanks... he really seemed curious!

    ReplyDelete
  7. NatashaOctober 29, 2010 at 4:03 PM

    Awesome photographs, Anu. And I always thought that fellow was a chameleon- nice to know that he is not.

    ReplyDelete

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