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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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An Interesting Sight



Have you heard of Deballasting? I certainly hadn’t, until we happened to see the process in action……………..




We saw this sight while returning from Elephanta, and were curious about what they were doing.
Thankfully, we have a marine expert at home (my father-in-law), who told us that this process of pumping out the excess water from a ship is called Deballasting. Google yielded a lot more information, and you can check out this link for an explanation for laymen like us.

Anyway, leaving aside the technicality, it looks good, doesn’t it? Every person on the ferry was busy taking photos, and there might be quite a few floating around the internet already! In any case, here are a few more….







Some oil from the tanks seems to have mixed with the water, showing us all these wonderful colours! (I dont think this really counts as an oil spill, since the amount of oil would have been very small, so I could really enjoy the view!)







So, have you seen anything as interesting while on a boat ride?


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