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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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A Long Vacation Comes to an End

Its been one hectic summer vacation. Over the period of one month, we traversed over 5000 Km as we spent our holidays travelling and making the most of the longest vacation of the year!

We started our tour with a visit to Tiruppur, where Samhith made the most of his time with his aunt. While there, we managed to sneak in a visit to the Dhyanalinga Temple near Coimbatore.



From there, we headed towards Madurai,
where Shankar joined us, and we spent our 9th wedding anniversary visiting the Madurai Meenakshi Temple.........



and also our family deity temple at Nainar Kovil.



We then headed towards Chennai, where we just had time to drop in on our relatives before we headed out towards the temple town of Kancheepuram.....



and then to Pondicherry, where we spent a couple of restful days.


While returning to Chennai, we spent our time at Mahabalipuram, adding one more place to Samhith's list of World Heritage Sites...



It was time to get back to Mumbai, which we did by hopping on to a summer special train which took its own sweet time, stopping at any and every station which came our way.... We stayed at home for just a couple of days before it was time to head out again... this time towards the west.... First to Mount Abu....



then to the temple of Ambaji in Gujarat....



and then towards Udaipur....



We finished our tour with a visit to the Chittorgarh Fort, and finally headed back to Mumbai by bus!



What a tour it has been! There is much to write, and it is going to keep me busy for months to come!

Meanwhile, I induced Samhith to finally make a scrap book by buying him a handmade paper scrap book at Auroville, and he actually managed to put some things together during the trip itself... On his instructions, I am not going to put it up here, but on his blog. Please do click here and check it out!

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