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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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Magic!

On our recent visit to Mount Abu, we walked to the lake to spend the evening. As we were awaiting our turn for the boat ride, a young boy came up to Shankar and said that he would show us some magic tricks. These days, I  don't have much patience with young chaps who accost us at tourist destinations, and would have ignored the chap, but Shankar said, "Come on, let's see what he does."
So off we went, towards a slightly less crowded section of the park, and proceeded to see just what is meant by 'sleight of hand'! Yes, that was a new term that Samhith learned that day. The young boy was so good with it, that we happily paid him more than we had thought of. But a bigger surprise was to come. As we left, I was telling Shankar that I should have taken a video, and suddenly, the boy turned to us and said, "Koi baat nahin, madam, main youtube par hoon. Aap Fateh Khan Jaadugar search kijiye... mil jayega! (Its ok, madam,I am on you tube.Just search for Fateh Khan Jaadugar, and you will find it!). Of course, I came back and looked for the video, and here it is. Unfortunately, it isnt all that clear and seeing his performance live was a hundred times better, but its still worth a look....


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Comments

  1. Prateek_bplJanuary 16, 2012 at 2:13 AM

    i had also seen his magic,it was awesome.........the boy is really good with his magic......hope best for him.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anu ShankarJanuary 16, 2012 at 1:29 PM

    Absolutely!!

    ReplyDelete

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