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 ...
When we first came to Bombay, the biggest challenge we faced was the language – we knew English, Hindi, Tamil, and a smattering of the other south Indian languages, but Marathi was truly an alien tongue then. And to add to that, our school had already started teaching Marathi, so I had to catch up too! We soon realized that the language was not all that hard to understand or to read – it was after all, not too different from Hindi, and thankfully the script was the same, but speaking was another matter altogether. Everyone in our vicinity insisted on being nice, and spoke to us in Hindi, even when we asked them to speak in Marathi so that we could learn the language.