हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Udayagiri Caves, Vidisha

Twenty rock-cut shrines in a sandstone hill near Vidisha, the oldest securely dated Hindu cave temples. The great Varaha panel of Cave 5 shows Vishnu lifting Bhudevi out of the ocean.

Built: c. 401 CE onward, in the reign of Chandragupta IIWhere: Madhya Pradesh (Vidisha district)Deity: Vishnu as Varaha; Shiva; the Devi; Ganesha23.54° N, 77.77° E
  1. 401 CE
  2. 425–26 CE
Photo: Arian Zwegers from Brussels, Belgium · CC BY 2.0

01Varaha lifts the Earth

The panel in Cave 5 is nearly 7 metres wide. Varaha, Vishnu with a boar’s head and a man’s body, plants one foot on the coils of a naga king and lifts Bhudevi from the waters on his tusk. Rows of rishis, devas and asuras watch from the rock behind. The waves below are carved with two river goddesses, Ganga and Yamuna, flowing into the ocean. Many historians read the panel as a picture of the Gupta king himself raising the land.

02The inscriptions

Cave 6 carries an inscription of Gupta year 82, that is 401 CE, recording a gift by a Sanakanika feudatory of Chandragupta II. In Cave 7 Virasena, the king’s minister of peace and war, records that he came here with the king, who was out to conquer the earth, and had the cave made for Shambhu. Cave 20 has a Jain inscription of Gupta year 106 (425–26 CE) in the reign of Kumaragupta I, for an image of Parshvanatha. Cave 4 holds an ekamukha linga, and Cave 13 a great reclining Vishnu.

The life of this place

  1. 401 CECave 6 inscription, Gupta year 82, under Chandragupta II.
  2. 425–26 CEJain inscription of Kumaragupta I’s reign in Cave 20.
Visiting

6 km from Vidisha and 13 km from Sanchi; ASI ticket. Combine with the Heliodorus pillar at Besnagar on the same morning.

People

Chandragupta II VikramadityaRuler
Reigned c. 380–415 CE

Chandragupta II Vikramaditya

Gupta emperor who took Ujjain from the Shakas

Evidence

Udayagiri cave inscriptions of Chandragupta IIInscription
401 CE (Gupta year 82)

Udayagiri cave inscriptions of Chandragupta II

Two records at Udayagiri tie its shrines, among them the great Varaha panel, to Chandragupta II and the men who served him.

Nearby

Vidisha (Besnagar)Standing
Shungas, Satavahanas, Kharavela and the Sangam Kingdoms

Vidisha (Besnagar)

The old city on the Betwa where a Greek envoy raised a Garuda pillar to Vasudeva around 113 BCE, with Sanchi and the Udayagiri caves in sight. Its great Paramara temple, the Vijaya Mandir, was pulled down on Aurangzeb’s orders in 1682.

SanchiStanding
The Maurya Empire

Sanchi

The Buddhist hill of Sanchi, a few km from Vidisha, with the Great Stupa begun by Ashoka and four carved gateways of the 1st century BCE. It is the most complete early Buddhist site in Bharat.

Bhopal (Bhojpal)Standing
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Bhopal (Bhojpal)

The city of lakes, which takes its name, by tradition, from Raja Bhoja’s dam. Here in the winter of 1737–38 Bajirao I surrounded the Nizam and forced the convention that gave Malwa to the Marathas.

Bhojeshwar Temple, BhojpurStanding
The long resistance: Sindh to Tarain

Bhojeshwar Temple, Bhojpur

An unfinished Shiva temple of Raja Bhoja on a ridge above the Betwa, holding one of the largest lingas in India. The builders’ plans, scratched on the surrounding rocks, survive with it.