page_title: Barabar Caves
section_title: Hindu inscriptions of the 5-6th century CE
hierarchical_section_title: Barabar Caves / Hindu inscriptions of the 5-6th century CE
caption_attribution_description: English: Gopika cave Anantavarman inscription with reflect
context_page_description: The Barabar Hill Caves are the oldest surviving rock-cut caves in India, dating from the Maurya Empire, some with Ashokan inscriptions, located in the Makhdumpur region of Jehanabad district, Bihar, India, 24 km north of Gaya.
  These caves are situated in the twin hills of Barabar and Nagarjuni; caves of the 1.6 km-distant Nagarjuni Hill are sometimes singled out as the Nagarjuni Caves. These rock-cut chambers bear dedicatory inscriptions in the name of "King Piyadasi" for the Barabar group, and "Devanampiya Dasaratha" for the Nagarjuni group, thought to date back to the 3rd century BCE during the Maurya period, and to correspond respectively to Ashoka and his grandson, Dasharatha Maurya.
  The sculptured surround to the entrance to the Lomas Rishi Cave is the earliest survival of the ogee shaped "chaitra arch" or chandrashala that was to be an important feature of Indian rock-cut architecture and sculptural decoration for centuries. The form was clearly a reproduction in stone of buildings in wood and other plant materials.
context_section_description: Several Hindu inscriptions of the Maukhari king Anantavarman of the 5-6th century CE also appear in the caves of the Nagarjuni group, in the same caves where the dedicatory inscriptions of the grandson of Ashoka, Dasaratha, are also located: the Gopika Cave Inscription and the Vadathika Cave Inscription, as well as an inscription of Anantavarman above the cave entrance of Lomas Rishi. There are also a number of short inscriptions from the time of the Gupta Empire, generally inscribed in the entrance halls, and distributed in almost all the caves. Only the cave of Vivaskarma has received no inscriptions subsequent to his dedicatory inscription of Ashoka.
caption: Gopika Cave Inscription of king Anantavarman, 5-6th century CE, in the entrance of the cave of Gopika, built by the grandson of Ashoka around 230 BCE.
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