page_title: Udayagiri Caves
section_title: The Passage
hierarchical_section_title: Udayagiri Caves / Description / The Passage
caption_attribution_description: English: Gupta Empire era inscriptions, two from Cave 6 and one from Cave 8. These help establish the date of the cave and Hindu temples near Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh. This is derivative work on wikimedia commons file: 1st - 5th century Udayagiri inscriptions Hindu caves, Madhya Pradesh India, published in 1880.png To verify: Alexander Cunningham (1880)
context_page_description: The Udayagiri Caves are twenty rock-cut caves near Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh from the early years of the 5th century CE. They contain some of the oldest surviving Hindu temples and iconography in India. They are the only site that can be verifiably associated with a Gupta period monarch from its inscriptions. One of India's most important archaeological sites, the Udayagiri hills and its caves are protected monuments managed by the Archaeological Survey of India.
  Udayagiri caves contain iconography of Vaishnavism, Shaktism and Shaivism. They are notable for the ancient monumental relief sculpture of Vishnu in his incarnation as the man-boar Varaha, rescuing the earth symbolically represented by Bhudevi clinging to the boar's tusk as described in Hindu mythology. The site has important inscriptions of the Gupta dynasty belonging to the reigns of Chandragupta II and Kumaragupta I. In addition to these, Udayagiri has a series of rock-shelters and petroglyphs, ruined buildings, inscriptions, water systems, fortifications and habitation mounds, all of which remain a subject of continuing archaeological studies.
context_section_description: A passage prior to Cave 8. It consists of a natural cleft or canyon in the rock running approximately east to west. The passage has been subject to modifications, the sets of steps cut into the floor being the most conspicuous feature. The lowest set of steps on the right-hand side are eroded. Sankha Lipi or shell inscriptions – so-called because of their shell-like shape, are found on the upper walls of the passage. These are quite large. Those inscriptions have been cut through to make the caves, which means they existed before the caves were created around 401 CE. The inscriptions had not been deciphered, and proposed interpretations have been controversial. The upper walls of the passage have large notches at several places, indicating that stone beams and slabs were used to roof over parts of the passage, giving it a significantly different appearance from what can be seen today.
caption: The Sanskrit inscriptions in Udayagiri caves that help date it to about 401 CE.
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