page_title: Ratnagiri, Odisha
section_title: Stupas and temples
hierarchical_section_title: Ratnagiri, Odisha / Remains / Stupas and temples
caption_attribution_description: English: Hill containing many valuable sculptures and images This is a photo of ASI monument number&#160; N-OR-11.
context_page_description: Ratnagiri is the site of a ruined mahavihara, once the major Buddhist monastery in modern Odisha, India. It is located on a hill in between the Brahmani and Birupa rivers in Jajpur district. It is close to other Buddhist sites in the area, including Lalitagiri and Udayagiri, and 100 km from the state capital Bhubaneswar.
  The Buddhist monuments were constructed from the 5th century CE onwards, with the last work in the 13th century, and the peak period of work done between about the 7th to 10th centuries. After perhaps the 16th century the site ceased to be used and fell into ruins. These were little known until the 1960s when major campaigns of excavations by the Archaeological Survey of India revealed the site, producing large quantities of very fine sculpture. Monastery 1 has been described as "the finest in terms of carved stone decoration to have survived in India". Some of this was removed to museums elsewhere, with much left on site. A museum at the site has recently been opened to house many pieces.
  The main elements were an impressive stupa surrounded by several hundred smaller stupas of varying dimensions, three quadrangular monasteries.
context_section_description: The main stupa dates to the 9th century and was likely built on the site of an earlier, Gupta-era stupa. It is on the highest point in the site and has a square base, 47 feet (14 m) metres on each side.  The stupa is now 17 feet (5.2 m) high, but was originally a good deal higher, to an unknown extent.  There was a pathway between the plinth and outer wall for ritual pradakshina or circumambulation; this was a later addition.  Prominent, well-preserved standing statues of the bodhisattvas Vajrapani and Padmapani can be found in niches in a portico.
  The stupa is surrounded by large numbers of much smaller stupas, some four or more metres high, but large numbers less than a metre.  Most of the smaller ones show a seated deity figure in a niche on one side, and many are decorated with lotus petals and beaded tassels around their shaft.  These are mostly carved from a single piece of stone.  Many Indian Buddhist sites have some of these, but at Ratnagiri there are more than 700 of them in total, which is an exceptionally large number, and they represent an exceptional range of deities, with 22 identified.  Some 535 of the total are found to the south-west to the main stupa.
  Most can be dated to between the 9th and 13th centuries, and were evidently made on or very close to the site; some unfinished examples have been found, including those with the space for the figure left blank, to be finished when the customer chose a deity.  It is thought they served as memorials and reliquaries for dead monks, and votive offerings by pilgrims.
  A total of 1386 clay seals were found, most bearing the legend Sri Ratnagiri Mahavihariya Aryabikshu Sanghasya, which helped to identify the name of Ratnagiri monastery.
  One temple has been converted to Hindu use as the Dharma Mahakala temple; this was built over an earlier stupa, and was moved to the side of the site and re-erected by the ASI.  It contains a Buddhist standing relief figure of Manjushri. The later parts date to the 11th century.
caption: Stump of main stupa, and smaller stupas
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