_Notes

[1] In all excavation at Udayagiri has been carried in two phases for a total period of 10 field seasons; first at Udayagiri–I from 1985-1989 and second at Udayagiri-II from 1997 to 2003.

[2] They had to live secretly among the lower caste people and cultivators. In the process, they had to adopt other ways of life and they lost touch with one another. Some of them lost their identity completely. For a long time they did not care to know the whereabouts of their brethren. Only much later, when there was a feeling of safety, they mobilized themselves to re-establish their identity.

[3] Dr. K. S. Behera was then Professor, History Department, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Orissa and Research Guide of H.C. Prusty.

[4] Usually, in the later phase it was a practice to provide a low platform below the medhi. But as the stupawas already constructed over a high platform, the architects instead of providing a second low platform must have thought it appropriate to provide a vedhi below the medhi. Vedhi are found at the base of many minor stupas.

[5] This is a tradition of the Vajrayana Buddhism in which Vajrasattva is the Adi Buddha, who possesses five kinds of knowledge, conceived as his five attributes. From these five deities known as five Dhyani Buddhas emanate. They are Vairochana, Ratnasambhava, Amitabha, Amoghasiddhi and Akshobhya. These Dhyani Buddhas are generally represented on the four sides of a stupa, which is the symbol of the Buddhist universe. Vairochana being the deity of the inner shrine, so, is not represented.

[6] I had visited a sculptors work place, while conversing I was told that when the khondalite rock is cut from the quarry, it should be used within 6-12 months or after that it is not possible to carve on it as it comes out in flakes when chiseled.

[7] At present in the site only one of this ayaka pillar type stupa has been reported by me.

[8] The reason for absence of all the chatravali and harmika could be best summoned in the words of Longhurst (Longhurst 1992: 15) where he states “the installation of this architectural member was, and still is, a very important and often costly religious ceremony, because before the chatravali was fixed in position on the summit of a stupa, or a temple, valuable offerings in the form of gold coins or jewels were placed beneath it and built into its foundations. As this custom still prevails and is well known in India, whenever a stupa or a temple fell into disuse, thieves immediately removed these crowning ornaments and stole the offerings placed beneath them. This is one of the chief reasons why all the structural harmika and chatravali have disappeared in India”.