Review of Literature

After the discovery of Hati-Gumpha inscription and the rock cut caves of Udayagiri and Khandagiri scholars like Fergusson, Kittoe, R.L. Mitra, Prinshep, Debala Mitra, N.K. Sahu, K.C. Panigrahi, H.K. Mahatab, B. Acharya, M.P. Dash, M.M. Ganguly, S.N. Rajguru and A.K. Rath etc. have made passing references to Jainism while dealing with the inscription of Hati-Gumpha or the rock cut caves at Udayagiri and Khandagiri. The emphasis was given for the reading and interpretation of the epigraph, art and architecture of the caves with very little attention to the religion. It was L.N. Sahu and S.N. Rajguru who made pioneering endeavours to study the religion and wrote on literary and sculptural accounts.

R.P. Mohapatra followed them with a more systematic work entitled Jaina Monuments of Orissa (1982) with some discussion on the religion, monuments and art objects with references to Udayagiri and Khandagiri in Khordha district; Podasingidi in Keonjhar district and Bhairav Singhpur; Subei of Koraput district and Achutrajpur, Kakatapur of Puri district. His account fails to trace many Jaina antiquities found at Balasore, Bhadrak, Boudh, Bolangir, Jajpur, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada, Nayagada, Puri, Rayagada and many other sites.

A.C. Sahu’s Jaina Religion and Art (1987) is another addition to the literature of Jainism in Odisha. The author while discussing about the religion and its associated reliquaries has given more emphasis to the vestiges in Udayagiri and Khandagiri and passing references to a few new sites. It suffers from making a holistic approach to the subject.

One of the pioneer edited religious works in Odisha is “Buddhism & Jainism” by H.C. Das and et al. Many authors contributed their paper on Jainism like J. Patnaik’s “Early Jainism in Kalinga”; P.K. Ray’s, “Buddhism and Jainism”; R.P.

Mohapatra’s “Tirthankaras and Sasanadevis of Khandagiri caves”; A.K. Rath’s “Jainism in Ancient Orissa” and G. Sahu’s “Jainism and its impact on the twentieth century” and so on. These articles mostly narrate about the Jaina religion in Odisha, its ethics and the antiquities of Udayagiri and Khandagiri hill only. No one has written about Jaina antiquities found in other parts of Odisha.

H.C. Das’s (ed.) “Cultural Heritage of Orissa” mostly deals with the monuments of medieval and modern period, dance, music, fairs and festivals, etc. Only ephemeral reference is made about Jainism by the author G.B. Patnaik in his article, “Religious Development in Orissa” in this book.

G.C. Chauley’s “Monumental Heritage of Orissa” is an important book which deals with the cultural heritage of Odisha. It provides a cohesive picture of art and architecture of Odisha and has also highlighted the major conservation problems in some of the monuments and their remedies carried out so far. The Chapter II of his book is dealt with the Jaina antiquities of Udayagiri and Khandagiri hill and gives fleeting reference to some of the sculptures of Keonjhar, Koraput, Jajpur and Cuttack. But, he is silent about the Jaina monuments of Subei and conservation problem of Jaina monuments in particular and the antiquarian remains found in the other districts of Odisha in general.

K.S. Behera’s “Sculpture Masterpieces from Orissa” is a remarkable work in the field of archaeology in Odisha. Though, he dealt with sculptural activity of the three major religions i.e., Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism spanning over thousands years in different parts of Odisha but gives more emphasis to the sculptural art of Hinduism. He only describes the iconographical details of few Jaina images found in Odisha.

Dr. B.K. Rath in his commendable work entitled, “The forgotten Monuments of Orissa” in three volumes listed all the notable buildings/ unprotected monuments constructed before 1939 which have significance in Indian history, architecture, archaeology and culture. He and his team made an extensive survey in different parts of the state and try to compile it in a certain format. The description of his work is not exhaustive in nature and gives only stray reference about the Jaina antiquities by writing the Tirthankaras name or Jaina image in certain places only. No details or no depth study about the Jaina antiquities was undertaken by him.

“Ancient settlement pattern in Orissa” by G.N. Srivastava is a work on settlement archaeology of Odisha in which he tried to provide substantial data for reconstructing a vivid picture of the social set-up pertaining to various ancient settlements. But his work is only confined to Bhubaneswar and its surrounding areas. He describes briefly about the Jaina settlement at Udayagiri and Khandagiri but silent about other important Jaina settlements found in Koraput, Jajpur and Balasore.

A.Ghosh’s three volumes of “Jaina Art and Architecture” have contributed immensely to enrich the Jaina philosophy, literature, art, architecture and iconography. Positively he tried to touch all the important Jaina sites, monuments and sculptures of different parts of the country. In case of Odisha, he vividly mentioned about Udayagiri and Khandagiri and gives only passing reference to the sculptures of Achutrajpur, Cuttack town, Charampa, Podasingidi and images kept in the Odisha State Museum. Besides, there are large numbers of Jaina heritage sites, structures and sculptures are also found in Odisha which are not demonstrated in his work.

The two commendable volumes of S. Nagar i.e. “Iconography of Jaina Deities” have provided indelible impression on the study of Jaina archaeology. This work immensely contributed to the Jaina religion, art and iconography. While discussing iconography of Jaina images he has only referred to the Jaina images of Udayagiri and Khandagiri as the standard iconographic details of Jaina images in Odisha. But, several Jaina images with varied iconographical features are also found in different parts of Odisha are not taken into account by him.

In the recent years several Jaina monuments and vestiges have come to light in different parts of the state. In this work, a humble attempt is made for scientific documentation and analysis for a better understanding of Jaina heritage of Odisha.