Udaigiri, Orissa

Accomodation

• Hotel Siddhartha

• Kenilworth Hotel

• Hotel Prachi

• Hotel Swasti.

How to reach there
Road: By rickshaw from Bhubaneshwar.

Location
Near Bhubaneshwar.

      Udaigiri caves occupy a fairly compact area around the south of the hill. Cave 1, the Rani Gumpha or "Queen's Cave", is tucked away around the corner. Its best sculpture is to be found over the pillars, arches and to the rear of the courtyard on the lower level, and across the back wall of the upper storey, where a long frieze shows rampaging elephants, panicking monkeys, sword fights and the abduction of a women.
     Nobody, as yet, has managed to string all these scenes into a coherent narrative, though some are thought to illustrate episodes from the life of Kalinga's King Kharavela. As you return along the same path, the first caves of interest are numbers 3 and 4 - a double-storeyed cave containing sculptures of a lion holding its prey, elephants with snakes wrapped around them and pillars topped by pairs of peculiar winged animals.
    Its popular name, Ganesh Gumpha, is not derived from the elephants in front of the cave, but from the appearance on the rear wall of the cell on the right of the elephant-heades Ganesh. From here, follow the path to the ledge at the very top of Udaigiri hill for good views and the ruins of an old chaitya hall. This was probably the main place of worship for the Jain monks who lived below and may even once have housed the legendary .