BHUBANESWAR
Main Attractions: Ashokan Rock Eddicts & Excavated Sites Of Dhauli
Language Spoken: Oriya
INTRODUCTION - HISTORY
Bhubaneswar
is essentially a town of Temples and tanks, with the majestic
Lingaraja
temples dominating the landscape for miles around. Though many of
the shrines have long succumbed to the destructive forces of nature,
standing ones of various sizes even now exist literally in hundreds. The
overwhelming sanctity of 'Ekamrakshetra' led the rulers and the ruled,
actuated by the hope of an eternal abode in heaven, to vie with one
another in embellishing the sacred place with temples of all dimensions.
The history of Bhubaneswar and its environs goes back much earlier than
the 7th century A.D., which first witnessed the feverish zeal of temple
building. It is one of the few places in India, which have the rare
distinction of having archaeological remains almost from the dawn of the
historical period down to the end of the Hindu rule.
The Ashokan Rock-Edicts
At
Dhauli
, 8-km, south of Bhubaneswar, one come across one of the earliest
inscribed records of India-a set of edicts of the great emperor Ashoka
(circa 272-36 B.C.) of the Mauryan dynasty. Incised on a rock with the
sculptured forepart of an elephant at the top, it contains eleven out of
the well-known set of Fourteen Rock-edicts found on the confines of his
empire.
The omission of the Thirteenth Edict here, as also at Jaugada (District
Ganjam), both in ancient Kalinga, is obviously deliberate, as that Edict
describes pithily the emperor's conquest of Kalinga, involving a great
carnage, captivity and misery of the people. This event was the
turning-point in the career of Ashoka, who henceforward, gave up his
ambition of 'Dig-Vijaya' (military conquest) in favour of 'Dharma-Vijaya'
(spiritual conquest).
In
place of the Eleventh, Twelfth and thirteenth Edicts, two special Edicts,
known as Separate Rock-Edicts, have been introduced: they are conciliatory
in tone, meant for the pacification of the newly-conquered people.
The forepart of the elephant, about 1.22 m. high, carved out of live
rock, symbolizes Budha, the 'best of elephants', as in this form the great
preacher was believed to have entered his mother's body. The animal, the
earliest sculpture in Orissa, though lacking in the characteristic Mauryan
polish, due apparently to the inferior quality of the rock, is noted for
its dynamic naturalism plastic treatment of bulky volume and dignified
bearing.
Though the centre of gravity shifted to Bhubaneswar proper in about the
7th century A.D., the neighbourhood of
Dhauli
was not entirely deserted, as is testified not only by an inscription,
recording the construction of a 'Matha' in the reign of the 'Bhauma-Kara'
king 'Santikara', in a small cave excavated on the face of a hill to the
north-west of Ashoka's edicts, and the ruins of a temple, built also
during the Bhauma-Kara period on the top of the same hill, but also by the
existence of a few the medieval temples at the foot of the Dhauli hill on
the bank of the Daya.
From the Separate Rock-Edicts of Ashoka it appears that Tosali was a
viceregal seat during his time. Though excavation in the immediate
vicinity of the inscription has failed to yield anything substantial,
extensive ruins of a fortified town have been unearthed at Sisupalgarh,
5-km. North-east of
Dhauli
and 2½-km southeast of Bhubaneswar, on the left side of the
Bhubaneswar-Puri road.
Excavation here revealed that the site had been in occupation from the
beginning of the 3rd century B. C. To the middle of the 4th century A.D.
and that its defences had been erected at the beginning of the second
century B. C. The layout of the city, roughly square on plan, protected on
all sides by a rampart, each of its sides over a kilometre long and
pierced with two elaborate gateways, is suggestive of a well-developed
civil and military architecture. The streamlet 'Gangua' (ancient
'Gandhavati'), flowing all around the rampart, served as a natural moat
with a perennial supply of water.
Though documentary evidence in favour of the identification of the Maurya
headquarters of Tosali with Sisupalgarh is wanting, the possibility of the
identification cannot be ruled out in view of the latter containing
antiquities that go back to the Maurya age.
Ancient Kalinga
Stronger evidence exists for Sisuupalgarh being the site of
'Kalinga-nagara', the capital of the 'Chedi' kings of the Mahameghavahana
family (second-first century B.C.), during whose time Kalinga was again an
independent kingdom, free from the yoke of Magadha. The Hathi-gumpha
inscription in the
Udayagiri
hill, 10-km northwest of Sisupalgarh of Kharavela (1st century B.C.) of
this dynasty, while furnishing details of his eventful career, credits him
with the repairs to the gates, walls and houses of the capital devastated
by a cyclone.
Now there is no fortified town of the period other than Sisupalgarh in
the neighourhood of the
Udayagiri
hill. Further, the excavation at Sisupalgarh actually revealed a collapse
of and subsequent repairs to its western gateway.
Influence
Of Jainism
Kharavela was a powerful ruler and launched Kalinga on a career of
conquest. He espoused the cause of
Jainism
, which was the established religion in Kalinga even before the rise of
the Mauryas, and brought back a Jain cult-object long taken away by the
'Nandas', the immediate predecessors of the Mauryas. Thus, under the royal
patronage of the Chedis the
Udayagiri
and Khandagiri hills became a strong Jaina centre.
Though
Buddhism
declined in Bhubaneswar with the growing influence of the Saiva Pasupata
sect,
Jainism
maintained its hold on these two hills even in the days of the Bhuama-Kara
and Somavamsi kings as attested by the inscribed records thereon.
The history of Bhubaneswar following Kharavela and preceding the rise of
the 'Sailodbhavas' in about the seventh century A.D. is extremely obscure.
Fortunately, it is not so obscure in the field of archaeology. As already
noted, Sisupalgarh continued to be in occupation till the middle of the
fourth century A.D. the finds from the site include the Kushana and
imitation Kushana coins, clay 'bullae' imitating Roman coins and a unique
gold piece having on the obverse a late Kushana motif with legends in
characters of the 3rd century A.D. and on the reverse a Roman head with a
Roman legend.
Roman contacts of Sisupalgarh are thus unmistakable. To the early
centuries of the Christian era also belong a few heavy 'Yaksha' and 'Naga'
statues, specimens of which are exhibited in the Orissa State Museum. One
life-sized pot-bellied Naga and two 'Nagi' sculptures can be seen under
worship in the village of Kapilprasad, 3 ¼-km. South of Bhubaneswar.
Standing against serpent-coils with a five hooded canopy above their
heads and decked in heavy ornaments, these freestanding statues,
representing folk-divinitiesm, share with other similar figures from
different parts of north India crude and primitive characteristics.
Though one cannot definitely assign any temple of Bhubaneswar to the
Gupta age, which saw the emergence of the characteristics of India
temple-types, as there exists no specimen of the initial formative stage,
still faltering due to an insufficient technique, a few architectural
fragments and sculptures- the latter mostly hieratic divinities like
Uma-Mahesvara, Kartikeya, Ganesa and Parvati- recall the Gupta art-idiom.
These pieces can sometimes be seen lying in the compounds of temples and
more often re-utilized in later temples. But it is difficult to be certain
about their date in view of the persistence, in Orissa, of the Gupta
art-idiom even in the post-Gupta period.
Yet, the sporadic finds of these detached sculptures and architectural
pieces are inadequate to bridge the gulf of six centuries following the
Chedi supremacy. When the pall of obscurity is lifted, the land fell under
the spell of Saivism. Its architects had given a distinct turn to the form
of the temples as evolved during the Gupta age and were already on the way
towards developing the north Indian temple-type known as "Nagara"
in the 'Silpa-Sastras' or canonical texts on architecture, along their own
lines- investing it with such distinctive peculiarities as ultimately won
for it a separate recognition under the name of the Kalinga Order.
Henceforward, art and architecture with a few exceptions were at the
absolute service of Saiva and Sakta cults till the ingress of Vaishnavism
in the 13th century A.D.
Though there may be some truth in the tradition recorded in Sanskrit
texts like the Ekamra-Purana that the Gauda king sasanka, a staunch
devotee of Siva, sho, according to epigraphical sources, conquered parts
of Orissa including Kongoda in the first quarter of the 7th century A.D.,
built the first quarter of the 7th century A.D., built the first Saiva
temple at the site of Tribhuvanesvara, the particular sect which brought
about transformation in the religion of the people and gave an impetus to
temple-building was the Pasupata sect, of which Lakulisa, a Saiva teacher,
was the organizer. The earlier temples of Bhubaneswar teem with the
representations of this deified teacher.
By the 5th century A.D. the sect seems to have established itself in the
Bhubaneswar region. The religion it had to combat was
Buddhism
, which seems to have been the prevailing faith at Bhubaneswar when it
came to the scene. This accounts for the great resemblance of the figure
of Lakulisa with that of Buddha: but for the lakuta (staff) the former
would easily be identified with the latter.
The
earliest group of the extant temples, of which the
Parasuramesvara
temple is the best preserved, was most probably built during the
rule of the Sailodbhavas who, in the first quarter of the 7th century
A.D., were feudatories to the Gauda king Sasanka, but soon after A.D. 619,
the date of the Ganjam plates of Sasanka, declared independence under
Madhavaraja II.
Though no temple bears any inscription dated in the reign of any of the
Bhauma-Kara rulers who followed the Sailodbhavas, it is clear from the
extant temples that the temple-building activity continued unabated during
their long rule. The Bhauma-Karas were succeeded by the Somavamsis.
The building activity was in full swing also under the Gangas, who
brought an end to the rule of the Somavamsis in about the beginning of the
12th twelfth century. One of the inscriptions on a wall of the jagamahana
of the
Lingaraja
temple records the grant by the Ganga king Anantvarman Chodaganga
(A.D. 1078-1150) of a village for the maintenance of a lamp in the temple
of Krittivasas (original name of Lingaraja) in A.D. 1114-15, presupposing
thereby not only the existence of the
Lingaraja
temple but Chodaganga's conquest of Bhubaneswar before that date.
Vaishnavism
The impact of Vaishnavism, which rose to prominence during the Ganga
supremacy, left its imprint not only on the second temple, the only
important Vaishnava temple at Bhubaneswar, but also on the personification
of the presiding deity of the
Lingaraja
temple as the combined manifestation of Hari and Hara. That Saivism
had to compromise with Vaishnavism is also apparent in the introduction of
a number of Vaishnavaq rites in the worship of Lingaraja. Further, a
figure of Garuda found place by the side of the bull on the votive column
in front of the bhoga-mandapa of the temple.
The rule of the Suryavamsi Gajapatis, who supplanted the Gangas in the
15th century A.D., is one of retrogression in the sphere of
art
and architecture at Bhubaneswar. The southern side of the ruined porch
leading to the 'Kapali-Matha' by the side of the 'Papanasini tank' has a
panel of elephant-riders with an inscribed label mentioning the
commander-in-chief of Kapilendra (circa a.D. 1435-70), the founder of the
Gajapati dynasty. It is likely that some temples like the Varunesvara on
the bank of the Papanasini tank were built during the reign of the
Gajapatis. These temples, together with the porch in question, are devoid
of any artistic merit.
