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AN EARLY HISTORY OF ORISSA mentions :- 'Of the whole series, the oldest is the Hāthigumphā, a natural cavern enlarged by artificial cutting, on which is engraved the Khāravela's inscription.' The next cave fixed in chronological position is the Mañchapuri. It possesses two storeys, the lower consisting of a pillared verandah with chambers hollowed out at the end. It is in the upper storey of this cave that the inscription of Khāravela's Queen in incised, . while in the lower are short records stating that the main and side chambers were the works respectively of Vakradeva, the successor apparently of Khāravela ånd of prince Vadukha.
It may be presumed, therefore, that the upper storey is the earlier of the two. The rail pattern which one adorned the broad band of rock between the two storeys is now all obliterated, but in the ground floor verandah is a well-preserved frieze which confirms by its style what the inscriptions might otherwise lead us to suppose, namely that next to the Hāthigumphā, this was the most ancient cave in the two groups. Campared with some of the reliefs of the sculptures in the locality, they are of poor coarse workmanship, but in the depth of the relief and plastic treatment of the figures, they evince a decided advance on the work of Bharhut, and unless it be that sculptures, in this part of the country, had undergone an earlier and independent development, it is safe to affirm that they are considerably posterior to the sculptures of Bharhut.
Stella Kramrisch' writing on the art in the Udayagiri. Khaņdagiri caves says :-The style of the Mañchapuri cave reliefs puts them right at the beginning of artistic activities in the rock-cut caves of Orissa. Here, the figures are animated considerably. This animation playful and
1. OBI, pp. 307f,
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