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CAVE ARCHITECTURE IN ORISSA
393
of the self-absorbed. Some such convictions, perhaps accentuated by the pressure of religious intolerance were largely responsible for extensive monastic establishments which flourished within these secluded mountain retreats.
The groups of caves in this part of India have no very intimate connection with those in the western part. The genesis and history of these caves are so very obscure that one is sure to be led astray in solving the difficult problem of their chronology.
There are in all some 35 excavations-large and small, but only half of them are of any significance. Some sixteen of these are in the Udayagiri, while there is only one of any importance on the Khaņdagiri. Apparently, laid out on no regular plan, they were evidently cut in convenient places and connected by paths still traceable :hrough the glades of trees.
All excavations of this group appear to have been made at the eve of the Christian era after which the production ceased, although on the Khaņdagiri a short revival took place as late as the mediaeval period when a few cells are added. M. M. Ganguli? opines that 'from palaeolithic consideration, it is apparent that many of the caves were excavated in the third and second centuries B. C., and we think we shall not be far from truth in dating some of the caves even in the fifth and fourth centuries B. C., i. e. before the period of the Hāthigumphā inscription."
1. Oringa and Her Remains, p. 32.
2. Mr. Ganguli is inclined to place the Hathigumphā inscription towards the close of the third century B. C., rather before Asoka Maurya ascended to the throne of Magadha (OHR, p. 49). This date is however not acceptable.
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