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Jaina Monuments of Orissa
the main rock, thereby ensuring drainage. Weep-holes have been provided in cases where there is a chance of landslip in consequence of the rain water percolating through the surface and collecting in the soil below. Prinsep10 who was much impressed with the drainage system at this place wrote “The ingenious method which had been adopted to drain the chamber, which form the porous nature of the stone, would otherwise have dripped in wet weather, small grooves are cut along the ceiling all verging to one point at the lower corner where a perforation is made to conduct the water without". In cases where the mass of rock above the caves is enormous this system was not adopted but it gave satisfactory result in case of single storeyed verandahs. As indicated earlier the front of the verandah roofs have been rounded off and regular grooves undercut to throw rain water at a distance from the caves.
As most of the caves are designed on the uneven surface of solid rock access to them, is maintained through rock-cut steps. Large number of those steps have gone away with and in their places modern masonry steps have come up. Those which have enough space in front, these steps are cut across the entire length in one or more courses. Through these steps one can conveniently enter to the verandah of a cave. Access to the upper storeys is maintained through uneven surface with occasional narrow rock-cut steps. The minor scoopings excavated at different hieghts have not steps at all. A number of caves of both Udayagiri and Khandagiri have also been deprived off these steps in subsequent periods when massive quarrying operation took place at the site. The upper cells of Sarpa-Gumphā and Khandagiri-Gumphā are difficult to be approached as their front portions do not carry any arnasach.
Mañchapuri-Gumphā, Alakāpuri-Gumph, and Rāņi-Gumphā are often regarded as two-storeyed caves. In Alakāpusi-Gumphā the upper cell is somewhat above the heavily damaged lower cell. But in case of Mañchapuri-Gumpha and Rāņi-Gumphā, the upper storeys are designed much behind the cells of the lower wing. The upper part of Mañchapuri-Gumphā is known as Svargapuri-Gumphā whereas the different wings of the lower and upper storeys of Rāņi-Gumphā comes under one and the same name. R.L. Mitra, 11 while discussing the Rāni-Gumphā, observes, "The caves on the three sides are apparently two storeyed but in reality they are not so as the upper storey is so placed as not be right above the lower, but some way behind it. This arrangement obtains in most of the other two storeyed caves and its object evidently is to secure the greatest strength and stability by placing the caves always on solid rock, instead of perforated hollows. The soft, fragile, incohering texture of the stone rendered this precaution necessary, and we find that whatever it was neglected, the caves have suffered serious injury." In addition this practice of setting back the upper storey may have been introduced here for the very nature of the rock, which did not allow enough space for the upper storey to be built directly over the lower. The pattern of setting back the upper storey, much bchind the lower ones does not however indicate the ignorance of designing multistoreyed buildings by the architects. The representation of such a double
10. Prinsep, JAS, Vol. XII, p. 1079. 11. R. L. Mitra, The Antiquities of Orissa, Vol. II, pp. 8-9.
