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Preface
Dr. K.C. Panigrahi, former Superintendent of Archaeology, Archaeological Survey of India and Professor of History, Berhampur University, Orissa, encouraged me to undertake the study of the caves of Udayagiri and Khandagiri hills for a Ph. D. thesis. On the basis of his able guidance I completed the said work in 1975 and was awarded with a Ph. D. degree from the Utkal University during the year 1976. In the said work I concentrated my study on the caves of Udayagiri and Khandagiri hills with special reference to the history of the caves, their description, architectural pattern, art tradition, iconography of the Jaina Tirthankaras and Sasanadevis and the society as depicted in the sculptures of the place. This study substantially added to the limited works of earlier scholars on Khāravela and his achievements based on inscriptional evidences.
During the period of the said work and in course of my survey of archaeological remains in different parts of Orissa I came across a number of Jaina images and ruined Jaina monuments. The evidences so collected became so vast that it again tempted me to prepare a comprehensive work on the Jaina monuments of Orissa in the light of the work earlier done by Dr. K.C. Panigrahi on the "Archaeological remains of Bhubaneswar" and Dr. N.K. Sahu on "Buddhism in Orissa." These two works have shown the modern trend of research on the archaeological heritage of Orissa especially in the field of Buddhist faith and Brahmanical religion. Dr. Sahu investigated a number of hitherto unknown Buddhist sites scattered in the length and breadth of Orissa and Dr. Panigrahi concentrated his study on the large number of Brahmanical temples and cult images of Bhubaneswar, the metropolis of Orissan cultural heritage.
But Jaina religion and the large number of its monuments have not been systematically surveyed nor any scientific work done on them. L.N. Sahu had made an attempt in this line and the result was his book “Odiśāre Jainadharma" in Oriya. This work made the scholars of Orissa acquainted with the Jaina relics and emphasised the fact that Jainism in Orissa was not lagging behind. He based his study on a large number of published English articles on the Hathi-Gumphā and other inscriptions of Udayagiri and Khandagiri and the descriptions of the caves earlier made by R.L. Mitra, Fergusson, R.D. Banerji and few others. However, in a small chapter and in the appendix he tried to indicate the availability of Jaina relics in the districts of Keonjhar, Koraput,
