Udaigiri Caves

Madhya Pradesh - The Heart of Incredible India

 

MightyHikers

 

Udaigiri Caves

LOCATION: Udaigiri Caves (6.5 km from Vidisha, 9.4 kms from sanchi station, 60 kms from Bhopal, 382 km from Gwalior and 320 km from Khajuraho).

BEST TIME TO VISIT: September to December or you can travel any time throughout year.

Udayagiri caves contain 20 caves, or that is what the board at the entrance read.

Of these 20 caves, I could see only about 5 or 6 in a good state. And the most important one was that of the Varaha statue. These caves are believed to be from the Gupta period. The inscriptions found in and around the caves read out so, and there are figurines in the caves too, which are from the Gupta period.

It is such a stark difference with Sanchi Stupa. One so well maintained, everything is intact, a lot of people crowding around the place, and the other is pretty much in ruins, nobody to take care of, hardly anyone there to explore these caves. Both of them come from around the same period. I walked up gingerly to the gates. A cow that looked lost from her herd walked out of the gates. To my left was the Varaha statue, and it was a different gate. It immediately grabbed my attention, and I ran towards that cave.

Story of Lord Varaha

 

The Varaha statue is not really in a cave. It is a bit covered on the top, but it is not like walking into a cave. The whole picture or the scene of Varaha is etched on the wall, and it takes your breath away.

Lord Varaha is one of the avatars of Lord Vishnu. The story goes that the demon Hiranyakasipu is tormenting mother Earth, and the Earth has been pushed down to the paadaala Loka .

Now the demon had obtained a boon from Lord Brahma that he cannot be killed by men or animals or birds and lists various things that he cannot be destroyed by. And in that pride, he started to torment all the living things on Earth and the Earth Herself. Not able to see the pain, Vishnu takes the avatar of Varaha, a boar. The boar then takes an enormous size to rescue Earth, fights with Hiranyakasipu, and pulls Earth from the deep waters.

So you can see Her hanging on to His tusk as She is pulled out of Her misery. And she marries Her rescuer. In Hindu mythology, she is addressed as Bhudevi.

You can see the representation of the Varaha avatar in many temples and monuments. Either he is seen sitting with Bhudevi on His lap, or sometimes He is seen standing, and She will be on His shoulders. But I have never seen quite as elaborate one as that I have seen in Udayagiri caves.

The tall standing figure is Lord Varaha. You can see a lady figure hanging onto His tusk, and that is Mother Earth. Then near his feet to the left is half of Narada that can be seen. To the right is Adiseshan, the serpent God that guards lord Vishnu. Next to the serpent figure is believed to be the king from the Gupta period and his minister. To the rightmost, you can see a tiny figure with folded hands, and that is the ocean, cause the whole commotion happens in the ocean. At the top, you can see various sages and angels feeling happy about the ending.

There are other figurines to the right side of the cave, too, which wouldn’t get into the frame. I sat there watching the beauty of this scene. So very lifelike and what a beautiful piece of work. He is God, and it is a statue and all that, but look at those muscles carved out!!

It looks like he is standing right there. So, I went around taking pictures of Him from various angles.

While I was thus lost in the handsomeness, the caretaker of the caves walked in. He had the key to some more caves and was ready to take us around. Walking further to the left of Varaha were three or four caves, all denoting Shaivism.

This is probably the first place that I have seen a face on Lingam. The caretaker was not aware of the significance. I Am not sure if it is the Ardhanareeswaran form (half Shiva and half Shakthi) or it is just the face of Shiva on Lingam. Whatever it is, the statue was beautifully smiling at me, and I smiled back. I wonder who the sculptor is, for his work is just awesome.

There is also a cave for Lord Skanda, popularly known as Lord Murugan in South India and Lord Karthik in the North. But the hands were gone, and no other symbols were there to say so.

Other Caves in Udayagiri Hill

 

We walked further up the Varaha cave. There were steps at some points, and there weren’t at some places. And some of the caves have been excavated so that you can manage to stand on the ledge, watch and move. The next biggest cave was that of Lord Vishnu sleeping on Adiseshan. This posture of him is called Anantasayanam, meaning blissfully sleeping/resting. This one was huge too. Maybe about 5 to 6 ft in length. Taking a picture of this beautiful statue was a little tricky, and I just managed to take what I could. Some of the caves above this one were just empty or with inscriptions, and so it was kept locked.

There was a trail going further up, and we decided to walk up the trail in search of caves. Wiki said there is a Jain cave too and so we thought let us go looking for it. There were even steps at a certain point, and we thought we were heading in the right direction. But those steps did not lead us anywhere, and we decided to sit atop the hill and enjoy the view.

There seemed to be caves and steps to the far end of another side, but it looked far, and after a tiring day, I did not have the zeal to walk till there.

This was not a solo trip, and I had my friend along. If not, I would have checked out the lower caves and would have walked out. There was none around. As the sun went down, two or three couples walked in to find a spot to make out.

How to Reach Udaigiri Cave:

By Road

Bhopal-Kanpur NH-146 via passing Sanchi-Vidisha-Sangar . the distance from Vidisha to Bhopal is 60 k.m. State High way 19 Vidisha to Ashok Nagar ,Udaigiri Village is 7 k m from citiy Vidisha.

By Train

19 km from Vidisha Railway Station is situated on main Railway Track Delhi to Mumbai and Delhi to Hyderabad . up and down train passing from Vidisha.

By Air

Vidisha is situated at the middle of Madhya Pradesh and it is very near Capital of Bhopal , Vidisha is approachable from either side by road and rail links. Bhopal (65 Kms) is the nearest airport, which is connected to Delhi, Mumbai , Hyderabad and Udaipur .The taxi-ride takes about 1-2 to reach Bhopal from Vidisha.