Category:Udayagiri Caves, Madhya Pradesh, Cave 6

The Udaygiri Cave 6 near Vidisha is also called the Sanakanika cave, because of the notable Sanskrit inscription by Sanakanika tribal chief with an inscribed date of 402 CE.

The Cave 6 is one of the most notable rock-cut shrine at the Udayagiri site. It had a 6 feet by 24 feet mandapa-like structure in the front, reliefs on the left and right walls of the mandapa as well as on the doorway wall of the sanctum (inner cave). It also has another excavated side cave on the right wall. The sanctum is 14 feet deep and 12.5 feet wide. The doorway is also carved and has three sakhas (parallel bands). Above the doorway are three small gavaska-like motifs likely a side projection of barrel vault-roofed temples that existed in central India before 400 CE.

The Cave 6 has important and oft cited sculptural panels. These include

• the Ganesha – one of the oldest in ancient India,
• the Durga Mahishasuramardini – one of oldest artwork of her from ancient India,
• the much damaged and eroded Saptamatrikas – the oldest known relief of mother goddesses in India (a part of this panel is lost),
• two iconography for Vishnu, and two river goddesses with iconography that is different than the standards that emerged later in the 5th-century.

Cave 6 has a Sanskrit inscription which helps date this cave to 402 CE. This inscription is special because it provides lineage information for the Sanakanika tribal kingdom. When studied in the context of other epigraphical evidence about Sanakanika found elsewhere, the Cave 6 inscription provides evidence that the central Indian Sanakanika tribal kingdom had adopted Hinduism at least by the 3rd century CE, as the tribal chief states his father's name as king Vishnudasa (lit. "servant of Vishnu"). The inscription also states that Sanakanika built this cave shrine for Sambhu (Shiva).

The Cave 6 is also significant for establishing that ancient Hinduism reverentially included all three major traditions – Vaishnavism, Shaivism and Shaktism – together in the same shrine and site by 400 CE.