File:2nd to 1st century BCE Rani Gumpha Upper Level, Udayagiri Jain caves, Odisha.jpg

English: This is a JPEG format plan and architectural drawing of a historic Indian temple or monument. An alternate SVG format (scalable vector graphics) version of this file – for web graphics, design studies, print, dynamic and interactive applications – has also been uploaded to wikimedia commons.

The drawing:

• Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves are co-located in the southwest part of Bhubaneswar. The Udayagiri features 18 caves, while Khandagiri has 15 caves. Of these, the Rani Gumpha is the largest and most richly carved of the Udayagiri caves.

• They were a part of ancient Kalinga, much of which is now the coastal state of Odisha. Scholars disagree on their chronology, most placing most of the caves between 2nd century BCE to 1st century BCE. These caves remained significant and in use through about the 11th-century CE. Over this period, additional reliefs and inscriptions were added to these caves, mostly of Jaina and some such as Ganesha which overlap Jaina and Hindu iconography.

• The floor plan above shows a level of the two storeyed Rani Gumpha. It is remarkable for the artwork and details carved, as well as being one where no Tirthankaras are depicted. This is in contrast with many other caves in this collection where Tirthankaras, each with their distinctive icons, are shown. This among other qualities and capabilities of this cave has led some scholars such as C. Thomas Ault to propose that the Rani Gumpha was an acoustical theatre in ancient India, while the other caves were residences of monks (C. Thomas Ault et al, The Rani Gumpha: A 2nd century B. C. acoustical theatre in India, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 106, 2227 (1999)).

• The cave's architectural plan is similar to ancient caves found in other parts of India.

• GPS location of the monument:

  20° 15′ 45.5″ N, 85° 47′ 09.9″ E

  View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap

  20.262639; 85.786083

• The relative scale and relative dimensions in this architectural drawing are close to the actual but neither exact nor complete. The plan illustrates the design and layout, but some intricate details or parts of the temple may not be shown. In cases where exact measurements were not feasible, the drawing uses best approximations and rounds the best measurements feasible. This drawing uses, in part, the plan measurements and related work of R.L. Mitra published in 1880, and republished in 1910 by James Fergusson in the History of Indian and Eastern Architecture, pages 12–14.

• For a more recent secondary source and a review of scholarship, see: Ramesh Mohapatra (1981), Udayagiri and Khandagiri Caves.

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