In
place of the Eleventh, Twelfth and thirteenth Edicts, two special Edicts,
known as Separate Rock-Edicts, have been introduced: they are conciliatory
in tone, meant for the pacification of the newly-conquered people.
The
forepart of the elephant, about 1.22 m. high, carved out of live rock,
symbolizes Budha, the 'best of elephants', as in this form the great
preacher was believed to have entered his mother's body. The animal, the
earliest sculpture in Orissa, though lacking in the characteristic Mauryan
polish, due apparently to the inferior quality of the rock, is noted for its
dynamic naturalism plastic treatment of bulky volume and dignified bearing.
Though the centre of gravity shifted to Bhubaneswar proper in about the 7th
century A.D., the neighbourhood of Dhauli was not entirely deserted, as is
testified not only by an inscription, recording the construction of a 'Matha'
in the reign of the 'Bhauma-Kara' king 'Santikara', in a small cave
excavated on the face of a hill to the north-west of Ashoka's edicts, and
the ruins of a temple, built also during the Bhauma-Kara period on the top
of the same hill, but also by the existence of a few the medieval temples at
the foot of the Dhauli hill on the bank of the Daya.
From the Separate Rock-Edicts of Ashoka it appears that Tosali was a
viceregal seat during his time. Though excavation in the immediate vicinity
of the inscription has failed to yield anything substantial, extensive ruins
of a fortified town have been unearthed at Sisupalgarh, 5-km. North-east of
Dhauli and 2½-km southeast of Bhubaneswar, on the left side of the
Bhubaneswar-Puri road.
Excavation here revealed that the site had been in occupation from the
beginning of the 3rd century B. C. To the middle of the 4th century A.D. and
that its defences had been erected at the beginning of the second century B.
C. The layout of the city, roughly square on plan, protected on all sides by
a rampart, each of its sides over a kilometre long and pierced with two
elaborate gateways, is suggestive of a well-developed civil and military
architecture. The streamlet 'Gangua' (ancient 'Gandhavati'), flowing all
around the rampart, served as a natural moat with a perennial supply of
water.
Though
documentary evidence in favour of the identification of the Maurya
headquarters of Tosali with Sisupalgarh is wanting, the possibility of the
identification cannot be ruled out in view of the latter containing
antiquities that go back to the Maurya age.
Ancient
Kalinga
Stronger
evidence exists for Sisuupalgarh being the site of 'Kalinga-nagara', the
capital of the 'Chedi' kings of the Mahameghavahana family (second-first
century B.C.), during whose time Kalinga was again an independent kingdom,
free from the yoke of Magadha. The Hathi-gumpha inscription in the Udayagiri
hill, 10-km northwest of Sisupalgarh of Kharavela (1st century B.C.) of this
dynasty, while furnishing details of his eventful career, credits him with
the repairs to the gates, walls and houses of the capital devastated by a
cyclone.
Now there is no fortified town of the period other than Sisupalgarh in the
neighourhood of the Udayagiri hill. Further, the excavation at Sisupalgarh
actually revealed a collapse of and subsequent repairs to its western
gateway.
Influence
Of Jainism
Kharavela was a powerful ruler and launched Kalinga on a career of conquest.
He espoused the cause of Jainism , which was the established religion in
Kalinga even before the rise of the Mauryas, and brought back a Jain
cult-object long taken away by the 'Nandas', the immediate predecessors of
the Mauryas. Thus, under the royal patronage of the Chedis the Udayagiri and
Khandagiri hills became a strong Jaina centre.
Though Buddhism declined in Bhubaneswar with the growing influence of the
Saiva Pasupata sect, Jainism maintained its hold on these two hills even in
the days of the Bhuama-Kara and Somavamsi kings as attested by the inscribed
records thereon.
The
history of Bhubaneswar following Kharavela and preceding the rise of the 'Sailodbhavas'
in about the seventh century A.D. is extremely obscure. Fortunately, it is
not so obscure in the field of archaeology. As already noted, Sisupalgarh
continued to be in occupation till the middle of the fourth century A.D. the
finds from the site include the Kushana and imitation Kushana coins, clay 'bullae'
imitating Roman coins and a unique gold piece having on the obverse a late
Kushana motif with legends in characters of the 3rd century A.D. and on the
reverse a Roman head with a Roman legend.
Roman
contacts of Sisupalgarh are thus unmistakable. To the early centuries of the
Christian era also belong a few heavy 'Yaksha' and 'Naga' statues, specimens
of which are exhibited in the Orissa State Museum. One life-sized
pot-bellied Naga and two 'Nagi' sculptures can be seen under worship in the
village of Kapilprasad, 3 ¼-km. South of Bhubaneswar.
Standing
against serpent-coils with a five hooded canopy above their heads and decked
in heavy ornaments, these freestanding statues, representing folk-divinitiesm,
share with other similar figures from different parts of north India crude
and primitive characteristics.
Though
one cannot definitely assign any temple of Bhubaneswar to the Gupta age,
which saw the emergence of the characteristics of India temple-types, as
there exists no specimen of the initial formative stage, still faltering due
to an insufficient technique, a few architectural fragments and sculptures-
the latter mostly hieratic divinities like Uma-Mahesvara, Kartikeya, Ganesa
and Parvati- recall the Gupta art-idiom. These pieces can sometimes be seen
lying in the compounds of temples and more often re-utilized in later
temples. But it is difficult to be certain about their date in view of the
persistence, in Orissa, of the Gupta art-idiom even in the post-Gupta
period.
Yet,
the sporadic finds of these detached sculptures and architectural pieces are
inadequate to bridge the gulf of six centuries following the Chedi
supremacy. When the pall of obscurity is lifted, the land fell under the
spell of Saivism. Its architects had given a distinct turn to the form of
the temples as evolved during the Gupta age and were already on the way
towards developing the north Indian temple-type known as "Nagara"
in the 'Silpa-Sastras' or canonical texts on architecture, along their own
lines- investing it with such distinctive peculiarities as ultimately won
for it a separate recognition under the name of the Kalinga Order.
Henceforward, art and architecture with a few exceptions were at the
absolute service of Saiva and Sakta cults till the ingress of Vaishnavism in
the 13th century A.D.
Though
there may be some truth in the tradition recorded in Sanskrit texts like the
Ekamra-Purana that the Gauda king sasanka, a staunch devotee of Siva, sho,
according to epigraphical sources, conquered parts of Orissa including
Kongoda in the first quarter of the 7th century A.D., built the first
quarter of the 7th century A.D., built the first Saiva temple at the site of
Tribhuvanesvara, the particular sect which brought about transformation in
the religion of the people and gave an impetus to temple-building was the
Pasupata sect, of which Lakulisa, a Saiva teacher, was the organizer. The
earlier temples of Bhubaneswar teem with the representations of this deified
teacher.
By
the 5th century A.D. the sect seems to have established itself in the
Bhubaneswar region. The religion it had to combat was Buddhism , which seems
to have been the prevailing faith at Bhubaneswar when it came to the scene.
This accounts for the great resemblance of the figure of Lakulisa with that
of Buddha: but for the lakuta (staff) the former would easily be identified
with the latter.
The
earliest group of the extant temples, of which the Parasuramesvara temple is
the best preserved, was most probably built during the rule of the
Sailodbhavas who, in the first quarter of the 7th century A.D., were
feudatories to the Gauda king Sasanka, but soon after A.D. 619, the date of
the Ganjam plates of Sasanka, declared independence under Madhavaraja II.
Though
no temple bears any inscription dated in the reign of any of the Bhauma-Kara
rulers who followed the Sailodbhavas, it is clear from the extant temples
that the temple-building activity continued unabated during their long rule.
The Bhauma-Karas were succeeded by the Somavamsis.
The
building activity was in full swing also under the Gangas, who brought an
end to the rule of the Somavamsis in about the beginning of the 12th twelfth
century. One of the inscriptions on a wall of the jagamahana of the
Lingaraja temple records the grant by the Ganga king Anantvarman Chodaganga
(A.D. 1078-1150) of a village for the maintenance of a lamp in the temple of
Krittivasas (original name of Lingaraja) in A.D. 1114-15, presupposing
thereby not only the existence of the Lingaraja temple but Chodaganga's
conquest of Bhubaneswar before that date.
Vaishnavism
The
impact of Vaishnavism, which rose to prominence during the Ganga supremacy,
left its imprint not only on the second temple, the only important Vaishnava
temple at Bhubaneswar, but also on the personification of the presiding
deity of the Lingaraja temple as the combined manifestation of Hari and
Hara. That Saivism had to compromise with Vaishnavism is also apparent in
the introduction of a number of Vaishnavaq rites in the worship of Lingaraja.
Further, a figure of Garuda found place by the side of the bull on the
votive column in front of the bhoga-mandapa of the temple.
At
Dhauli , 8-km, south of Bhubaneswar, one come across one of the
earliest inscribed records of India-a set of edicts of the great
emperor Ashoka (circa 272-36 B.C.) of the Mauryan dynasty. Incised on
a rock with the sculptured forepart of an elephant at the top, it
contains eleven out of the well-known set of Fourteen Rock-edicts
found on the confines of his empire.The omission of the Thirteenth
Edict here, as also at Jaugada (District Ganjam), both in ancient
Kalinga, is obviously deliberate, as that Edict describes pithily the
emperor's conquest of Kalinga, involving a great carnage, captivity
and misery of the people. This event was the turning-point in the
career of Ashoka, who henceforward, gave up his ambition of 'Dig-Vijaya'
(military conquest) in favour of 'Dharma-Vijaya' (spiritual conquest).
