Udaigiri Caves, Madhya Pradesh, India  (with Heliodorus column and Vidisha)

About five km from Vidisha are twenty Gupta cave shrines cut into a sandstone hill. Dating from 320 to 606 CE, two are Jain, the other eighteen Hindu; many still have carvings, sculptures, and inscriptions in Pali. A huge image of Vishnu in his boar incarnation adorns cave 5. The king Chandragupta II apparently had cave 7 cut out for his personal use. On the top of the hill lie the ruins of a 6th century Gupta temple. 

    [- Adapted from Lonely Planet India, 2003; Aug 05]

Road to Udaigiri caves	Udaigiri caves	Gupta-era temple remains	Narasimha
Cave entrance			Shivalingam
Udaigiri caves			Sculpture
Pali script	Snake	Discovered on a river bed	Vidisha museum
Udaigiri village			Raisen fort
Udaigiri village home			Heliodorus column ▒
Landscape	Landscape	Landscape	Landscape
Wildflowers	Betwa river	Betwa river ghat	Road kill