Kalinga Ancient Trade Routes

Ratnagiri, Lalitgiri and Udayagiri Buddhist complex

Strongly Supported Archaeology

Three hills in Jajpur district hold the ruins of large Buddhist monasteries. Monks lived, studied and kept relics here for well over a thousand years.

Three hills in Jajpur district hold the ruins of large Buddhist monasteries. Monks lived, studied and kept holy relics here. Some hills were used for well over a thousand years, from as early as 300 BCE [Pradhan, 2014, p.109].

Inside a stupa at Lalitgiri, archaeologists opened four caskets. Each sat nested inside the next: stone, soapstone, silver and gold. Together they held a sacred relic. This nested style is common in China but rare in Odisha [Pradhan, 2014, p.109].

At Ratnagiri, diggers found a carved image of a goddess. She was believed to save people from eight great dangers, shipwreck among them. Finding her so close to the coast suggests monks here prayed for sailors’ safety [Patra, n.d., p.111].

For scholars

This entry covers three separate hills, spaced five to ten kilometres apart. It is not one single site. No one hill was used for the entire span of time listed here. The original dig reports, from the 1950s and 1960s, were not read directly for this entry. No source used here gives an exact date for the goddess carving [Pradhan, 2014, p.109; Patra, n.d., pp.111, 116].

Facts

Site type
Buddhist monastic complex (three hill sites)
Coordinates
20.63°, 86.33°
[Pradhan, 2014]
  1. Atul Chandra Pradhan. *Situating Viraja Kshetra and Its Environs in the Odishan Historiography*. in Odisha Review. 2014
Modern name
Ratnagiri, Lalitgiri and Udayagiri, Jajpur district, Odisha
Excavated by
Archaeological Survey of India

Key finds

  • Four-layer relic casket from the Lalitgiri stupa

    Four caskets nested inside one another - khondalite, steatite, silver and gold - holding a relic. The arrangement is common in China and rare in Odisha.

    [Pradhan, 2014, p. 109]; [Patra, n.d., p. 111]
    1. Atul Chandra Pradhan. *Situating Viraja Kshetra and Its Environs in the Odishan Historiography*. in Odisha Review. 2014 , p. 109
    2. Sushanta Kumar Patra, Benudhar Patra. *Archaeology and the Maritime History of Ancient Orissa*. in Orissa Historical Research Journal XLVII. n.d. , p. 111

  • Astamahabhaya Tara sculpture from Ratnagiri

    An image of the goddess who saves people from eight great dangers, one of them shipwreck - a saint for sailors carved at a monastery close to the coast.

    [Patra, n.d., p. 111]
    1. Sushanta Kumar Patra, Benudhar Patra. *Archaeology and the Maritime History of Ancient Orissa*. in Orissa Historical Research Journal XLVII. n.d. , p. 111

  • Terracotta sealing naming the Ratnagiri monastery

    A clay sealing found in the dig reads 'Sri Ratnagiri Mahavihariya Arya Bhikshu Sangha' - the monastery's own name, in its own words.

    [Pradhan, 2014, p. 109]
    1. Atul Chandra Pradhan. *Situating Viraja Kshetra and Its Environs in the Odishan Historiography*. in Odisha Review. 2014 , p. 109

  • Kushana Brahmi inscriptions, a gold ring and silver ingots from Lalitgiri

    Writing of the Kushana centuries and worked precious metal, showing wealthy donors supported the monastery early on.

    [Pradhan, 2014, p. 109]
    1. Atul Chandra Pradhan. *Situating Viraja Kshetra and Its Environs in the Odishan Historiography*. in Odisha Review. 2014 , p. 109
Scholar notes

This is one entry for three separate hills about 5-10 km apart; the coordinates are Ratnagiri's. The period list spans Pradhan's brackets for all three (Lalitgiri from the 3rd century BCE, Ratnagiri from the 5th century CE, all ending about 1200-1300 CE), so no single hill was occupied throughout. Debala Mitra's ASI excavation reports (1958-61) were not read, and no source consulted here dates the Astamahabhaya Tara sculpture.

  1. Atul Chandra Pradhan. *Situating Viraja Kshetra and Its Environs in the Odishan Historiography*. in Odisha Review. 2014 , p. 109 (Lalitagiri, 'whose cultural sequence extends from 3rd century B.C. to 1200 A.D.'; a four-layer relic casket of khondalite, steatite, silver and gold. 'Sri Ratnagiri Mahavihariya Arya Bhikshu Sangha flourished from 5th century A.D. to 13th century A.D. on the Ratnagiri hillock (Lat. 20 deg 38' N)'.)
  2. Sushanta Kumar Patra, Benudhar Patra. *Archaeology and the Maritime History of Ancient Orissa*. in Orissa Historical Research Journal XLVII. n.d. , pp. 111, 116 (Gives Lalitgiri 20 deg 35' N / 86 deg 15' E, Udayagiri 20 deg 38' 45" N / 86 deg 16' 25" E, Ratnagiri 20 deg 38' N / 86 deg 20' E; the nested Lalitgiri caskets are 'a feature alien in Orissa but common in China'; an Astamahabhaya Tara, who protects sailors from shipwreck, came from Ratnagiri.)
  3. Sunil Kumar Patnaik. *Kankia-Radhanagar: An Early Historical Buddhist Settlement*. in Odisha Review. 2014b , p. 88 ('At a distance of 20 to 30 kms north-east of Kankia also have large Buddhist sites like Ratnagiri, Udayagiri, and Lalitgiri which all are excavated by Archaeological Survey of India in the recent past.')