Heliodorus pillar

Udayagiri Caves

Twenty caves are cut into a hillside near Vidisha, and one relief alone justifies the stop: Vishnu as Varaha the man-boar, lifting the earth from the water with Bhudevi clinging to his tusk. The carving spans the early 3rd century to the 5th century CE and includes some of the oldest surviving Hindu iconography in India. Nineteen caves are Hindu, with inscriptions from 401 CE; the one Jain cave carries an inscription from 425. This is the only site that can be tied by its own inscriptions to a Gupta monarch. Rock shelters, petroglyphs, water systems and fortifications are scattered around the hill.