Place · monastic complex & relic stupa
Lalitagiri
The oldest of the three Odishan sites, with brick monasteries, an apsidal chaitya and a hilltop stupa in which a casket of gold, silver and steatite was found in 1985 holding bone relics — the only relic deposit in Odisha that has been excavated intact.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 20.593, 86.245
Worth knowing
Kharoshthi-marked potsherds here point to contact with the north-west, and the sculpture runs from Kushan-period pieces to late Vajrayana — which makes Lalitagiri the site that shows the Odishan monasteries beginning, several centuries before Ratnagiri's great phase.
Connections (1)
- Trade routeTakshashilā / Taxila
Potsherds marked in Kharoshthi at Lalitagiri connect the Odishan coast to the north-west, where that script was used — which means the earliest phase of Odishan Buddhism was in contact with Gandhara and Taxila either by the coastal and riverine routes or by the Uttarapatha. The Kushan-period sculpture at the site points the same way, and it is the main evidence that the eastern coast was not a cul-de-sac.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Lalitagiri”. Xuanzang and Yijing’s accounts; Archaeological Survey of India excavation reports.
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