Place · rock-cut temple complex · India
Undavalli caves
Also known as Undavalli, Undavalli Caves, Vishnukundina caves
A four-storey rock-cut complex in the hillside above the Krishna opposite Vijayawada, cut in the Vishnukundina and early Chalukya period and holding a monolithic reclining Vishnu on the second floor. The lowest level is Buddhist in plan and the upper levels Brahmanical, in the same excavation.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 16.495, 80.568
Worth knowing
The reclining Vishnu is cut from a single block of the living rock rather than assembled, which is unusual at this scale. The caves sit directly across the river from Vijayawada's Kanaka Durga hill, so two of Andhra's oldest rock-cut sites face each other across the Krishna.
Connections (1)
- Site adjacencyKanaka Durgā, Vijayawāda
Undavalli's rock-cut halls and the Kanaka Durga temple on Indrakeeladri face each other across the Krishna at Vijayawada, and both were cut or founded in the same early medieval centuries. Undavalli's lowest storey is Buddhist in plan and its upper ones Vaishnava; the hill opposite is a goddess seat. The region's religious transition is legible across one river crossing.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Undavalli Caves”. Archaeological Survey of India, Andhra Pradesh circle notices; James Burgess, The Buddhist Stupas of Amaravati and Jaggayyapeta (1887), on the region's rock-cut sequence.
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