Ratnagiri
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Ratnagiri
(Lat - 200.38’N and Long- 860.20’E)
Ratnagiri on ‘the Hill of Jewels’, in the Birupa river valley in the district of Jajpur, is another famous Buddhist centre. The small hill near the village of the same name has rich Buddhist antiquities. A large-scale excavation has unearthed two large monasteries, a big stupa, Buddhist shrines, sculptures, and a large number of votive stupas. This excavation revealed the establishment of this Buddhist centre at least from the time of the Gupta king Narasimha Gupta Baladitya (first half of the sixth century A.D.). Buddhism had developed at this place - unhindered upto the 12th century A.D.
In the beginning, this was an important centre of Mahayana form of Buddhism. During the 8th-9th century A.D., this became a great centre of Tantric Buddhism or Vajrayana art and philosophy. Pag Sam Jon Zang, a Tibetan source, indicates that the institution at Ratnagiri played a significant role in the emergence of Kalachakratantra during the 10th century A.D. This is quite evident from the numerous votive stupas with reliefs of divinities of the Vajrayana pantheon. Separate images of these divinities and inscribed stone slabs, and moulded terracotta plaques with dharanis found in the excavation at Ratnagiri.
Presently this university of Buddhist learning is found in ruins that attract a number of visitors every year. For lovers of art and architecture, lay tourists as well as special groups, Ratnagiri offers in its magnificent ruins, a large brick monastery with beautiful doorways, cella, sanctum with a colossal Buddha figure, and a large number of Buddhist sculptures. There is a smaller monastery at the place along with a stone temple, brick shrines and a large stupa with numerous smaller stupas around.
How to Reach
Air : Bhubaneswar is the nearest airport, connected to most major cities in India.
Rail : Cuttack is the best railway station within easy reach, at a distance of 70 km from Ratnagiri and well connected with major stations across India.
Road : There are good roads from Cuttack, and direct buses run between the two places.
Rock art: geoglyphs and petroglyphs
2024: protected monuments
Chaitanya Marpakwar, August 12, 2024: The Times of India
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From: Chaitanya Marpakwar, August 12, 2024: The Times of India
Mumbai : In a major move towards conservation, state govt has notified geoglyphs and petroglyphs in Ratnagiri as ‘protected monuments’ under the Maharashtra Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1960. The group of petroglyphs at Deud, Ratnagiri, dates back to the Mesolithic era (roughly 20,000-10,000 years ago), according to a notification by culture department. Geoglyphs and petroglyphs are different types of ancient art forms, both involving the creation of images or designs on the earth’s surface or rock surfaces.
The petroglyphs depict a rhino, deer, monkey, donkey, and footprints, as per the notification. It said this group of petroglyphs in Konkan holds extraordinary importance as it represents the creations of Mesolithic humans; the total area around the monument to be protected is 210 sq metres. While seven — one 17-ft long — have been discovered in Umbarle village, Dapoli taluka, the eighth is in Borkhat village, Mandangad taluka. Clusters of geoglyphs are spread along 900 km of the Konkan coast in Maharashtra and Goa. Ratnagiri alone is home to more than 1,500 such artworks across 70 sites, seven of which are on the Unesco’s tentative World Heritage list.
“While most common rock art in India are in the form of rock paintings, rock etchings, cup marks and ring marks, the large concentration of geoglyphs on the laterite plateaus (Sada) in Konkan are unique and most remarkable open-air ensembles of prehistoric human expression... These are distinct concentrations of pictorial representations that include marine and riverine (life, as well as mammals), reptiles, amphibian and avian life which vanished from the region centuries ago,” the Unesco description states.
Conservationists have expressed concerns over a proposed oil refinery in Barsu, warning that it could damage the geoglyphs in the area.
Buddhism
Excavations/ 2024 December
Sujit Bisoyi, Jan 21, 2025: The Indian Express
A colossal Buddha head, a giant palm unearthed amid ASI excavation in Ratnagiri. What this means
Odisha’s links to Buddhism dates back to Mauryan Emperor Ashoka’s invasion of the ancient kingdom of Kalinga. But with ASI renewing excavation efforts in Ratnagiri, it has brought back focus on a site experts believe rivalled Nalanda as a centre of Buddhist learning.
Written by Sujit Bisoyi
Bhubaneswar, Updated: January 18, 2025 18:59 IST
In December [2024], when Archaeological Survey of India’s superintending archaeologist D B Garnayak and his team took up excavations at the 5th-13th Century Buddhist complex in Ratnagiri, in Odisha’s Jajpur district, after a gap of 60 years, their aim was two-fold – to uncover more of the complex and to find material evidence of the state’s link to the larger Southeast Asian culture.
So far, the mission has been partially successful – they have unearthed a colossal Buddha head, a massive palm, an ancient wall and inscribed Buddhist relics, all of which are estimated to date back 8th and 9th Century AD.
“The Buddha head was 3-4 feet tall and the palm was 5 feet,” says Sunil Patnaik, a Buddhist researcher and secretary of Odisha Institute of Maritime and South East Asian Studies who is part of the excavation team. “You can imagine the richness of the area from just this.”
The discoveries are significant, especially given Odisha’s historical relationship with Buddhism beginning with Mauryan Emperor Ashoka (304-232 BCE), one of Buddhism’s greatest patrons whose invasion of the kingdom of Kalinga – the ancient name for Odisha – led to him embracing the religion.
Located 100 km northeast of Bhubaneswar and part of the famous Diamond Triangle of Odisha along with Udaygiri and Lalitgiri, Ratnagiri – translated as the ‘Hills of Jewels’ – was first documented as a historical site in 1905. The site stands on a hill between Birupa and Brahmani rivers and is Odisha’s most famous — and the most excavated – Buddhist site.
The last excavations were carried out between 1958 and 1961, led by archaeologist Debala Mitra, who eventually became ASI’s director general. The efforts led to the discovery of many remains — including a brick stupa, three monastic complexes and over hundreds of votive and commemorative stupas.
According to Garnayak, the latest excavation aims at unearthing the partially visible structures and sculptures “and to find out if any shrine complex/chaitya complex — a sacred Buddhist assembly or prayer hall — as noticed in the neighbouring sites and to know the ceramic assemblage (a collection of pottery found at an archaeological site) of the site, which has not been addressed in the earlier excavations”.
“The effort is also to find evidence on the material culture (the aspect of culture studied through physical objects and architecture) of Southeast Asian origin or beyond, which has not been studied so far, and to understand the cultural framework of the colossal Buddha head from the site,” Garnayak told The Indian Express.
Odisha has long enjoyed maritime and trade links with Southeast Asian countries: according to historians, pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, silk, camphor, gold, and jewellery were popular items of trade between the ancient kingdom of Kalinga and Southeast Asia.
The state also annually holds Baliyatra, literally ‘voyage to Bali’ – a seven-day festival to commemorate the 2,000-year-old maritime and cultural links between Kalinga and Bali and other South and Southeast Asian regions such as Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Burma (Myanmar) and Ceylon (Sri Lanka).
Even though there was no evidence of Buddha visiting Odisha during his lifetime, Kalinga played a great role in popularising Buddhism, especially in Southeast Asia, because of its trade link with the region: experts believe that Tapassu and Bhallika, the two merchant brothers who became the first disciples of Lord Buddha, having their origins from Utkala, another ancient name of Odisha.
Mauryan Emperor Ashoka is believed to have invaded Kalinga in 261 BC but, deeply moved by the bloodshed in the war, he eventually embraced Buddhism, which he eventually helped spread not only to his own empire but also to Sri Lanka, and Central and Southeast Asia.
In Odisha, Buddhism is stated to have particularly flourished under the Bhaumakara dynasty, which ruled parts of the state in between the 8th and 10th Century.
Experts date Ratnagiri to the 5th and 13th Century, although the peak period of construction is dated between the 7th and 10th centuries. According to Thomas Donaldson, a former professor at Cleveland University who is a scholar in iconography and an expert in Odisha’s art and Buddhist sites, Ratnagiri rivalled Nalanda as a learning centre, with even some of the Tibetan texts even seen at the place where the Mahayana and Tantrayana (also known as Vajrayana that involves mystical practices and concepts) sects of Buddhism originated.
However, with the ASI eventually shifting focus on sites such as Lalitgiri, where the oldest Buddhist monastery in the state was found, the Ratnagiri excavation was put on the backburner.
Odisha and Southeast Asia Odisha and Southeast Asia
It was Garnayak who was instrumental in bringing the focus back to the site. This, he said, was because “several of the structures at the site were partially visible and merited excavation”.
According to scholars like Patnaik, the latest discoveries signified how Odisha — home to over 100 ancient Buddhist sites — was once a place of great Buddhist learning.
“The findings suggest that this place (Ratnagiri) was once a key Buddhism centre in ancient times. There are some studies that suggest that the renowned Chinese Buddhist monk and traveller, Hiuen Tsang, who visited Odisha, during 638-639 AD, might have visited Ratnagiri. The new excavations would shed light about the lifestyle, culture, religion, art and architecture at different times and also suggest whether there were more ancient (before 5th century) relics at the site.”
The excavations at Ratnagiri will continue for another month or two, officials said. “If the ASI will feel that there is a need for further excavations, steps will be taken accordingly,” one official says.
See also
Ratnagiri
