GANESH GUMPHA, Khandgiri - Udayagiri

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 28/03/2016

A man-made »cave temple« (rock-cut chamber used for religious purposes) in the (hill) Udayagiri. See –>Khandgiri - Udayagiri Caves. CAVE DESCRIPTION 1838: KITTOE, M (1838b) gives a nice line drawing of »Ganesh Gurbha Cave« (plate XL = 40, figure 1) and the tympanon / frieze (plate LXIII = 43). CAVE DESCRIPTION 1990: »The single-storeyed Ganesh Gumpha (10) is almost directly above the Rani ka Naur … the carvings here tell the same tale as in the lower level cave but are better made« (LONELY PLANET, India 1990: 596; 1993: 502; 1997: 540; 2001: 490; 2003: 496; LONELY PLANET, South India 2001: 245). CAVE DESCRIPTION 2005: »… the single-storey elephant-guarded Ganesh Gumpha (Cave 10), almost directly above the two-storey Rani ka Naur …« (LONELY PLANET, India 2005: 565; 2009: 649). CULTURAL HISTORY -- amusement & wild imagination: Heinrich LÜDERS (1904 edited 1973, 1905) ended up with interpreting a »Vergnügungshöhle« (amusement cave) or »pleasure resort« for sexual entertainment.