While several options are there to welcome the New Year in style, a group of management students from the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB) joined the 4th heritage walk at Udayagiri and Khandagiri hills titled ‘Monks, Caves and Kings’ under the Ekamra Walks programme.
The team of XIMB students included Prasad Khole, Sashwatha S, Deepayan Pattnaik, Purvi Mehta and Prashant Sharma. They enjoyed the every minute they spent at the historic site, which has predominant influence of Jain religious beliefs and as per the inscriptions the site was at its best during the rule of Kharavel, who had built a huge empire and especially dominated the Eastern part of India.
The students of India’s one of the top 10 B Schools, however, were also surprised to know that the caves do not stand testimony to the influence of the Jain rulers, but many caves in Udayagiri were existing from the pre-historic era and to support it there are beautiful cave art, which were discovered much recently, in 2008 by Professor Sadasiba Pradhan, former History Professor of Utkal University.
“The city has got a huge historical background and it has also a tremendous influence of three major religious beliefs i.e. Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism and we must explore how the city has evolved through the ages since the time when it was called Ekamra Kshetra,’’ explained student Deepayan Pattnaik.
