A ten-member team of Odishi dancers from California was overwhelmed with joy on Saturday, discovering the earliest depiction of fully developed dance form in stone in full costume, musicians and other accompanying artists at the Udayagiri caves, while taking part in the 5th Monks, Caves and Kings, the weekly heritage walk, in the twin hills.
The dancers, nine from the US and one from the UK are led by Revital Carroll, a dancer with 20 years of learning experience in Odishi, starting from eminent Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and later from Guru Bichitrananda Swain and now from Guru Sujata Mohapatra. Carroll is currently having her own dancing school for Odishi Rs Shakti Bhakti’ in USA and inspiring people to learn the classical dance form.
Rumy Narayanan, who is learning Odishi from Carroll at Shakti Bhakti in California and came to Odisha for the first time, said Temple City Bhubaneswar is a beautiful place where the ancient temple art is showcased amidst the modern development.
Ten young enthusiasts from the Xavier Institute of Managemnt, Bhubaneswar also took part in the walk. They not only enjoyed discovering the stories behind the rock-cut caves and also seeing the deep water body atop Udayagiri caves, they took a lot of selfies to freeze the moments in their cameras and smart phones.
Avichal, a student of XIMB said, “It was nice to know so many things from this heritage walk as we came across things like caves of monks, rock-cut art, rock art, beautiful carvings, man-elephants relationship and conflicts and several sociological angles of the ancient society.’’
The visitors were also surprised to see the rock-cut relief images of Jain Tirthankaras on the Khandagiri hills and also asked interesting questions to the guide for better understanding of the concept of caves and their societal role in Jain philosophy and how the monks were staying there, being isolated for days, months and years away from the human habitation. About 35 walkers joined the heritage walk.