Ratnagiri (The Hill of Jewels) is a famous Buddhist monument in the Birupa river valley in Jajpur district. The Ratnagiri hill is bounded on three sides by the rivers Birupa, Kimiria and Brahmani rivers.
The small hill near the village of Ratnagari has very rich Buddhist antiquity. A series of large-scale excavations (under Debla Mitra of the Archaeological Survey of India between 1958 and 1961) have brought to light the remains of magnificent Buddhist establishments consisting of stupas, two monastic complexes , temples, hundreds of votive stupas, myriad of sculptures which are aptly comparable to the well-known Buddhist site of Nalanda.
What Prof. Thomas Eugene Donaldson says……
World renowned scholar of iconography and writer of many books Prof Thomas Eugene Donaldson of Cleveland University who wrote many books on History of Odisha. According to him Ratnagiri was a rival to Nalanda as a site of Buddhist learning. He also mentioned in his book that there are many Tibetan texts regarding to Mahayana and Tantrayana Buddhism also originated from Ratnagiri.
The Buddhist center is believed to have been established since the time of Gupta king Narasimha Gupta Baladitya (first half of the sixth century A.D.). Buddhism developed steadily in this place until the thirteenth century A.D.
In the second photo, the iron clamps binding the rocks are distinctly visible … so it can be interpreted that those ancient artisans were aware of rock binding technology. Maybe they were pouring molten iron into the desired holes on the rock surface (which they were deliberately making on the rock surface). Once the molten iron clamp gets hardened, two different rock pieces remains one for all time to come, because of the rust less iron clamps.
A rich collection of small brass and copper objects has also been discovered in Ratnagiri. Objects have special significance especially because of the techniques demonstrated in their execution. These were made in the process of “cire perdue (lost wax)”. Ratnagiri, like other contemporary Buddhist centers, probably had a casting center for metal sculptures. These are in line with the brass objects discovered from Nalanda and Jharwari in Bangladesh on the stylistic ground. The long 800-year-old iron beams housed in the vicinity of the Konark Sun Temple are also noteworthy in this context.
It is important to note that from all these studies, it can be concluded that…. in addition to stone, iron beams and clamps have been used in the construction of monasteries and temples. Therefore, the use of iron ore and the metallurgical treatment of their crude metals were well known to all those ancient artisans more than 1000 years ago.
which is very peculiar to sculptures found in Ratnagiri Odisha
