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Shanti Stupa at Dhauligiri

Buddha statue at Dhauligiri, Bhubaneswar

Dhauli hills are located on the banks of the river Daga, 8 km south of Bhubaneswar in Orissa (India. It is a hill with vast open space adjoining it, and has major Edicts of Ashoka engraved on a mass of rock, by the side of the road leading to the summit of the hill. Dhauli hill is presumed to be the area where Kalinga War was fought.

The Rock Edicts found here include Nos. I-X, XIV and two separate Kalinga Edicts. In Kalinga Edict VI, he expresses his concern for the "welfare of the whole world". The rock-cut elephant above the Edicts is the earliest Buddhist sculpture of Orissa. The stone elephant shows the animal foreparts only, though it has fine sense of form and movement. It has another significance, which is related to earth in form of an elephant, and to that extent, elephant probably represented the Buddha to devotees.

Ashoka had a special weakness for Dhauli, where the battle was fought. He saw it that Dhauli became an important centre of Buddhist activities. He built several chaityas, stupas and pillars there. He got abodes excavated for the recluse, instructions inscribed for officials, expounded the main principles of 'dandaniti' for the public, provided special status to his new kingdom including the stupas at Dhauli.

On the top of the hill a dazzing white peace pagoda has been recently built by the Japan Buddha Sangha and the Kalinga Nippon Buddha Sangha in the 1970s.

• Sachin Singhal: Orissa tourist road guide and political, Vardhman Publications, ISBN 81-8080-011-3
• Bimalendu Mohanty: Orissa yesterday, today and tomorrow, Nur Publishers Bhubaneswar, India, 2003. ISBN 81-883450-00-8