Dhauli hills are located on the banks of the river
DayaThe Daya River starts as a branch of the Kuakhai River at Saradeipur in Orissa state in India. It is joined by the Malaguni River below Golabai and flows through Khordha and Puri districts before emptying into the north-eastern corner of Chilika Lake, km from its origin.The historically important...
, 8 km south of
BhubaneswarBhubaneswar is the capital of the Indian state of Orissa, officially Odisha. The city has a long history of over 2000 years starting with Chedi dynasty who had Sisupalgarh near present-day Bhubaneswar as their capital...
in
OrissaOrissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...
(
IndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
). It is a hill with vast open space adjoining it, and has major
EdictAn edict is an announcement of a law, often associated with monarchism. The Pope and various micronational leaders are currently the only persons who still issue edicts.-Notable edicts:...
s of
AshokaAshok Maurya or Ashoka , popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was an Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty who ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent from ca. 269 BC to 232 BC. One of India's greatest emperors, Ashoka reigned over most of present-day India after a number of military conquests...
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 WarThe Kalinga War was a war fought between the Mauryan Empire under Ashoka the Great and the state of Kalinga, a feudal republic located on the coast of the present-day Indian state of Orissa. The Kalinga war is one of the major battles in the History of India. Kalinga put up a stiff resistance,...
was fought.
The Rock Edicts found here include Nos. I-X, XIV and two separate
KalingaKalinga is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Tabuk and borders Mountain Province to the south, Abra to the west, Isabela to the east, Cagayan to the northeast, and Apayao to the north...
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's foreparts only, though it has a 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
BuddhaSiddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...
to devotees.
AshokaAshok Maurya or Ashoka , popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was an Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty who ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent from ca. 269 BC to 232 BC. One of India's greatest emperors, Ashoka reigned over most of present-day India after a number of military conquests...
had a special weakness for Dhauli, where the battle was fought. The
Daya riverThe Daya River starts as a branch of the Kuakhai River at Saradeipur in Orissa state in India. It is joined by the Malaguni River below Golabai and flows through Khordha and Puri districts before emptying into the north-eastern corner of Chilika Lake, km from its origin.The historically important...
is said to have turned red with the blood of the many deceased after the battle, and enabled Ashoka to realize the magnitude of horror associated with war. He saw to it that Dhauli became an important centre of Buddhist activities. He built several
chaityaA chaitya is a Buddhist or Jain shrine including a stupa. In modern texts on Indian architecture, the term chaitya-griha is often used to denote assembly or prayer hall that houses a stupa.-History:...
s,
stupaA stupa is a mound-like structure containing Buddhist relics, typically the remains of Buddha, used by Buddhists as a place of worship....
s and
pillarA column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces...
s 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 dazzling white peace pagoda has been built by the
Japan Buddha Sangha and the
Kalinga Nippon Buddha Sangha in the 1970s.
The nearby region also houses Ashokan edicts and possibly a
StupaA stupa is a mound-like structure containing Buddhist relics, typically the remains of Buddha, used by Buddhists as a place of worship....
at Bhaskareshwar temple at Tankapani road as argued by scholars.
The Dhauligiri hills also has an ancient
ShivaShiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...
temple which is the place for mass gathering during
Shiva RatriMaha Shivratri or Maha Sivaratri or Shivaratri or Sivarathri is a Hindu festival celebrated every year on the 13th night/14th day in the Krishna Paksha of the month of Maagha or Phalguna...
Celebrations.