Just a few photos of the 3rd c BC elephant sculpture at Dhauli, a few kilometers south of Bhubaneswar. This elephant emerging out of the stone was sculpted out of the top of the rock on which are inscribed Ashoka’s famous edicts. This rocky outcrop, and the nearby Dhauli hill, are situated near the battlefield where Ashoka renounced violence and turned towards Buddhism.

Elephant sculpture (the walls of the enclosure housing the Mauryan inscriptions can be seen in the first photo)

The Shanti Stupa on top of Dhauli hill built in the 1970s by the Japanese to commemorate Ashoka’s conversion to Buddhism