Unakoti rock carvings

Unakoti rock carvings are one of the finest rock carvings in the north east india , situated in the northern part of the Tripura . There is a interesting mythological story about the making of “one less than one crore sculpture ” in a single night . But archeologist think that this are made in the time of 8-9 th century but no patronage link can be found for those sculpture . This is mainly shivaite site but there is sculpture of different deity like ganesha and vishnu . Local tribal people worshiped this statues as God .

How to reach unakoti sculptures ?

Nearest airport to Unakoti are silchar and the Agartala airport . From there by road you can reach to Unakoti .

There is no train station in Unakoti so if you want to come to Unakoti , then you must have to use road transport . Nearest rail station for the Unakoti Sculpture is Dharmanagar . From here you can hire a taxi or shared van to reach ISBT Dharmanagar .

From ISBT Dharmanagar you can get shared Van to come here . Distance from the Dharamnagar to unakoti is 40 km and fare is 70 INR . Though you travel the distance from Dharmanagar to Unakoti but you will pay the fare of the journey up to Kailssahar .

They will tell you that , they don’t get enough passenger from the Unakoti . This is a small scam you have to tolerate . This journey takes more than 1 hour because the road was not in a good condition and it was mostly mountainous road . From where the van will drop you , it is almost 1 km to the rock sculptures .

unakoti story :

Methodologically there are two stories spread among the local people .

First story is , Once god Shiva with lots of other gods were going toward Kashi . In the meantime they rest in this area . Shiva says to the other gods that before sunrise they will wake up and start the rest of the journey . But in the next day morning , except shiva no other god can wake up . Shiva becomes furious and cursed other gods to become stone . That is the reason there is statue of ganesha , vishnu , Parvati , four faced linga , hanuman and other deity . People belive that here , in this mountain , there one less than a koti(crore) sculptures . From this reason this place is called Unakoti .

second story is that , once upon a time here lived a great sculpture and devotee of god Shiva . He made tapasya(meditation) to pleased Shiva . When Shiva pleased and want to give blessing . He said , He want to go to Kailash alive . First god reluctant to his idea but atlast shiva says that in one night if you can make 1 koti (crore) sculptur then you may come kailash alive .

So he started in full effort to make 1 koti sculptures . But it was seen that there is one less than one koti sculptures . So god vaished from that place and this sculptures stays there . For that reason this place is called Unakoti .

After finishing Udaipur I board a local train to reach Agartala . From there by a express train I reached Dharmanagar . In the morning i reached ISBT Dharmanagar . Suddenly someone said that , on that day may be Unakoti is closed . I have very bad experience on that issue .So I search in the google and it was showing that monday unakoti is closed . So I planned to return toward Hotel . On that car there was two senior couple . They also follow me and we are suppose to return back .

One of them asked a local tea seller to ask anyone in unakoti if today is closed or not . That tea shop owner calls two and three person and confirmed that today unakoti is not closed . So we returned toward the Bus stop . Finally reaching unakoti around 10 : 30 am . From that main road the actual site 1 km away .

Just before the gate there was lots of food stalls and handicraft shops selling different items . There was no ticket for entry but you have to write your details in the register . All the stone sculpture were spread in the different stages of the mountain . There was big statues of Parvati , shiva , vishnu and other deity . There was also statues which are preserved in a special room in the high mountain .

You can see a water stream is blowing in this place and some local tribal people worshiped here after taking a bath in this water . They belived this statues as gods . There is some statues of Ganesha in the form of elephant face .

Famous sculpture in Unakoti :

Summary :

Unakoti rock carvings were situated in the hills of Tripura . There was lots of mythological stories spread about the making of this rock carvings . But Archeologist think that this statues were build in the 8-9 th century . Entry to this site is free . Local people worshiped this carvings as god . This is one of the best , stone carving in India .