According to Willis, Udayagiri's Hindu history long predates the 4th-century. It was a center of astronomy and Hindu calendar-related activity, given its sculptures, sundials, and inscriptions. These made Udayagiri a sacred space and gave it its name that means "sunrise mountain". It was likely first modified by the king Samudragupta in mid 4th-century. His descendant Chandragupta II reworked these caves a few decades later, to revitalize the Hindu king concept to be both the paramount sovereign ("cakravartin") and the supreme devotee of the god Vishnu ("paramabhāgavata"). This evolved the role of Udayagiri from it being the historic center for Hindu astronomy into an "astro-political node". Chandragupta II thereafter came to be titled as Vikramaditya – literally, "he who is the sun of prowess – in Indian texts, states Willis. According to Patrick Olivelle – an Indologist and a professor of Sanskrit, Udayagiri was important to the Gupta Hindu kings who were "polytheistic with remarkable tolerance" in an era where the popular religion was "basically henotheistic".