The Udayagiri Caves were first studied in depth and reported by Alexander Cunningham in the 1870s. His site and iconography-related report appeared in Volume 10 of "Tour Reports" published by the Archaeological Survey of India, while the inscriptions and drawings of the Lion Capital at the site appeared in Volume 1 of the "Corpus Inscriptionum Indicum". His comments that Udayagiri is an exclusively Hinduism and Jainism-related site, it being close to the Buddhist site of Sanchi and the Bhagavata-related Heliodorus pillar, and his dating parts of the site to between 2nd century BCE and early 5th century CE brought it to scholarly attention.