DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0057
36 INTRODUCTION.
details were derived from some "wooden or brick original, and whose
forms were designed for some wholly different application, without
the least reference to their being executed as monoliths in the side
of a hill. Notwithstanding these defects, however, there is an
expression of grandeur, and of quasi eternity, in a temple cut in the
rock, which is far greater than can be produced by any structural
building of the same dimensions, while the amount of labour evidently
required for their elaboration is also an element of greatness that
never fails to affect the mind of the spectator. Taken by themselves
it may be true that the later series of caves, notwithstanding
their splendour, are hardly equal in interest to the earlier ones, not-
withstanding their simplicity. It is, however, when looked at as a
whole, that the true value of the complete series of rock-cut temples
in India becomes apparent. From the rude Pippala cave at Rajgir in
which Buddha sat to meditate after his mid-day meal, to the latest
Jaina caves in the rock at Grwalior, they form a continuous chain of
illustration, extending over more than 2,000 years, such as can
hardly in its class be rivalled any where or by any other nation. It is
too, infinitely more valuable in India than it would be in any country
possessing a literature in which her religious forms and feelings
and her political history had been faithfully recorded, in other
forms of expression. As in India, however, the written record
is so imperfect, and so little to be relied upon, it is to her Arts,
and to them only, that we can turn to realise what her position
and aspirations were at an earlier age; but this being so, it is
fortunate they enable us to do this in a manner at once so complete
and so satisfactory.
details were derived from some "wooden or brick original, and whose
forms were designed for some wholly different application, without
the least reference to their being executed as monoliths in the side
of a hill. Notwithstanding these defects, however, there is an
expression of grandeur, and of quasi eternity, in a temple cut in the
rock, which is far greater than can be produced by any structural
building of the same dimensions, while the amount of labour evidently
required for their elaboration is also an element of greatness that
never fails to affect the mind of the spectator. Taken by themselves
it may be true that the later series of caves, notwithstanding
their splendour, are hardly equal in interest to the earlier ones, not-
withstanding their simplicity. It is, however, when looked at as a
whole, that the true value of the complete series of rock-cut temples
in India becomes apparent. From the rude Pippala cave at Rajgir in
which Buddha sat to meditate after his mid-day meal, to the latest
Jaina caves in the rock at Grwalior, they form a continuous chain of
illustration, extending over more than 2,000 years, such as can
hardly in its class be rivalled any where or by any other nation. It is
too, infinitely more valuable in India than it would be in any country
possessing a literature in which her religious forms and feelings
and her political history had been faithfully recorded, in other
forms of expression. As in India, however, the written record
is so imperfect, and so little to be relied upon, it is to her Arts,
and to them only, that we can turn to realise what her position
and aspirations were at an earlier age; but this being so, it is
fortunate they enable us to do this in a manner at once so complete
and so satisfactory.