DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0061
BARABAR GROUP.
39
Ko. 3. Facade of the Lomas Rislii Cave, from a Photograph.
Behar which admitted of direct comparison it might bo possible to do
so, but when these eastern caves were excavated, tho bold expedient
had not occurred to any one of sinking a cave at right angles to the
face of the rock, deep into its bowels, and leaving one end entirely-
open for the admission of light. All the Behar caves have their
axis parallel to the face of the rock, and their entrances are placed
consequently on one side, so as to act as windows to light their
interiors as well as for entrances. Another peculiarity of the eastern
caves is that no real woodwork was used in their decoration, while
all the early Chaitya caves in the west, were adorned with wooden
ribs internally, whose remains are to be seen at this day, and their
facades were, as at Bhaja, entirely constructed in teak Avood. It may
be that the roofs of the buildings copied in the caves at Behar were
framed in bambu, without wooden ribs, like the huts of the present
day, and consequently they could neither be easily repeated nor imi-
tated in the rock. But be this as it may, these differences are such
that no direct comparison between tlie styles adopted in the two sides
of India, could be expected to yield any very satisfactory results. It
is consequently fortunate that in Asoka's time, as we know from the
example at Bharhut, it was the fashion to inscribe everything. At
Bharhut there is hardly a single person, nor a Jataka, or historical
scene, which has not a name or a description attached to it, and this
seems also to have been the case with these caves. Before the time
39
Ko. 3. Facade of the Lomas Rislii Cave, from a Photograph.
Behar which admitted of direct comparison it might bo possible to do
so, but when these eastern caves were excavated, tho bold expedient
had not occurred to any one of sinking a cave at right angles to the
face of the rock, deep into its bowels, and leaving one end entirely-
open for the admission of light. All the Behar caves have their
axis parallel to the face of the rock, and their entrances are placed
consequently on one side, so as to act as windows to light their
interiors as well as for entrances. Another peculiarity of the eastern
caves is that no real woodwork was used in their decoration, while
all the early Chaitya caves in the west, were adorned with wooden
ribs internally, whose remains are to be seen at this day, and their
facades were, as at Bhaja, entirely constructed in teak Avood. It may
be that the roofs of the buildings copied in the caves at Behar were
framed in bambu, without wooden ribs, like the huts of the present
day, and consequently they could neither be easily repeated nor imi-
tated in the rock. But be this as it may, these differences are such
that no direct comparison between tlie styles adopted in the two sides
of India, could be expected to yield any very satisfactory results. It
is consequently fortunate that in Asoka's time, as we know from the
example at Bharhut, it was the fashion to inscribe everything. At
Bharhut there is hardly a single person, nor a Jataka, or historical
scene, which has not a name or a description attached to it, and this
seems also to have been the case with these caves. Before the time