DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0064
42 EASTERN CAVES.
whether it was that in structural buildings of that age a wooden
or metal dagoba or relic shrine stood in a circular chapel, and they
copied that.2 But be that as it may, there seems no doubt that the
circular chambers in these two caves, were the sanctuaries which
contained the object to be worshipped, whatever that was, and
constituted their claim to rank as chapels, not residences.
The remaining two are so small and insignificant as hardly to
deserve notice, but one, the Vapiya or Well Cave, seems to have got
its name from a sacred well close by. It is a square cell with an
antechamber, and is attached to another, called the Vadathi, which
is the last of the series. General Cunningham seems to think there
was a Stupa, or some sacred edifice, erected in brick or stone above
these two caves, and that they formed only, as it were, its lower
storey.1 This on the whole seems so probable that it may be
adopted without hesitation, though it will only be by careful exam-
ination on the spot that it can be determined with certainty.
Though the caves of this group are among the smallest and the
least ornamented of any to be found in India, it still must have
required a strong religious impulse to induce men to excavate even
caves 30 and 40 feet in length in the hard granite rock, and to
polish their interiors to the extent that some of these are finished,
and all probably were intended to have been. Both internally and
externally, however, they are so plain that but for their inscriptions
we should hardly know to what age to assign them, were it not for
the fortunate circumstance that a facade was added to the Lomas
Rishi Cave. When it, however, is compared with the caves at Bhaja,
(woodcut No. 1), or with any of the pre-Christian caves of the western
side of India, it is found to possess all the more marked peculiarities
of their architecture. It has, as all the earlier caves have, the two
great posts sloping inwards, and supporting in mortices, on their
heads, the two great longitudinal ribs of the roof. It has, too, the
chamber at its inner end, like that in the Lomas Rishi cave, but in
it stands a stone roek-cut dagoba, certainly of the same age as the
cave itself. This makes it extremely probable that the Barabar
chambers were occupied by dagobas in wood or metal, but no
Scale 50 feet to other similar chamber is known to exist in the West. The
1 inch. circular chamber evidently is unmeaning, and its use was
No. 6- Kondiwte Cave, abandoned as soon as it was seen how much better the eare was
Salsette. .., ...
without it.
1 Reports, vol. i. p. 49.
whether it was that in structural buildings of that age a wooden
or metal dagoba or relic shrine stood in a circular chapel, and they
copied that.2 But be that as it may, there seems no doubt that the
circular chambers in these two caves, were the sanctuaries which
contained the object to be worshipped, whatever that was, and
constituted their claim to rank as chapels, not residences.
The remaining two are so small and insignificant as hardly to
deserve notice, but one, the Vapiya or Well Cave, seems to have got
its name from a sacred well close by. It is a square cell with an
antechamber, and is attached to another, called the Vadathi, which
is the last of the series. General Cunningham seems to think there
was a Stupa, or some sacred edifice, erected in brick or stone above
these two caves, and that they formed only, as it were, its lower
storey.1 This on the whole seems so probable that it may be
adopted without hesitation, though it will only be by careful exam-
ination on the spot that it can be determined with certainty.
Though the caves of this group are among the smallest and the
least ornamented of any to be found in India, it still must have
required a strong religious impulse to induce men to excavate even
caves 30 and 40 feet in length in the hard granite rock, and to
polish their interiors to the extent that some of these are finished,
and all probably were intended to have been. Both internally and
externally, however, they are so plain that but for their inscriptions
we should hardly know to what age to assign them, were it not for
the fortunate circumstance that a facade was added to the Lomas
Rishi Cave. When it, however, is compared with the caves at Bhaja,
(woodcut No. 1), or with any of the pre-Christian caves of the western
side of India, it is found to possess all the more marked peculiarities
of their architecture. It has, as all the earlier caves have, the two
great posts sloping inwards, and supporting in mortices, on their
heads, the two great longitudinal ribs of the roof. It has, too, the
chamber at its inner end, like that in the Lomas Rishi cave, but in
it stands a stone roek-cut dagoba, certainly of the same age as the
cave itself. This makes it extremely probable that the Barabar
chambers were occupied by dagobas in wood or metal, but no
Scale 50 feet to other similar chamber is known to exist in the West. The
1 inch. circular chamber evidently is unmeaning, and its use was
No. 6- Kondiwte Cave, abandoned as soon as it was seen how much better the eare was
Salsette. .., ...
without it.
1 Reports, vol. i. p. 49.