DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0067
BAJGIR.
45
accounts of Megasthenes was an important city in the days of his
grandfather Chandragnpta. At the same time, any ecclesiastical
establishments that might have been attracted by the sanctity
of the place, mast have been transferred to Nalanda, between 6 and 7
miles due north from the new city, where there arose the most
important monastic establishment connected with Buddhism that, so
far as we know, ever existed in India.1 Fortunately for us Hiuen
Thsang has left us a glowing description of the splendour of its
buildings, and of the piety and learning of the monks that resided
in them. With this, however, we probably must remain content,
inasmuch as some excavations recently undertaken on the spot
have gone far to prove that all the remains now existing belong to
buildings erected during the supremacy of the Pala dynasty of
Bengal (765 to 1200 a.d.). The probability is that all the viharas
described by Hiuen Thsang were erected wholly in wood, which
indeed we might infer from his description, and that the monastery
was burnt, or at least destroyed, in the troubles that followed the
death of Siladitya in 650 a.d.,2 and they consequently can have no
bearing on the subject we are now discussing.
Under the circumstances above detailed leading to the early deser-
tion of Rajgir, it would of course be idle to look now for any extensive
remains of the buildings, if it ever had any, in stone or any permanent
material, and equally so to expect any extensive rock-cut Viharas or
Chaitya caves in the immediate vicinity of such an establishment as
that at Nalanda. Practically we are reduced for structural buildings
to the Jarasandha-ka-Baithak, above described (woodcut No. 2), and
for rock-cut examples to one cave, or rather pair of caves, known
as the Son Bhandar or Golden Treasury.
The larger of these two caves is very similar in plan to the
Kama Chopar cave at Barabur and nearly of the same dimensions,
being 34 feet by 17 feet.3 Its walls are perfectly plain to the height
of 6 feet 9inches, and thence rise to 11 feet 6 inches in the centre of a
slightly pointed arch. The doorway is towards one end and has the
usual sloping jambs of the period, the proportion between the lintel
and sill being apparently as 5 to 6, which seems to be somewhat less
1 See History of Indian Architecture, vol. i., p. 136.
2 Hiuen Thsang, vol. i., p. 151.; Ma-twan-lin, J. A. S, B., vol. vi., p. 69.
3 Cunningham, Reports, vol. v., Plate XIX.
45
accounts of Megasthenes was an important city in the days of his
grandfather Chandragnpta. At the same time, any ecclesiastical
establishments that might have been attracted by the sanctity
of the place, mast have been transferred to Nalanda, between 6 and 7
miles due north from the new city, where there arose the most
important monastic establishment connected with Buddhism that, so
far as we know, ever existed in India.1 Fortunately for us Hiuen
Thsang has left us a glowing description of the splendour of its
buildings, and of the piety and learning of the monks that resided
in them. With this, however, we probably must remain content,
inasmuch as some excavations recently undertaken on the spot
have gone far to prove that all the remains now existing belong to
buildings erected during the supremacy of the Pala dynasty of
Bengal (765 to 1200 a.d.). The probability is that all the viharas
described by Hiuen Thsang were erected wholly in wood, which
indeed we might infer from his description, and that the monastery
was burnt, or at least destroyed, in the troubles that followed the
death of Siladitya in 650 a.d.,2 and they consequently can have no
bearing on the subject we are now discussing.
Under the circumstances above detailed leading to the early deser-
tion of Rajgir, it would of course be idle to look now for any extensive
remains of the buildings, if it ever had any, in stone or any permanent
material, and equally so to expect any extensive rock-cut Viharas or
Chaitya caves in the immediate vicinity of such an establishment as
that at Nalanda. Practically we are reduced for structural buildings
to the Jarasandha-ka-Baithak, above described (woodcut No. 2), and
for rock-cut examples to one cave, or rather pair of caves, known
as the Son Bhandar or Golden Treasury.
The larger of these two caves is very similar in plan to the
Kama Chopar cave at Barabur and nearly of the same dimensions,
being 34 feet by 17 feet.3 Its walls are perfectly plain to the height
of 6 feet 9inches, and thence rise to 11 feet 6 inches in the centre of a
slightly pointed arch. The doorway is towards one end and has the
usual sloping jambs of the period, the proportion between the lintel
and sill being apparently as 5 to 6, which seems to be somewhat less
1 See History of Indian Architecture, vol. i., p. 136.
2 Hiuen Thsang, vol. i., p. 151.; Ma-twan-lin, J. A. S, B., vol. vi., p. 69.
3 Cunningham, Reports, vol. v., Plate XIX.