DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0080
58 EASTERN CAVES.
In attempting to investigate the history of these caves, it is
tantalizing to discover how narrowly we have missed finding in Orissa
a chronicle of events during the whole Buddhist period as full,
perhaps even more so, than those still found in Kashmir, Ceylon, or
any other outlying provinces of India. It is true that the palm leaf
records of the temple of Jagannath at Puri, in which alone the
fragments of this history are now to be found, date only apparently
from the 10th century, and it would be idle to look in a work
compiled by Brahmans at that time for any record of the acts, even
perhaps of the names, of Buddhist kings of that country, still less
of their building temples or excavating caves, devoted to the
purposes of their—to Brahmans—accursed heresy. Notwithstanding
this, if we possessed a continuous narrative of events occurring in
the province we might be able to interpolate facts so as to elucidate
much that is now inexplicable and mysterious.1
What these palm leaf records principally tell us is, that from a
period vaguely contemporary with Buddha, i.e., from 538-421 b.c.
till 474 a.d., in fact, till Tayati Kesari finally expelled the Buddhists
and established the Brahmanical religion in Orissa, the country was
exposed to frequent and nearly continuous invasions of Yavanas
generally coming from the north-west.2 Who these Yavanas were
them to some extent before publication. This, for bis own sake, I trust he will do, for as
they now stand they will do him no credit either as an archaeologist or a controversialist,
and he will eventually be forced to retract nearly all he has said in the latter capacity.
So far as I am capable of forming an opinion on the subject, the conclusions he arrives
at as to the age of the caves are entirely erroneous, and he does not pretend that his
explanations of the sculptures are derived either from local traditions, or Buddhist
literature, merely that they are evolved from his own inner consciousness. Others
may form a different opinion from that I have arrived at regarding his interpretation
of the scenes depicted in them; to me they appear only as an idle waste of misplaced
ingenuity and hardly worthy of serious consideration.—J. F.
1 These chronicles were very largely employed by Stirling in his History of Orissa
and Cuttach, in the 15th volume of the Asiatic Researches, and still more extensively
by Mr. Hunter in his Orissa, published in 1872, vol. i. pp. 198 et seq. They were also
further investigated by a Calcutta Brahman Bhawanieharan Bandopadhyaya, in a work
he published in Bengali, in 1843, entitled Purushottama Chandrika, which was very
largely utilised by W. W. Hunter in his last work on Orissa, vol. i. p. 198 et seq.
2 The following chronological account of Yavana invasions is abstracted from Mr.
Hunter's Orissa, vol. ii. p. 184 of the Appendix :—
B.C. 538—421. Bajra Deva.—In his reign Orissa was invaded by Yavanas from
Marwar, from Delhi, and from Babul Des, the last supposed to be Iran (Persia)
and Cabul. According to the palm leaf chronicle the invaders were repulsed.
In attempting to investigate the history of these caves, it is
tantalizing to discover how narrowly we have missed finding in Orissa
a chronicle of events during the whole Buddhist period as full,
perhaps even more so, than those still found in Kashmir, Ceylon, or
any other outlying provinces of India. It is true that the palm leaf
records of the temple of Jagannath at Puri, in which alone the
fragments of this history are now to be found, date only apparently
from the 10th century, and it would be idle to look in a work
compiled by Brahmans at that time for any record of the acts, even
perhaps of the names, of Buddhist kings of that country, still less
of their building temples or excavating caves, devoted to the
purposes of their—to Brahmans—accursed heresy. Notwithstanding
this, if we possessed a continuous narrative of events occurring in
the province we might be able to interpolate facts so as to elucidate
much that is now inexplicable and mysterious.1
What these palm leaf records principally tell us is, that from a
period vaguely contemporary with Buddha, i.e., from 538-421 b.c.
till 474 a.d., in fact, till Tayati Kesari finally expelled the Buddhists
and established the Brahmanical religion in Orissa, the country was
exposed to frequent and nearly continuous invasions of Yavanas
generally coming from the north-west.2 Who these Yavanas were
them to some extent before publication. This, for bis own sake, I trust he will do, for as
they now stand they will do him no credit either as an archaeologist or a controversialist,
and he will eventually be forced to retract nearly all he has said in the latter capacity.
So far as I am capable of forming an opinion on the subject, the conclusions he arrives
at as to the age of the caves are entirely erroneous, and he does not pretend that his
explanations of the sculptures are derived either from local traditions, or Buddhist
literature, merely that they are evolved from his own inner consciousness. Others
may form a different opinion from that I have arrived at regarding his interpretation
of the scenes depicted in them; to me they appear only as an idle waste of misplaced
ingenuity and hardly worthy of serious consideration.—J. F.
1 These chronicles were very largely employed by Stirling in his History of Orissa
and Cuttach, in the 15th volume of the Asiatic Researches, and still more extensively
by Mr. Hunter in his Orissa, published in 1872, vol. i. pp. 198 et seq. They were also
further investigated by a Calcutta Brahman Bhawanieharan Bandopadhyaya, in a work
he published in Bengali, in 1843, entitled Purushottama Chandrika, which was very
largely utilised by W. W. Hunter in his last work on Orissa, vol. i. p. 198 et seq.
2 The following chronological account of Yavana invasions is abstracted from Mr.
Hunter's Orissa, vol. ii. p. 184 of the Appendix :—
B.C. 538—421. Bajra Deva.—In his reign Orissa was invaded by Yavanas from
Marwar, from Delhi, and from Babul Des, the last supposed to be Iran (Persia)
and Cabul. According to the palm leaf chronicle the invaders were repulsed.