DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0091
BAGH AND SARPA.
69
No. 12. Tiger Cave, Udavagiri, from a riraw-
iug by Capt. Kittoe.
tractable material as stone in their constructions. It is, in fact, a mass
of sandstone rock fashioned into the semblance of the head of a tiger.
The expanded jaws, armed with a row of most formidable teeth,
form the verandah, while the entrance to the cell is placed where
the gullet in a living animal would be. There is a short inscription
at the side of the doorway, which
according to Prinsep reads " Exca-
vated by Ugra Aveda " (the anti-
vedist), which looks as if its author
was a convert from the Brahmanical
to the Buddhist religion. Before
the first letter of this inscription
there is a well-known Buddhist
symbol, which is something like a
capital Y standing on a cube or
box, and after the last letter is
a swastika.1 These two symbols
are placed at the beginning and end of the great Aira inscription
in the Hathi Gumpha, though there their position is reversed, the
swastika being at the beginning, the other symbol at the end.
The meaning or name of this last has not yet been ascertained,
but it occurs in conjunction with the swastika very frequently on
the earliest Buddhist coins.2 The probability, therefore, is that these
two inscriptions cannot be far apart in date, and as the jambs of
doorway leading into the cell of the Tiger cave slope considerably
inwards, there seems no reason for doubting that this cave may not be
only slightly more modern than the Aira inscription in the Hathi cave
here, and contemporary with the Asoka caves in the Barabar hills.
The same remarks apply to the Sarpa or serpent cave. It is only,
however, a small cubical cell with a countersunk doorway with
jambs sloping inwards at a considerable angle. Over this doorway,
in a semicircular tympanum, is what may be called the bust of a three-
headed serpent of a very archaic type. It has no other sculptures.
Its inscription merely states that it is " the unequalled chamber of
Chulakarma."
There is a third little cell called the Pavana, or purification cave,
1 ./. A S. B., vol. vi. p. 1073.
2 J. A. S. B., and Thomas's Prinsep, vol. i. l'lates XIX. and XX.
69
No. 12. Tiger Cave, Udavagiri, from a riraw-
iug by Capt. Kittoe.
tractable material as stone in their constructions. It is, in fact, a mass
of sandstone rock fashioned into the semblance of the head of a tiger.
The expanded jaws, armed with a row of most formidable teeth,
form the verandah, while the entrance to the cell is placed where
the gullet in a living animal would be. There is a short inscription
at the side of the doorway, which
according to Prinsep reads " Exca-
vated by Ugra Aveda " (the anti-
vedist), which looks as if its author
was a convert from the Brahmanical
to the Buddhist religion. Before
the first letter of this inscription
there is a well-known Buddhist
symbol, which is something like a
capital Y standing on a cube or
box, and after the last letter is
a swastika.1 These two symbols
are placed at the beginning and end of the great Aira inscription
in the Hathi Gumpha, though there their position is reversed, the
swastika being at the beginning, the other symbol at the end.
The meaning or name of this last has not yet been ascertained,
but it occurs in conjunction with the swastika very frequently on
the earliest Buddhist coins.2 The probability, therefore, is that these
two inscriptions cannot be far apart in date, and as the jambs of
doorway leading into the cell of the Tiger cave slope considerably
inwards, there seems no reason for doubting that this cave may not be
only slightly more modern than the Aira inscription in the Hathi cave
here, and contemporary with the Asoka caves in the Barabar hills.
The same remarks apply to the Sarpa or serpent cave. It is only,
however, a small cubical cell with a countersunk doorway with
jambs sloping inwards at a considerable angle. Over this doorway,
in a semicircular tympanum, is what may be called the bust of a three-
headed serpent of a very archaic type. It has no other sculptures.
Its inscription merely states that it is " the unequalled chamber of
Chulakarma."
There is a third little cell called the Pavana, or purification cave,
1 ./. A S. B., vol. vi. p. 1073.
2 J. A. S. B., and Thomas's Prinsep, vol. i. l'lates XIX. and XX.