DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0136
114
EASTERN CAVES.
Ganesa Ratha.
As the Ganesa Ratha is the most nearly finished of any, it may be
as well to begin with it, though it would be rash to say it is in
consequence, the earliest. It does seem probable, however, that the
masons would first select a suitable block among the many that
exist, on the hill, for an experiment, before attempting the much
more serious undertaking of fashioning the southern ridge or group
into the Rathas bearing the Pandu names.
As will be seen from the annexed woodcut the Ganesa Ratha
is, though small, a singularly elegant little temple. In plan its
dimensions are 19 feet by 11 feet 3 inches, and its height 28 feet.
It is in three storeys -with very elegant details, and of a form very
common afterwards in Dravidian architecture for gopuras, or gate-
ways, but seldom used for temples, properly so called, in the manner
which wTe find employed in this instance.
Xo. 26. View of the Ganesa Ratha, from a Photograph.
The roof is a straight line, and was adorned at either end by a
trisula ornament, and similar emblems adorned four at least of the
dormer windows that cut into it. It is, however, no longer the trisula
of the Buddhist, but an early form of the trident of Siva, who is the
god principally worshipped in this place. Between the tridents the
ridge is ornamented with nine pinnacles in the form of vases, which
EASTERN CAVES.
Ganesa Ratha.
As the Ganesa Ratha is the most nearly finished of any, it may be
as well to begin with it, though it would be rash to say it is in
consequence, the earliest. It does seem probable, however, that the
masons would first select a suitable block among the many that
exist, on the hill, for an experiment, before attempting the much
more serious undertaking of fashioning the southern ridge or group
into the Rathas bearing the Pandu names.
As will be seen from the annexed woodcut the Ganesa Ratha
is, though small, a singularly elegant little temple. In plan its
dimensions are 19 feet by 11 feet 3 inches, and its height 28 feet.
It is in three storeys -with very elegant details, and of a form very
common afterwards in Dravidian architecture for gopuras, or gate-
ways, but seldom used for temples, properly so called, in the manner
which wTe find employed in this instance.
Xo. 26. View of the Ganesa Ratha, from a Photograph.
The roof is a straight line, and was adorned at either end by a
trisula ornament, and similar emblems adorned four at least of the
dormer windows that cut into it. It is, however, no longer the trisula
of the Buddhist, but an early form of the trident of Siva, who is the
god principally worshipped in this place. Between the tridents the
ridge is ornamented with nine pinnacles in the form of vases, which