DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0163
141
CHAPTER VII.
THE CAVES, MAHAVALLIPUR.
Although not without a considerable amount of beauty and
interest in themselves, the caves at Mahavallipur are far less im-
portant to the history of Indian architecture than the Raths just
described. They have none of the grandeur, nor of that purpose-
like appropriateness of design, "which is so characteristic of the
earlier Buddhiste caves in Western India, nor have they the dimen-
sions or richness of architectural decoration of the contemporary
Brahmanical excavations at Badami, Elephanta, or Elura. Still
they cannot be passed over, even in a work especially dedicated to
the more important caves of the west, and have features which
are well deserving of notice anywhere.
Perhaps the most striking peculiarity of these caves is the
extreme tenuity of their pillars and generally of their architectural
details, when compared with those of the other groups of caves in
the other parts of India. It is true, that when the Buddhists first
began to excavate caves in the west of India before the Christian era,
they adopted wooden forms and used details singularly inappro-
priate of rock-cut structures. They, however, early perceived their
incongruity, and in the progress of time evolved a style of archi-
tecture of more than Egyptian solidity, which quite remedied this
defect. In some of the later caves at Ajanta, the pillars are under
4 diameters in height, including their capitals, and in such caves as
the Lankeswara at Elura they are little more than 2 diameters in
height. At Mahavallipur, on the other hand, 7 and 8 diameters is
usual, and sometimes even these are exceeded; and generally their
details are such as are singularly unsuited for cave architecture,
■this it appears could only have arisen from one of two causes : either
" was that those who excavated these caves had no experience in
the art, and copied literally the forms they found usually employed
ln fractures either wholly, or in part, constructed with wood or
other light materials; or it was, that so long an interval had
e apsed between the excavation of the western caves and those at
CHAPTER VII.
THE CAVES, MAHAVALLIPUR.
Although not without a considerable amount of beauty and
interest in themselves, the caves at Mahavallipur are far less im-
portant to the history of Indian architecture than the Raths just
described. They have none of the grandeur, nor of that purpose-
like appropriateness of design, "which is so characteristic of the
earlier Buddhiste caves in Western India, nor have they the dimen-
sions or richness of architectural decoration of the contemporary
Brahmanical excavations at Badami, Elephanta, or Elura. Still
they cannot be passed over, even in a work especially dedicated to
the more important caves of the west, and have features which
are well deserving of notice anywhere.
Perhaps the most striking peculiarity of these caves is the
extreme tenuity of their pillars and generally of their architectural
details, when compared with those of the other groups of caves in
the other parts of India. It is true, that when the Buddhists first
began to excavate caves in the west of India before the Christian era,
they adopted wooden forms and used details singularly inappro-
priate of rock-cut structures. They, however, early perceived their
incongruity, and in the progress of time evolved a style of archi-
tecture of more than Egyptian solidity, which quite remedied this
defect. In some of the later caves at Ajanta, the pillars are under
4 diameters in height, including their capitals, and in such caves as
the Lankeswara at Elura they are little more than 2 diameters in
height. At Mahavallipur, on the other hand, 7 and 8 diameters is
usual, and sometimes even these are exceeded; and generally their
details are such as are singularly unsuited for cave architecture,
■this it appears could only have arisen from one of two causes : either
" was that those who excavated these caves had no experience in
the art, and copied literally the forms they found usually employed
ln fractures either wholly, or in part, constructed with wood or
other light materials; or it was, that so long an interval had
e apsed between the excavation of the western caves and those at