DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0206
184 CAVE-TEMPLES OF WESTERN INDIA.
thoroughly investigated there can be little doubt that we shall ob-
tain the dates of all the caves with all the precision that can be
desired. But when actual dates are not available it is probable
we must still to a great extent depend on the indications obtained
from palaeography and architecture. The first, as just mentioned,
may be used as a useful guide to relative dates where no other or
better materials are available. The latter have been found in Europe,
and still more in Asia, to be infallible, yielding results that admit
of no dispute, and which are more generally relied upon by anti-
quaries than those derived from any other source.
Pending this being done, as an approximately chronological ar-
rangement, the several groups of Buddhist Oaves may be placed in
the following order :—
1. The oldest caves at Junagadh, the groups at Sana, Talaja, and
other places in Kathiawar, may be considered as varying from 250
B.C. to the Christian era.
2. A number of groups in the Konkan and Dekhan, all to the
south of Bombay, and all bearing a general character of small plain
dwellings for Bhikshus, with flat-roofed shrines for the Dagoba
and Viharas. The chief groups in the Konkan are at Kuda, and in
the neighbourhood of Mhar and Kol; those in the Dekhan on the
other side of the Sahyadri Hills or Ghats are chiefly at Karadh,
about 30 miles south of Satara, and at Wai and Sirwal, north of the
same town. These range perhaps from 200 B.C. to a.d. 50.
3. Almost due east of Bombay, in the Ghats, and close to the line
of railway leading to Poona, there are important groups of caves at
Kondane, Bhaja, Bedsa, and Karle, each with a Ohaitya cave of
some architectural importance; and with these more notable groups
may be taken those at Sailarwadi, Ambivle, &c, all in the same
neighbourhood. These may be placed within the three and a hair
centuries that elapsed between b.c. 250 and a.d. 100.
4. A fourth group may be formed of the caves at Junnar, about 50
miles north of Poona, the Nasik Buddhist Caves, about 50 miles north
of Junnar, the Pitalkhora Buddhist Caves, 84 miles E.N.E.from MsA
and the earliest of the Ajanta Caves, 55 miles east of Pitalkhora.
These are of various ages, the oldest Cave at Nasik being about
B.C., and the later ones there belonging to the second or third century
a.d., while there are some that have been excavated or altered J
thoroughly investigated there can be little doubt that we shall ob-
tain the dates of all the caves with all the precision that can be
desired. But when actual dates are not available it is probable
we must still to a great extent depend on the indications obtained
from palaeography and architecture. The first, as just mentioned,
may be used as a useful guide to relative dates where no other or
better materials are available. The latter have been found in Europe,
and still more in Asia, to be infallible, yielding results that admit
of no dispute, and which are more generally relied upon by anti-
quaries than those derived from any other source.
Pending this being done, as an approximately chronological ar-
rangement, the several groups of Buddhist Oaves may be placed in
the following order :—
1. The oldest caves at Junagadh, the groups at Sana, Talaja, and
other places in Kathiawar, may be considered as varying from 250
B.C. to the Christian era.
2. A number of groups in the Konkan and Dekhan, all to the
south of Bombay, and all bearing a general character of small plain
dwellings for Bhikshus, with flat-roofed shrines for the Dagoba
and Viharas. The chief groups in the Konkan are at Kuda, and in
the neighbourhood of Mhar and Kol; those in the Dekhan on the
other side of the Sahyadri Hills or Ghats are chiefly at Karadh,
about 30 miles south of Satara, and at Wai and Sirwal, north of the
same town. These range perhaps from 200 B.C. to a.d. 50.
3. Almost due east of Bombay, in the Ghats, and close to the line
of railway leading to Poona, there are important groups of caves at
Kondane, Bhaja, Bedsa, and Karle, each with a Ohaitya cave of
some architectural importance; and with these more notable groups
may be taken those at Sailarwadi, Ambivle, &c, all in the same
neighbourhood. These may be placed within the three and a hair
centuries that elapsed between b.c. 250 and a.d. 100.
4. A fourth group may be formed of the caves at Junnar, about 50
miles north of Poona, the Nasik Buddhist Caves, about 50 miles north
of Junnar, the Pitalkhora Buddhist Caves, 84 miles E.N.E.from MsA
and the earliest of the Ajanta Caves, 55 miles east of Pitalkhora.
These are of various ages, the oldest Cave at Nasik being about
B.C., and the later ones there belonging to the second or third century
a.d., while there are some that have been excavated or altered J