DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0225
CAVES IN KATHIAWAR. 203
The hill is honey-combed by more than sixty caves, some of them
much ruined, bnt all of the same plain types as those at Talaja,
Junagarh, and Dhank. Here, too, one of the largest, near the
bottom of the hill, goes by the name of the Ebhal Mandapa. It is
68^ feet by 61, and about 16| feet high, originally with six pillars
in front but none inside. About 120 feet higher up, on the face of
the same spur, is a cave called the Bhima Chauri facing the north-
east ; it has a verandah in front, and measures about 38 by 40| feet,
the roof being supported by four octagonal pillars, with capitals and
bases of the Lota, or water-pot pattern so frequent in the Nasik and
Junnar caves. Eound the sides also runs a raised stone bench, a
common feature in such caves. Close by is a Ohaitya or chapel cave,
18 feet wide by 31 feet deep, and 13^ feet high. The roof is flat,
but the inner end or back of the cave is of the semi-circular form
already noticed at Junagarh and common in Ohaitya caves. It wants
the side aisles usual in such excavations; and the dagoba, 7 feet
10 inches in diameter,1 is very plain and without ornament, while
its capital is wanting, having been broken off by later Hindus in
order to convert it into a huge linga or emblem of Siva, and it is
now worshipped as such by the people of the villages in the neigh-
bourhood. Some of the excavations consist merely of verandahs
with cells opening from them, and having recesses in the walls for
sleeping places; others are halls like the Ebhal Mandapa with cells
arranged near the entrance, while there are two other small Ohaityas
similar to that mentioned above. High up the face of the hill is a
cistern of excellent water; and large portions of the stairs hewn out
in the rock and leading from one group of caves to another, are still
pretty entire.
These caves, like those at Talaja, from the simplicity of their
arrangements and their flat-roofed chaityas, must also be referred to
a very early age, possibly as a mean date about 150 B.C., though they
probably range through at least a century between the earliest and
the latest excavation.
1 See ArcTunol. Sur, of W. India Reports, vol. ii. p. 149, and Plate xxix.
The hill is honey-combed by more than sixty caves, some of them
much ruined, bnt all of the same plain types as those at Talaja,
Junagarh, and Dhank. Here, too, one of the largest, near the
bottom of the hill, goes by the name of the Ebhal Mandapa. It is
68^ feet by 61, and about 16| feet high, originally with six pillars
in front but none inside. About 120 feet higher up, on the face of
the same spur, is a cave called the Bhima Chauri facing the north-
east ; it has a verandah in front, and measures about 38 by 40| feet,
the roof being supported by four octagonal pillars, with capitals and
bases of the Lota, or water-pot pattern so frequent in the Nasik and
Junnar caves. Eound the sides also runs a raised stone bench, a
common feature in such caves. Close by is a Ohaitya or chapel cave,
18 feet wide by 31 feet deep, and 13^ feet high. The roof is flat,
but the inner end or back of the cave is of the semi-circular form
already noticed at Junagarh and common in Ohaitya caves. It wants
the side aisles usual in such excavations; and the dagoba, 7 feet
10 inches in diameter,1 is very plain and without ornament, while
its capital is wanting, having been broken off by later Hindus in
order to convert it into a huge linga or emblem of Siva, and it is
now worshipped as such by the people of the villages in the neigh-
bourhood. Some of the excavations consist merely of verandahs
with cells opening from them, and having recesses in the walls for
sleeping places; others are halls like the Ebhal Mandapa with cells
arranged near the entrance, while there are two other small Ohaityas
similar to that mentioned above. High up the face of the hill is a
cistern of excellent water; and large portions of the stairs hewn out
in the rock and leading from one group of caves to another, are still
pretty entire.
These caves, like those at Talaja, from the simplicity of their
arrangements and their flat-roofed chaityas, must also be referred to
a very early age, possibly as a mean date about 150 B.C., though they
probably range through at least a century between the earliest and
the latest excavation.
1 See ArcTunol. Sur, of W. India Reports, vol. ii. p. 149, and Plate xxix.