DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0241
KARLE AND BOB, GHAT. 219
with the two principal ones already described. If we describe the
Kathiawar group as the unornamented, the Orissa as the sculptural,
and this one as the architectural, we at once grasp practically the
leading features of each. The first two have no Chaitya caves, which
form the leading features of the third, and though the last cannot
boast of the exuberant richness of decoration which prevailed in
Katak, it avoids the puritanical plainness of the first. It hits a
happy medium between the two, and its productions may conse-
quently be compared as specimens of architecture with the very
best that have been produced in India at any age. As a rule they
all belong to an early and pure school of native art, before it became
the fashion to overload its productions with a superfluity of minute
ornamentation utterly destructive of the simple grandeur, which is
characteristic of this great central group.
The differences between these groups are the more remarkable, as
all three belong to the same age. They all begin with the age of
Asoka, B.C. 250. None can be said to be older, and they extend
down to the Christian era. Some examples—but not important
ones—may be more modern, but the principal caves are spread
tolerably evenly over these two centuries and a half, and all emanate
from the impulse given to the diffusion of the Buddhist religion
given by the convocation held by that monarch on his conversion
in the third century before the Christian era.
Whatever may have been the cause, whether the proximity of a
large city, or something merely historical or traditional,1 the head
of the Bor Grhat, between Bombay and Poona, seems to have been
the centre of a large number of Buddhist establishments. Kondane,
Jambrug, and Ambivle are in the lower scarps of the Sahyadri
range and are within a few miles from Karjat station at the foot
°f the Ghat; Bhaja, Bedsa, and Karle in the spurs that strike out
from the same hills into the table-land on the east. They all lie
^thin short distances of the railway which passes up the Bor Grhat
from Bombay to Poona. Karle is near the village of the same
name and not far from Lanoli station1; Bhaja is on the opposite or
Dr. J. Wilson suggested that the name of the village of Lanavali, not far from the
«*vesof Karle and Bhaja, might be a corruption of Lenavali, the Grove of the Lena
aves, noted even in recent times for its botanical peculiarities,—and which may
■*'« been a Buddhist town.
with the two principal ones already described. If we describe the
Kathiawar group as the unornamented, the Orissa as the sculptural,
and this one as the architectural, we at once grasp practically the
leading features of each. The first two have no Chaitya caves, which
form the leading features of the third, and though the last cannot
boast of the exuberant richness of decoration which prevailed in
Katak, it avoids the puritanical plainness of the first. It hits a
happy medium between the two, and its productions may conse-
quently be compared as specimens of architecture with the very
best that have been produced in India at any age. As a rule they
all belong to an early and pure school of native art, before it became
the fashion to overload its productions with a superfluity of minute
ornamentation utterly destructive of the simple grandeur, which is
characteristic of this great central group.
The differences between these groups are the more remarkable, as
all three belong to the same age. They all begin with the age of
Asoka, B.C. 250. None can be said to be older, and they extend
down to the Christian era. Some examples—but not important
ones—may be more modern, but the principal caves are spread
tolerably evenly over these two centuries and a half, and all emanate
from the impulse given to the diffusion of the Buddhist religion
given by the convocation held by that monarch on his conversion
in the third century before the Christian era.
Whatever may have been the cause, whether the proximity of a
large city, or something merely historical or traditional,1 the head
of the Bor Grhat, between Bombay and Poona, seems to have been
the centre of a large number of Buddhist establishments. Kondane,
Jambrug, and Ambivle are in the lower scarps of the Sahyadri
range and are within a few miles from Karjat station at the foot
°f the Ghat; Bhaja, Bedsa, and Karle in the spurs that strike out
from the same hills into the table-land on the east. They all lie
^thin short distances of the railway which passes up the Bor Grhat
from Bombay to Poona. Karle is near the village of the same
name and not far from Lanoli station1; Bhaja is on the opposite or
Dr. J. Wilson suggested that the name of the village of Lanavali, not far from the
«*vesof Karle and Bhaja, might be a corruption of Lenavali, the Grove of the Lena
aves, noted even in recent times for its botanical peculiarities,—and which may
■*'« been a Buddhist town.