DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0280
258 EARLY BUDDHIST CAVE-TEMI>LES.
and Karle, and consequently it is among the earlier excavations
about Jonnar.
Next to it, but higher up and almost inaccessible, are two cells;
then a well; and, thirdly, a small vihara, with three cells, two of
them with stone-beds. Some rongh cutting on the back wall between
the cell-doors resembles a dagoba in low relief, but it is quite un-
finished. Outside are two more cells and a chamber or chapel at
the end of a verandah that runs along in front both of the vihara
and the cells.
The Manmodi hill lies south-south-west from Junnar, about a
mile to the west of the main road. It contains three groups of
excavations, the second of which is nearest to the road, and the
first a considerable way along the north-west face of the hill, near
where it turns to the north-east. The principal cave here is an
unfinished Chaitya-cave. The door is nearly the whole width of the
nave, and it has apparently had a small semi-circular aperture or
window over it, but the lintel is broken away. This arch of the
window, however, is not adjusted to the arch of the roof inside,
which is much higher, nor does it occupy the relative position in
the great arch on the facade assigned to the window in later
examples at Ajanta, Nasik, &c. (See frontispiece.) Over the opening
the place usually occupied by the window is divided fan-wise into
seven petal-shaped compartments with a semi-circular centre, round
the edge of the inner member of which is an inscription, in one
line, of Maurya characters, indicating a date not later than 100 B.C.
In the middle compartment of the larger semi-circle is a standing
female figure with a lotus flower on each side, the next compart-
ments have elephants standing on lotus flowers and holding water-
jars, as so often represented beside the figures of Sri or Lakshnu
on old Buddhist works (ante, pp. 71, 72).1 In the next compartment
on each side stands a male figure, his hands joined over or in front
of his head, doing pujd towards the central figure; and in the two
outer spaces are females in similar attitudes, with a lotus flower an
bud beside each. The style of art in which the figure of 3ri is here
represented is so similar to that employed for the same purpose a
1 Conf. Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship, pp. 108, 112, 113, 120, 242, »
268; Arch. Sur. West, lnd., vol. i. p. 13, and vol. iii. p. 76, and Plato LI 11i »w
Cunningham's Bharhut,p. 117.
and Karle, and consequently it is among the earlier excavations
about Jonnar.
Next to it, but higher up and almost inaccessible, are two cells;
then a well; and, thirdly, a small vihara, with three cells, two of
them with stone-beds. Some rongh cutting on the back wall between
the cell-doors resembles a dagoba in low relief, but it is quite un-
finished. Outside are two more cells and a chamber or chapel at
the end of a verandah that runs along in front both of the vihara
and the cells.
The Manmodi hill lies south-south-west from Junnar, about a
mile to the west of the main road. It contains three groups of
excavations, the second of which is nearest to the road, and the
first a considerable way along the north-west face of the hill, near
where it turns to the north-east. The principal cave here is an
unfinished Chaitya-cave. The door is nearly the whole width of the
nave, and it has apparently had a small semi-circular aperture or
window over it, but the lintel is broken away. This arch of the
window, however, is not adjusted to the arch of the roof inside,
which is much higher, nor does it occupy the relative position in
the great arch on the facade assigned to the window in later
examples at Ajanta, Nasik, &c. (See frontispiece.) Over the opening
the place usually occupied by the window is divided fan-wise into
seven petal-shaped compartments with a semi-circular centre, round
the edge of the inner member of which is an inscription, in one
line, of Maurya characters, indicating a date not later than 100 B.C.
In the middle compartment of the larger semi-circle is a standing
female figure with a lotus flower on each side, the next compart-
ments have elephants standing on lotus flowers and holding water-
jars, as so often represented beside the figures of Sri or Lakshnu
on old Buddhist works (ante, pp. 71, 72).1 In the next compartment
on each side stands a male figure, his hands joined over or in front
of his head, doing pujd towards the central figure; and in the two
outer spaces are females in similar attitudes, with a lotus flower an
bud beside each. The style of art in which the figure of 3ri is here
represented is so similar to that employed for the same purpose a
1 Conf. Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship, pp. 108, 112, 113, 120, 242, »
268; Arch. Sur. West, lnd., vol. i. p. 13, and vol. iii. p. 76, and Plato LI 11i »w
Cunningham's Bharhut,p. 117.