DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0312
290 EARLY BUDDHIST CAVE-TEMPLES.
resembles. Another peculiarity indicative of age is that its plan is
square (Plate XXVIII.), and the aisles are flat roofed and lighted
by windows, and the columns that divide them from the nave slope
inwards at an angle somewhere between that found at Bhaja and
that at Bedsa.
In many respects the design of its facade resembles that of the
Chaitya at Nasik, but it is certainly earlier, and on the whole there
can be little hesitation in classing it with the caves at Bedsa, and
consequently in assuming its date to be about 100 B.C., and more
probably rather a few years years earlier than a few later.
This Chaitya is 45 feet deep by 22 feet 9 inches wide and 23 feet
2 inches high. (Plate XXVIII., figs. 3 and 4, p. 98.) A colonnade
all round divides the nave from the aisles, and at the back the pillars
form a semicircular apse, in the centre of which stands the ddgoba-,
about 7 feet in diameter; its base is a plain cylinder, 5 feet high,
supporting a dome 4 feet high by about 6 feet 4 inches in diameter,
surmounted by a square capital about 1| feet high, and carved on
the sides in imitation of the " Buddhist railing." It represents a
relic box, and is crowned by a projecting lid, a sort of abacus con-
sisting of six plain fillets, each projecting over the one below. This
most probably supported a wooden umbrella, as at Karle. Besides
the two pillars inside the entrance, the nave has 21 plain octagonal
columns without base or capital, 10 feet 4 inches high, supporting
an entablature, 6 feet 8 inches deep, from which the vaulted roof
springs, and which has originally been fitted with wooden ribs.
The aisles are flat-roofed, and only an inch higher than the columns;
they are lighted by a window opening into each. Over the front
doorway is the great window, one of the peculiar features of a
Chaitya-cave: it is of horse-shoe form, about 11\ feet high, with
an inner arch, about 9| feet high, just over the front pillars of the
nave. Outside this is the larger arch with horizontal ribs, of which
five on each side project in the direction of the centre, and eleven
above in a vertical direction. The barge-board or facing of tne
great arch here is wider than usual, and perfectly plain. It probably
was plastered, and its ornamentation, which was in wood at Bhaja.
was probably here reproduced in painting. On the sill of this arc
is a terrace, 2J feet wide, with a low parapet in front, wrought i
the " Buddhist-rail " pattern; outside this, again, is another terrace
over the porch, about 3| feet wide, and extending the whole wi
resembles. Another peculiarity indicative of age is that its plan is
square (Plate XXVIII.), and the aisles are flat roofed and lighted
by windows, and the columns that divide them from the nave slope
inwards at an angle somewhere between that found at Bhaja and
that at Bedsa.
In many respects the design of its facade resembles that of the
Chaitya at Nasik, but it is certainly earlier, and on the whole there
can be little hesitation in classing it with the caves at Bedsa, and
consequently in assuming its date to be about 100 B.C., and more
probably rather a few years years earlier than a few later.
This Chaitya is 45 feet deep by 22 feet 9 inches wide and 23 feet
2 inches high. (Plate XXVIII., figs. 3 and 4, p. 98.) A colonnade
all round divides the nave from the aisles, and at the back the pillars
form a semicircular apse, in the centre of which stands the ddgoba-,
about 7 feet in diameter; its base is a plain cylinder, 5 feet high,
supporting a dome 4 feet high by about 6 feet 4 inches in diameter,
surmounted by a square capital about 1| feet high, and carved on
the sides in imitation of the " Buddhist railing." It represents a
relic box, and is crowned by a projecting lid, a sort of abacus con-
sisting of six plain fillets, each projecting over the one below. This
most probably supported a wooden umbrella, as at Karle. Besides
the two pillars inside the entrance, the nave has 21 plain octagonal
columns without base or capital, 10 feet 4 inches high, supporting
an entablature, 6 feet 8 inches deep, from which the vaulted roof
springs, and which has originally been fitted with wooden ribs.
The aisles are flat-roofed, and only an inch higher than the columns;
they are lighted by a window opening into each. Over the front
doorway is the great window, one of the peculiar features of a
Chaitya-cave: it is of horse-shoe form, about 11\ feet high, with
an inner arch, about 9| feet high, just over the front pillars of the
nave. Outside this is the larger arch with horizontal ribs, of which
five on each side project in the direction of the centre, and eleven
above in a vertical direction. The barge-board or facing of tne
great arch here is wider than usual, and perfectly plain. It probably
was plastered, and its ornamentation, which was in wood at Bhaja.
was probably here reproduced in painting. On the sill of this arc
is a terrace, 2J feet wide, with a low parapet in front, wrought i
the " Buddhist-rail " pattern; outside this, again, is another terrace
over the porch, about 3| feet wide, and extending the whole wi