DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0319
297
BOOK II.
CHAPTEE I.
LATER OR MAHAYANA CAVES AT AJANTA.
The preceding six chapters have been devoted to the description
of the various groups of caves known to exist in Western India
belonging to the Hinayana sect, or the first division of Buddhist
caves. They are so mimerous that it has been impossible to describe
them all, but enough has probably been said to make their charac-
teristic features known, and to explain the limits within which
further investigations are either promising or desirable.
The caves belonging to the second division, or the Mahayana sxt,
are much less numerous than those belonging to the first, owing
principally to there being no Bhikshugrihas or hermitages among
them. The monks were no longer content to live apart by them-
selves, or with only one or two companions in rude caves, but were
congregated into large and magnificent monasteries, richly adorned,
and which, in that climate and at that age, may have been con-
sidered as replete with every comfort, it may almost be said, with
every luxury.
The great and most essential change, however, which took place
between these two classes was in the forms of worship which was
characteristic of them. The Dagoba or relic shrine, which was so
generally revered in ancient times, disappears almost entirely from
the V iharas, and is only found in the Chaitya caves, and even then
1 always has an image of Buddha attached to it in front, and
personal worship of him evidently, in these instances, replaced that
the symbol under which he had previously been adored. It is
eed this multiplication of images of Buddha which is most charac-
teristic of the caves of the Mahayana sect. Not only do figures of
'Uudha, as objects of worship, take the place of the Dagobas in the
Actuaries of the Viharas, but the insignia of the Bodhisatwas are
BOOK II.
CHAPTEE I.
LATER OR MAHAYANA CAVES AT AJANTA.
The preceding six chapters have been devoted to the description
of the various groups of caves known to exist in Western India
belonging to the Hinayana sect, or the first division of Buddhist
caves. They are so mimerous that it has been impossible to describe
them all, but enough has probably been said to make their charac-
teristic features known, and to explain the limits within which
further investigations are either promising or desirable.
The caves belonging to the second division, or the Mahayana sxt,
are much less numerous than those belonging to the first, owing
principally to there being no Bhikshugrihas or hermitages among
them. The monks were no longer content to live apart by them-
selves, or with only one or two companions in rude caves, but were
congregated into large and magnificent monasteries, richly adorned,
and which, in that climate and at that age, may have been con-
sidered as replete with every comfort, it may almost be said, with
every luxury.
The great and most essential change, however, which took place
between these two classes was in the forms of worship which was
characteristic of them. The Dagoba or relic shrine, which was so
generally revered in ancient times, disappears almost entirely from
the V iharas, and is only found in the Chaitya caves, and even then
1 always has an image of Buddha attached to it in front, and
personal worship of him evidently, in these instances, replaced that
the symbol under which he had previously been adored. It is
eed this multiplication of images of Buddha which is most charac-
teristic of the caves of the Mahayana sect. Not only do figures of
'Uudha, as objects of worship, take the place of the Dagobas in the
Actuaries of the Viharas, but the insignia of the Bodhisatwas are