DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0326
304
LATER BUDDHIST CAVE-TEMPLES.
with No. XIX., which is the best finished Chaitya cave of the series.
If to these then we add No. XX. beyond the last-named, we
have a group of four caves, all of aboitt the same age, and whether
looked at from an architectural or pictorial point of view they are
superior to any at Ajanta, or indeed perhaps any similar group in
any part of India.
Of these four No. XYI. is certainly the earliest and in some
respects the most elegant. Its verandah (Plate XXXIII., fig. 1),
65 feet long by 10 feet 8 inches wide, had six plain octagonal pillars
with bracket capitals and two pilasters, of which all are gone except
one. The cave has a central and two side doors with windows
between. The pilasters on each side the principal door are sur-
mounted by female figures standing on the heads of makaras. The
front aisle is longer
than the cave, mea-
suring 74 feet; whilst
the body of the hall
is 66 feet 3 inches
long, by 65 feet 3
inches deep, and la
feet 3 inches high,
supported by twenty
octagonal shafts. The
middle pair in the
front and back rows,
however, have square
bases, and change
first to eight, and then
to 16 sides on the
shafts, with square
heads and bracket
capitals. The roof ot
the front aisle is cut
in imitation of beai«*
and rafters, the ends
of the beams being
Xo. 53. IVont aisle in Cave XVL at Ajanti- Supported by sraS
fat figures as brackets, in the two central cases single, in the o
by two, and in one or two by male and female figures of h<n'h
LATER BUDDHIST CAVE-TEMPLES.
with No. XIX., which is the best finished Chaitya cave of the series.
If to these then we add No. XX. beyond the last-named, we
have a group of four caves, all of aboitt the same age, and whether
looked at from an architectural or pictorial point of view they are
superior to any at Ajanta, or indeed perhaps any similar group in
any part of India.
Of these four No. XYI. is certainly the earliest and in some
respects the most elegant. Its verandah (Plate XXXIII., fig. 1),
65 feet long by 10 feet 8 inches wide, had six plain octagonal pillars
with bracket capitals and two pilasters, of which all are gone except
one. The cave has a central and two side doors with windows
between. The pilasters on each side the principal door are sur-
mounted by female figures standing on the heads of makaras. The
front aisle is longer
than the cave, mea-
suring 74 feet; whilst
the body of the hall
is 66 feet 3 inches
long, by 65 feet 3
inches deep, and la
feet 3 inches high,
supported by twenty
octagonal shafts. The
middle pair in the
front and back rows,
however, have square
bases, and change
first to eight, and then
to 16 sides on the
shafts, with square
heads and bracket
capitals. The roof ot
the front aisle is cut
in imitation of beai«*
and rafters, the ends
of the beams being
Xo. 53. IVont aisle in Cave XVL at Ajanti- Supported by sraS
fat figures as brackets, in the two central cases single, in the o
by two, and in one or two by male and female figures of h<n'h