DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0354
332 BUDDHIST CAVE-TEMPLES.
ties could only be ascertained it would probably throw more light on
the peculiarities of that religion than can be obtained from any other
source that now remains open to us. Only one attempt1 has yet
been made to investigate this question, and that being manifestly not
sufficient it is hoped it may soon be taken up by those who are com-
petent to the task.
The painting on the right wall is so destroyed by holes made in it
by bats as almost to defy description.
Above, between the second and third cell-doors, and cut off from
the next portion by a white gateway is a large scene much destroyed.
Above are eight elephants. In front have been numerous soldiers,
one on horseback, one green-skinned,2 dressed in striped dhotis
and armed with the long crooked jSTepalese swords. Three figures
have deep collars round their necks, and all advance towards the left
after some elephants without any housings. Other scenes may also
be more or less distinctly made otit.
Cave II.
Cave II. is another Vihara, similar but smaller than the preced-
ing, and somewhat different in the style of its front columns. The
verandah (Plate XLIV., fig. 2), is 46} feet in length, supported in
front by four pillars and two pilasters, all of the same style, having
a torus and fillet at the base, but no plinth; to about a fourth up they
have 16 sides, above that they have 32 flutes with belts of elaborate
tracery. The capitals are flower-shaped, along which the flutes of the
column are continued as petals : first there is a deep calyx, widest
near the bottom and terminating in a double row of petals; then,
above a very small fillet, is a thick projecting torus, surmounted in
a bell-shaped flower of about the same depth as the torus, and on
this rests a thin abacus. Over them runs a plain architrave on which
the roof rests, and beyond which it projects very considerably, wit
indications of the patterns in which the under side of it was once
painted.3 At each end of the verandah are chambers similar to those
in Cave I. (see plan, Plate XLIV.),—the architrave above the pillar3
1 Tree and Serpent Worship, quarto, London, 1873.
3 Can it be that these green people are intended to represent the lower castes .
3 A view of this verandah forms Plate IX. of my picturesque illustrations o
Roch-citt Temples of India, folio, London, 1845.—J. F.
ties could only be ascertained it would probably throw more light on
the peculiarities of that religion than can be obtained from any other
source that now remains open to us. Only one attempt1 has yet
been made to investigate this question, and that being manifestly not
sufficient it is hoped it may soon be taken up by those who are com-
petent to the task.
The painting on the right wall is so destroyed by holes made in it
by bats as almost to defy description.
Above, between the second and third cell-doors, and cut off from
the next portion by a white gateway is a large scene much destroyed.
Above are eight elephants. In front have been numerous soldiers,
one on horseback, one green-skinned,2 dressed in striped dhotis
and armed with the long crooked jSTepalese swords. Three figures
have deep collars round their necks, and all advance towards the left
after some elephants without any housings. Other scenes may also
be more or less distinctly made otit.
Cave II.
Cave II. is another Vihara, similar but smaller than the preced-
ing, and somewhat different in the style of its front columns. The
verandah (Plate XLIV., fig. 2), is 46} feet in length, supported in
front by four pillars and two pilasters, all of the same style, having
a torus and fillet at the base, but no plinth; to about a fourth up they
have 16 sides, above that they have 32 flutes with belts of elaborate
tracery. The capitals are flower-shaped, along which the flutes of the
column are continued as petals : first there is a deep calyx, widest
near the bottom and terminating in a double row of petals; then,
above a very small fillet, is a thick projecting torus, surmounted in
a bell-shaped flower of about the same depth as the torus, and on
this rests a thin abacus. Over them runs a plain architrave on which
the roof rests, and beyond which it projects very considerably, wit
indications of the patterns in which the under side of it was once
painted.3 At each end of the verandah are chambers similar to those
in Cave I. (see plan, Plate XLIV.),—the architrave above the pillar3
1 Tree and Serpent Worship, quarto, London, 1873.
3 Can it be that these green people are intended to represent the lower castes .
3 A view of this verandah forms Plate IX. of my picturesque illustrations o
Roch-citt Temples of India, folio, London, 1845.—J. F.