DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0468
446 BRAHMANICAL CAVE-TEMPLES.
nearly uninjured it supplies some features which are not easily re-
cognisable at Elephanta. Some way further up, and not easily dis-
covered, are several larger cells ; and about a quarter of a mile far-
ther north, on the sides of the stream which comes over the cliff at
the point we have now arrived at, is a considerable group of small
shrines, the plan of a number of which is given (Plate LXXVI,
fig. 2). Some of these are curious from having small open courts
entered by a door with a Dravidian pediment over it, similar, on a
small scale, to what we meet with at the entrance to the Jaina cave,
here known as the Indra Sabha. Others have Trimurtis on the back-
walls of the little shrines, with round (instead of square) MlunhMs
for the lihgas, a pretty sure indication of their late date. On the
ceilings of two of them are some pieces of painting indistinctly
traceable.
Sita's Nani, or Dumae Lena.
In the projecting scarp on the north side of a waterfall that
divides the last caves from the next is excavated one of the largest
caves in the series, known as Sita's Nani (or Bath), and sometimes
as Dumar Lena (Plate LXXIX.).
This cave is often compared with that at Elephanta or Grarapuri,
to which it bears a striking resemblance, but it is larger and in some
respects a finer cave. It is in fact the finest cave, of its class, known
to exist in India, and probably also the oldest. The other two—that at
Elephanta and the cave at Jogeswari—show a deterioration in archi-
tectural style, and a divergence from Buddhist forms of representation
in sculpture, that seem to mark the progressive steps by which the
change was gradually spreading itself over the forms of two great
religious faiths then prevailing.
The great hall, including the shrine, is 148 feet wide by 149 deep
and 17 feet 8 inches high, but the excavation, including the entrance
court, extends to more than 200 feet in a direct line north and south.
Two large lions, with small elephants under their paws, guard, e
steps which lead into the hall from three sides. Before the wes
approach is a large circle for the Nandi. The hall is in the form °
a cross, the roof supported by twenty-six massive pillars.
In the front aisles on three sides are large sculptures at each en
These are so like those of Elephanta, in the account of which t ey
will be described more at length, that we need here only mdica
nearly uninjured it supplies some features which are not easily re-
cognisable at Elephanta. Some way further up, and not easily dis-
covered, are several larger cells ; and about a quarter of a mile far-
ther north, on the sides of the stream which comes over the cliff at
the point we have now arrived at, is a considerable group of small
shrines, the plan of a number of which is given (Plate LXXVI,
fig. 2). Some of these are curious from having small open courts
entered by a door with a Dravidian pediment over it, similar, on a
small scale, to what we meet with at the entrance to the Jaina cave,
here known as the Indra Sabha. Others have Trimurtis on the back-
walls of the little shrines, with round (instead of square) MlunhMs
for the lihgas, a pretty sure indication of their late date. On the
ceilings of two of them are some pieces of painting indistinctly
traceable.
Sita's Nani, or Dumae Lena.
In the projecting scarp on the north side of a waterfall that
divides the last caves from the next is excavated one of the largest
caves in the series, known as Sita's Nani (or Bath), and sometimes
as Dumar Lena (Plate LXXIX.).
This cave is often compared with that at Elephanta or Grarapuri,
to which it bears a striking resemblance, but it is larger and in some
respects a finer cave. It is in fact the finest cave, of its class, known
to exist in India, and probably also the oldest. The other two—that at
Elephanta and the cave at Jogeswari—show a deterioration in archi-
tectural style, and a divergence from Buddhist forms of representation
in sculpture, that seem to mark the progressive steps by which the
change was gradually spreading itself over the forms of two great
religious faiths then prevailing.
The great hall, including the shrine, is 148 feet wide by 149 deep
and 17 feet 8 inches high, but the excavation, including the entrance
court, extends to more than 200 feet in a direct line north and south.
Two large lions, with small elephants under their paws, guard, e
steps which lead into the hall from three sides. Before the wes
approach is a large circle for the Nandi. The hall is in the form °
a cross, the roof supported by twenty-six massive pillars.
In the front aisles on three sides are large sculptures at each en
These are so like those of Elephanta, in the account of which t ey
will be described more at length, that we need here only mdica