DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0504
482 BEAHMANIGAL CAVE-TEMPLES.
evidently of more modern date. At each end is a smaller room,
divided from the hall by two pillars and their pilasters. That to
the left has been entirely screened off by a built wall, but behind
the wall a large sculpture was found of Siva dancing with accom-
panying figures. In the back of the hall is a small square room at
each end, which led into an inner one, with two pillars in front;
these are now walled up. In the middle of the back wall is the
vestibule of the shrine, with two pillars in front of it. The shrine
itself is about 16 feet square, but is now empty.
The cave faces the east, and is cut into a low rock. On the top
of it stands a large monastic building, now rapidly going to decay;
one of the many remains of the power and piety of the Portuguese
when they were in possession of the island.
Concluding Remarks.
Although it must be admitted that the Brahmanical Cave-Temples
are wanting in that purpose-like appropriateness which characterised
the Buddhist Viharas, from which they are derived, still they have
merits of their own which render them well worthy of attentive
study by those interested in such researches. Their architectural
details are generally as rich, and, as mere matters of ornament, fre-
quently as elegant and as well adapted to their purposes as any used
by their predecessors ; in some instances, indeed, more so. Nothing,
for instance, in any Buddhist Cave is so appropriate to rock-cut
architecture as the pillars in the Lankeswara Caves, and in the
Kailasa generally. The architects seem there to have felt the re-
quirements of cave architecture fully, and, having no utilitarian
necessities to control them, used massiveness as a mode of expres-
sion in a manner that was never surpassed, not even perhaps in
Egypt. If the masses thus introduced had been mere unornamented
blocks, the effect might have been far from pleasing, but in nothing
did their architects show better taste than in the extent of ornament
used, and the manner of its application. The expression of power
gained by the solidity of their forms is never interfered with, thoug
the amount of ornament is such as in less skilled hands might easi y
have become excessive and degenerate into bad taste. This,
ever, is never the case, and though as architectural forms the}
to us unfamiliar, and consequently often appear strange, the p"
evidently of more modern date. At each end is a smaller room,
divided from the hall by two pillars and their pilasters. That to
the left has been entirely screened off by a built wall, but behind
the wall a large sculpture was found of Siva dancing with accom-
panying figures. In the back of the hall is a small square room at
each end, which led into an inner one, with two pillars in front;
these are now walled up. In the middle of the back wall is the
vestibule of the shrine, with two pillars in front of it. The shrine
itself is about 16 feet square, but is now empty.
The cave faces the east, and is cut into a low rock. On the top
of it stands a large monastic building, now rapidly going to decay;
one of the many remains of the power and piety of the Portuguese
when they were in possession of the island.
Concluding Remarks.
Although it must be admitted that the Brahmanical Cave-Temples
are wanting in that purpose-like appropriateness which characterised
the Buddhist Viharas, from which they are derived, still they have
merits of their own which render them well worthy of attentive
study by those interested in such researches. Their architectural
details are generally as rich, and, as mere matters of ornament, fre-
quently as elegant and as well adapted to their purposes as any used
by their predecessors ; in some instances, indeed, more so. Nothing,
for instance, in any Buddhist Cave is so appropriate to rock-cut
architecture as the pillars in the Lankeswara Caves, and in the
Kailasa generally. The architects seem there to have felt the re-
quirements of cave architecture fully, and, having no utilitarian
necessities to control them, used massiveness as a mode of expres-
sion in a manner that was never surpassed, not even perhaps in
Egypt. If the masses thus introduced had been mere unornamented
blocks, the effect might have been far from pleasing, but in nothing
did their architects show better taste than in the extent of ornament
used, and the manner of its application. The expression of power
gained by the solidity of their forms is never interfered with, thoug
the amount of ornament is such as in less skilled hands might easi y
have become excessive and degenerate into bad taste. This,
ever, is never the case, and though as architectural forms the}
to us unfamiliar, and consequently often appear strange, the p"