DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0543
ANCIENT VIHAKA AT BHAJA. 521
The question thus arises, is it conceivable that if the Indians used
stirrups in the third century before Christ, neither the Greeks nor
the Eomans took the hint and adopted them also ? It is one of
those inventions which, like printing with moveable types, seem
only to require to be suggested to be universally adopted, but the
evidence of all antiquity seems against the idea. The Nineveh
sculptures seem to prove that their use was unknown in Assyria,
and if they were used either in Greece or Eome it is most
improbable that the keen eyes of antiquaries would not have de-
tected evidence of their employment. How on the other hand
cavalry could exist and be efficient without the employment of
stirrups is almost as mysterious, but that is a question that cannot
be argued here. All that it is necessary to state here, is that in so
far as the evidence now available can be relied upon, it goes to
establish the fact that the use of stirrups was known in India in the
third century before Christ.
Figure sculpture is so extremely rare in these western caves that
it is very difficult to institute any comparison that will enable us to
judge either of the relative antiquity or comparative merit of the
sculptures in this cave. There are, it is true, groups in the caves at
Kuda and Karle (pp. 207 and 238), but they are only of two figures
each, a man and his wife, apparently the founders or benefactors of
the Chaitya, with very scant clothing and no emblems. There are
also single figures, as at this very place of Bhaja and elsewhere, but
nothing like an attempt to tell a story has anywhere been found,
nor any mythological representations in any cave before the Christian
era.
The sculptures in this cave are unlike anything found in the
Katak caves, though how far that may be owing to distance of the
locality, or to the nature of the material in which they are carved,
11 is difficult to say. They do not resemble those of the Bharhut
^tupa. AH these again are small and crowded, and applied to such
1 liferent purposes that it would be dangerous to rely on any com-
Panson that could be instituted between them. The same may be
aicl of the Sanchi sculptures, though these are so much more
^nodical, and bring us so much more nearly within the circle of
r knowledge of Buddhist literature, as we now know it, that it can
ly be doubted that they are much more modern.
The question thus arises, is it conceivable that if the Indians used
stirrups in the third century before Christ, neither the Greeks nor
the Eomans took the hint and adopted them also ? It is one of
those inventions which, like printing with moveable types, seem
only to require to be suggested to be universally adopted, but the
evidence of all antiquity seems against the idea. The Nineveh
sculptures seem to prove that their use was unknown in Assyria,
and if they were used either in Greece or Eome it is most
improbable that the keen eyes of antiquaries would not have de-
tected evidence of their employment. How on the other hand
cavalry could exist and be efficient without the employment of
stirrups is almost as mysterious, but that is a question that cannot
be argued here. All that it is necessary to state here, is that in so
far as the evidence now available can be relied upon, it goes to
establish the fact that the use of stirrups was known in India in the
third century before Christ.
Figure sculpture is so extremely rare in these western caves that
it is very difficult to institute any comparison that will enable us to
judge either of the relative antiquity or comparative merit of the
sculptures in this cave. There are, it is true, groups in the caves at
Kuda and Karle (pp. 207 and 238), but they are only of two figures
each, a man and his wife, apparently the founders or benefactors of
the Chaitya, with very scant clothing and no emblems. There are
also single figures, as at this very place of Bhaja and elsewhere, but
nothing like an attempt to tell a story has anywhere been found,
nor any mythological representations in any cave before the Christian
era.
The sculptures in this cave are unlike anything found in the
Katak caves, though how far that may be owing to distance of the
locality, or to the nature of the material in which they are carved,
11 is difficult to say. They do not resemble those of the Bharhut
^tupa. AH these again are small and crowded, and applied to such
1 liferent purposes that it would be dangerous to rely on any com-
Panson that could be instituted between them. The same may be
aicl of the Sanchi sculptures, though these are so much more
^nodical, and bring us so much more nearly within the circle of
r knowledge of Buddhist literature, as we now know it, that it can
ly be doubted that they are much more modern.