DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0545
ANCIENT VIHARA AT BHAJA. 523
bearer, for instance (Plate XCVL, fig. 5), is so unlike anything else
found in India, and so like some things found among the quasi Greek
sculptures in Grandhara, with a strong reminiscence of Assyrian art,
that the presence of a foreign element can scarcely be mistaken.
It recalls at once the Assyrian, or as we were in the habit of calling
it, the Ionic honeysuckle ornament of Asoka's lats at Allahabad and
Sankissa,1 and the strong traces of western influence that are found
in his edicts as well as in his works. The bell-shaped quasi Per-
sepolitan capitals which generally crown his lats, and are the most
usual features in this and in all the western caves anterior to the
Christian era, tell the same tale. They are the only features that
cannot be traced back to a wooden original, and must apparently
have been imported from some western source.
The truth of the matter appears to be, that there was, in very
early times a school of sculpture in India, represented by those at
Bharhut and Sanchi, which was wholly of native origin, and in
which it is almost impossible to trace the influence of any foreign
element. On the other hand the sculptures of the G-andhara
monasteries are unmistakeably classical, and the influence of that
school was felt as far as Mathura, certainly as early as the Christian
wa. Combined with an Assyrian or Persian element, it existed in
Behar in Asoka's time and in this cave at Bhaja, and subsequently
made itself most undoubtedly felt in the sculptures at Amravati.
We have not yet the materials to fix exactly the boundaries of
these two schools of sculpture, but their limits are every day becom-
mg better defined, and may before long be fixed, with at least a
fair amount of precision.
Whatever conclusions may eventually be evolved from all this, it
Probably will be admitted in the meanwhile, that the discovery of
ls Bhaja Yihara, in combination with the Pitalkhora, inscriptions, is
°^e of the most curious and most interesting contributions that has
mte years been made, and may yet do a great deal towards
j!, ling us to elucidate the history and understand the arts of the
Lave-Temples of India,
J. P.
Hist, of Indian and Eastern Architecture, woodcuts 4, o, and 6.
bearer, for instance (Plate XCVL, fig. 5), is so unlike anything else
found in India, and so like some things found among the quasi Greek
sculptures in Grandhara, with a strong reminiscence of Assyrian art,
that the presence of a foreign element can scarcely be mistaken.
It recalls at once the Assyrian, or as we were in the habit of calling
it, the Ionic honeysuckle ornament of Asoka's lats at Allahabad and
Sankissa,1 and the strong traces of western influence that are found
in his edicts as well as in his works. The bell-shaped quasi Per-
sepolitan capitals which generally crown his lats, and are the most
usual features in this and in all the western caves anterior to the
Christian era, tell the same tale. They are the only features that
cannot be traced back to a wooden original, and must apparently
have been imported from some western source.
The truth of the matter appears to be, that there was, in very
early times a school of sculpture in India, represented by those at
Bharhut and Sanchi, which was wholly of native origin, and in
which it is almost impossible to trace the influence of any foreign
element. On the other hand the sculptures of the G-andhara
monasteries are unmistakeably classical, and the influence of that
school was felt as far as Mathura, certainly as early as the Christian
wa. Combined with an Assyrian or Persian element, it existed in
Behar in Asoka's time and in this cave at Bhaja, and subsequently
made itself most undoubtedly felt in the sculptures at Amravati.
We have not yet the materials to fix exactly the boundaries of
these two schools of sculpture, but their limits are every day becom-
mg better defined, and may before long be fixed, with at least a
fair amount of precision.
Whatever conclusions may eventually be evolved from all this, it
Probably will be admitted in the meanwhile, that the discovery of
ls Bhaja Yihara, in combination with the Pitalkhora, inscriptions, is
°^e of the most curious and most interesting contributions that has
mte years been made, and may yet do a great deal towards
j!, ling us to elucidate the history and understand the arts of the
Lave-Temples of India,
J. P.
Hist, of Indian and Eastern Architecture, woodcuts 4, o, and 6.