ISO CAVE-TEMPLES OF WESTERN INDIA.

which soon became very popular in the Dekhan ; it taught an abstruse
mystical theology which speedily developed a mythology in which
Buddha was pushed into the background by female personifications
of Dharma or the Prajnd Pdramitd, and other goddesses or iahtls, by
Jfmnatmaka Buddhas, or forms of the senses, &c. From all this,
as might be expected, we find a very considerable difference between
the sculptures of the cave temples of the earlier and later periods of
Buddhism. This does not, however, become very early marked, and
it is only after the fifth century that we have any very decidedly
Mahayanist sculptures—as in the later caves at Ajanta, Elura,
Aurangabad, and in one cave at Kasik.

As already stated, the earlier temples in the West are the plainest in
style. The Chaitya Caves are sculptured indeed on their facades,
but the ornaments consist almost solely of the " rail pattern " and
models of the horse-shoe arch which formed the front of the temple;
human figures are rarely introduced. The sculpture, however, as
will be indicated below, grows more abundant and varied as we
descend the scream of history, and perhaps in the century preceding
the Christian era, the custom began of introducing sculptures of the
kings with their wives who executed the works. In the Assembly
Halls, as well as in the Chaitya-Caves, the only object of worship
was the Dagoba, to which offerings of flowers and salutations were
made, and which was circumambulated by the worshipper repeating
short prayers and mantras. The Dagoba, be it remembered, was
the emblem by which the memory of Buddha was represented, hence
the step was an easy one to substitute the image of Buddha himself.
But first with the dagoba was associated in a subordinate way the
tinliastambha and chakradamibha or Lion and Wheel pillars, in fro*1
of the Chaitya-Caves. And when the image of Buddha came to
be substituted in the Viharas for the Dagoba, he was seated on a
sinhdsana or Lion throne, and the Wheel wras placed under the front o
it. This, however, does not seem to have taken place till consu e
ably after the Christian era. Indeed no image of Buddha m
caves of Western India can belong to an earlier period than
fourth century ; possibly some of the wall paintings may howevei
older. The time that separates the older from the later style ma} l
drawn approximately at the second century after the Christian
Somewhere about that date, under the Andhrabhritya dynasty w
power extended southward from the Tapti or perhaps the ^a"f*.r
river, probably to the northern boundary of Maisur and the