DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0129
106
BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE'.
Book T.
the apse could lie lighted from the exterior, the apse was carried
up solid. In all the caves the pillars surrounding the dagoba arc
different from and plainer than those of the nave. They are, in fact,
kept as subdued as possible, as if it was thought they had no business
there, but were necessary to admit light into the circumambient aisle
of the apse.
As almost all our information regarding these chaityas, as well as
the viharas, which form the next group to be described, is derived
from the rock-cut examples in Western India, it would bo convenient,
if it were possible, to present something like a statistical account of
the number and distribution of the groups of caves found there. The
descriptions hitherto published do not, however, as yet admit of this.
I have myself visited and described all the most important of
them;1 and in an interesting • paper, communicated to the Bombay
branch of the Asiatic Society by the Rev. Dr. Wilson, he enumerated
thirty-seven different groups of caves, more or less known to
Europeans.8 This number is exclusive of those in Bengal and Madras,
and new ones are daily being discovered; we may therefore fairly
assume that certainly more than forty, and probably nearly fifty,
groups of caves exist in India Proper.
Some of these groups contain as main' as 100 different and distinct
excavations, many not more than ten or a dozen ; but altogether I feel
convinced that not less than 1000 distinct specimens are to be found.
Of these probably 100 may be of Brahinanical or Jaina origin; the
remaining 900 are Buddhist, cither monasteries or temples, the former
being incomparably the more numerous class; for of the latter not
more than twenty or thirty are known to exist. This difference arose,
no doubt, from the greater number of the viharas being grouped
around structural topes, as is always the case in Afghanistan and
Ceylon ; and, consequently, they did not require any rock-cut place
of worship while possessed of the more usual and appropriate edifice.
The facades of the caves are generally perfect, and form an excep-
tion to what has been said of our ignorance of the external appearance
of Indian temples and monasteries, since they are executed in the rock
Xilgiri Hills. In a work recently pub-
lished by the late Mr. Breeks, of the
Madras Civil Service, lie gives two photo-
graphs of these dwellings, plates 8 and
9. Their roofs have precisely the same
elliptical forms as the chaitya with tlie
ridge, giving the ogee form externally,
and altogether, whether by accident or
design, they are miniature chaitya halls.
Externally they are covered with short
thatch, neatly laid on. Such forms may
have existed in India two thousand years
ago, and may have given rise to the
peculiarities of the chaitya halls, but it
is, of course, impossible to prove it.
1 'Illustrations of the Rock-cutTemples
of India,' 1 vol., text Svo., with folio,
plates. W'eale, London, 1845.
'Journal Bombay Branch of the.
Eoyal Asiatic Society,' vol. iii. pt. ii.
p. 36, ct seqq., and vol. iv. p. 34.0, ct
seqq.
BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE'.
Book T.
the apse could lie lighted from the exterior, the apse was carried
up solid. In all the caves the pillars surrounding the dagoba arc
different from and plainer than those of the nave. They are, in fact,
kept as subdued as possible, as if it was thought they had no business
there, but were necessary to admit light into the circumambient aisle
of the apse.
As almost all our information regarding these chaityas, as well as
the viharas, which form the next group to be described, is derived
from the rock-cut examples in Western India, it would bo convenient,
if it were possible, to present something like a statistical account of
the number and distribution of the groups of caves found there. The
descriptions hitherto published do not, however, as yet admit of this.
I have myself visited and described all the most important of
them;1 and in an interesting • paper, communicated to the Bombay
branch of the Asiatic Society by the Rev. Dr. Wilson, he enumerated
thirty-seven different groups of caves, more or less known to
Europeans.8 This number is exclusive of those in Bengal and Madras,
and new ones are daily being discovered; we may therefore fairly
assume that certainly more than forty, and probably nearly fifty,
groups of caves exist in India Proper.
Some of these groups contain as main' as 100 different and distinct
excavations, many not more than ten or a dozen ; but altogether I feel
convinced that not less than 1000 distinct specimens are to be found.
Of these probably 100 may be of Brahinanical or Jaina origin; the
remaining 900 are Buddhist, cither monasteries or temples, the former
being incomparably the more numerous class; for of the latter not
more than twenty or thirty are known to exist. This difference arose,
no doubt, from the greater number of the viharas being grouped
around structural topes, as is always the case in Afghanistan and
Ceylon ; and, consequently, they did not require any rock-cut place
of worship while possessed of the more usual and appropriate edifice.
The facades of the caves are generally perfect, and form an excep-
tion to what has been said of our ignorance of the external appearance
of Indian temples and monasteries, since they are executed in the rock
Xilgiri Hills. In a work recently pub-
lished by the late Mr. Breeks, of the
Madras Civil Service, lie gives two photo-
graphs of these dwellings, plates 8 and
9. Their roofs have precisely the same
elliptical forms as the chaitya with tlie
ridge, giving the ogee form externally,
and altogether, whether by accident or
design, they are miniature chaitya halls.
Externally they are covered with short
thatch, neatly laid on. Such forms may
have existed in India two thousand years
ago, and may have given rise to the
peculiarities of the chaitya halls, but it
is, of course, impossible to prove it.
1 'Illustrations of the Rock-cutTemples
of India,' 1 vol., text Svo., with folio,
plates. W'eale, London, 1845.
'Journal Bombay Branch of the.
Eoyal Asiatic Society,' vol. iii. pt. ii.
p. 36, ct seqq., and vol. iv. p. 34.0, ct
seqq.