DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0130
Chap. V.
CHAITVA HALLS.
107
with all the detail that could have graced the buildings of which
they are copies. In the investigation of these objects, the perfect im-
mutability of a temple once hewn out of the living rock is a very
important advantage. No repair can add to, or indeed scarcely alter,
the general features of what is once so executed ; and there can be no
doubt that we see them now, in all essentials, exactly as originally
designed. This advantage will be easily appreciated by any one who
has tried to grope for the evidence of a date in the design, afforded
by our much-altered and often reconstructed cathedrals of the
Middle Ages.
The geographical distribution of the caves is somewhat singular,
more than nine-tenths of those now known being found within the
limits of the Bombay Presidency. The remainder consist of two groups
in Bengal; those of Behar and Cuttack, neither of which is important
in extent; one only is known to exist in Madras, that of Mabavel-
lipore ; and two or three insignificant groups, which have been traced
in Afghanistan and the Punjab.
At one time some were inclined to connect this remarkable local
distribution with the comparative proximity of the west side of India to
the rock-cutting Egyptians and Ethiopians. But the coincidence can
be more simply accounted for by the existence in both countries of
rocks perfectly adapted to such works. The great cave district of
western India is composed of horizontal strata of amygdaloid and
other cognate trap formations, generally speaking of very considerable
thickness and great uniformity of texture, and possessing besides the
advantage that their edges are generally exposed in perfectly perpen-
dicular cliffs. No rock in any part of the world could either be more
suited for the purpose or more favourably situated than these forma-
tions. They were easily accessible and easily worked. In the rarest
possible instances are there any flaws or faults to disturb the uni-
formity of the design; and, when complete, they afford a perfectly
dry temple or abode, singularly uniform in temperature, and more
durable than any class of temple found in any other part of the world.
From the time of Asoka, who, two hundred and fifty years before
Christ, excavated the first cave at Eajagriha, till the great cataclysm
in the 8th century, the series is uninterrupted; and, if properly
examined and drawn, the caves would furnish us with a complete
religious and artistic history of the greater part of India during ten
or eleven centuries, the darkest and most perplexing of her existence.
But, although during this long period the practice was common to
Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains, it ceased before the Mahomedan conquest.
Hardly any excavations have been made or attempted since that
period, except, perhaps, some rude Jaina monoliths in the rock at
Gualior, and it may be one or two in southern India.
CHAITVA HALLS.
107
with all the detail that could have graced the buildings of which
they are copies. In the investigation of these objects, the perfect im-
mutability of a temple once hewn out of the living rock is a very
important advantage. No repair can add to, or indeed scarcely alter,
the general features of what is once so executed ; and there can be no
doubt that we see them now, in all essentials, exactly as originally
designed. This advantage will be easily appreciated by any one who
has tried to grope for the evidence of a date in the design, afforded
by our much-altered and often reconstructed cathedrals of the
Middle Ages.
The geographical distribution of the caves is somewhat singular,
more than nine-tenths of those now known being found within the
limits of the Bombay Presidency. The remainder consist of two groups
in Bengal; those of Behar and Cuttack, neither of which is important
in extent; one only is known to exist in Madras, that of Mabavel-
lipore ; and two or three insignificant groups, which have been traced
in Afghanistan and the Punjab.
At one time some were inclined to connect this remarkable local
distribution with the comparative proximity of the west side of India to
the rock-cutting Egyptians and Ethiopians. But the coincidence can
be more simply accounted for by the existence in both countries of
rocks perfectly adapted to such works. The great cave district of
western India is composed of horizontal strata of amygdaloid and
other cognate trap formations, generally speaking of very considerable
thickness and great uniformity of texture, and possessing besides the
advantage that their edges are generally exposed in perfectly perpen-
dicular cliffs. No rock in any part of the world could either be more
suited for the purpose or more favourably situated than these forma-
tions. They were easily accessible and easily worked. In the rarest
possible instances are there any flaws or faults to disturb the uni-
formity of the design; and, when complete, they afford a perfectly
dry temple or abode, singularly uniform in temperature, and more
durable than any class of temple found in any other part of the world.
From the time of Asoka, who, two hundred and fifty years before
Christ, excavated the first cave at Eajagriha, till the great cataclysm
in the 8th century, the series is uninterrupted; and, if properly
examined and drawn, the caves would furnish us with a complete
religious and artistic history of the greater part of India during ten
or eleven centuries, the darkest and most perplexing of her existence.
But, although during this long period the practice was common to
Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains, it ceased before the Mahomedan conquest.
Hardly any excavations have been made or attempted since that
period, except, perhaps, some rude Jaina monoliths in the rock at
Gualior, and it may be one or two in southern India.