DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0133
BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE.
Book 1.
Lomas Bishl is probably the most modern1—it certainly is the most
richly ornamented. No great amount of elaboration, however, is found
in these examples, inasmuch as the material in which they are excavated
is the hardest and most close-grained granite ; and it was hardly to be
expected that a people who so recently had been using nothing but wood
as a building material would have patience sufficient for labours like
these. They have polished them like glass in the interior, and with that
they have been content.
Western Uiiaitya Hai.i.s.
There are in the AVestern Ghats in the Bombay Presidency five
or six important chaitya caves whose dates can be made out, either
from inscriptions, or from internal evidence, with very fair ap-
proximate certainty, and all of which were excavated, if I am
not very much mistaken, before the Christian Era. The oldest
of these is situated at a place called Bhaja, four miles south of
the great Karli cave in the Bbore Ghat. There is no in-
scription upon it, but 1 have a plan and several photographs.
From the woodcut (No. 45), it will be perceived that it is a chaitya
hall of the usual plan, but of no great
dimensions, being only (>0 ft. from the
back of the apse to the mortices (a a), in
which the supports of the wooden screen
once stood. From the woodcut (No. 46),
taken from one of these photographs, it
will he perceived that the pillars of the
interior slope inwards at a considerable
and most unpleasing angle. The rood-
screen which closes the front of all other
caves of this class is gone. In all other
examples it is in stone, and consequently
remains; but in this instance, being in
wood, it has disappeared, though the
holes to receive its posts and the mortices by which it was attached to
the walls are still there. The ogee fronton was covered with wooden
ornaments, which have disappeared: though the pin-holes remain by
which they were fastened to the stone. The framework, or truss
that filled the upper part of the great front opening, no longer
exists, but what its appearance was may be judged of by the
numerous representations of itself with which it is covered, or
45. Chai'ya Cave, lihaja. (Fruln a Clan
by Mr. liurgcss.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.
1 A very detailed account of all these caves will lie found
Aiclueologi'-al Report' for 1861-62.
in Gen. Cunningham's
Book 1.
Lomas Bishl is probably the most modern1—it certainly is the most
richly ornamented. No great amount of elaboration, however, is found
in these examples, inasmuch as the material in which they are excavated
is the hardest and most close-grained granite ; and it was hardly to be
expected that a people who so recently had been using nothing but wood
as a building material would have patience sufficient for labours like
these. They have polished them like glass in the interior, and with that
they have been content.
Western Uiiaitya Hai.i.s.
There are in the AVestern Ghats in the Bombay Presidency five
or six important chaitya caves whose dates can be made out, either
from inscriptions, or from internal evidence, with very fair ap-
proximate certainty, and all of which were excavated, if I am
not very much mistaken, before the Christian Era. The oldest
of these is situated at a place called Bhaja, four miles south of
the great Karli cave in the Bbore Ghat. There is no in-
scription upon it, but 1 have a plan and several photographs.
From the woodcut (No. 45), it will be perceived that it is a chaitya
hall of the usual plan, but of no great
dimensions, being only (>0 ft. from the
back of the apse to the mortices (a a), in
which the supports of the wooden screen
once stood. From the woodcut (No. 46),
taken from one of these photographs, it
will he perceived that the pillars of the
interior slope inwards at a considerable
and most unpleasing angle. The rood-
screen which closes the front of all other
caves of this class is gone. In all other
examples it is in stone, and consequently
remains; but in this instance, being in
wood, it has disappeared, though the
holes to receive its posts and the mortices by which it was attached to
the walls are still there. The ogee fronton was covered with wooden
ornaments, which have disappeared: though the pin-holes remain by
which they were fastened to the stone. The framework, or truss
that filled the upper part of the great front opening, no longer
exists, but what its appearance was may be judged of by the
numerous representations of itself with which it is covered, or
45. Chai'ya Cave, lihaja. (Fruln a Clan
by Mr. liurgcss.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.
1 A very detailed account of all these caves will lie found
Aiclueologi'-al Report' for 1861-62.
in Gen. Cunningham's