DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0145
122
BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE.
Book. I.
tecture comes to be mitten in externa, will supply details that are
wanting in the examples just quoted. Meanwhile, however, their
forms are sufficient to place the history on a firm basis, and to
explain the origin and early progress of the style with sufficient
distinctness.
From the inscriptions and literary evidence, it seems hardly doubt-
ful that the date of the Karli cave is about 78 b.c., and that at Nassick
about 129 b.c. We have no literary authority for the date of the two
earlier ones, but the archaeological evidence appears irresistible. The
Bhaja cave is so absolutely identical in style with the Lonias Rishi
cave at Behar (Woodcut No. 43) that they must be of very nearly
the same age. Their pillars and their doorways slope so nearly at
the same angle, and the essential woodenness—if the expression may
be used—of both is so exactly the same, that, the one being of the
age of Asoka, the other cannot be far removed from the date of his
reign. The Bedsa cave exhibits a degree of progress so nearly half-
way between the Bhaja and Nassick examples, that it may safely
be dated 150 to 200 b.c., and the whole four thus exhibit the progress
of the style during nearly two centuries in the most satisfactory
manner, and form a basis from which we may proceed to reason with
very little hesitation or doubt.
Ajunta.1
There are four chaitya caves in the Ajunta series which, though
not so magnificent as some of the four just mentioned, are nearly as
important for the purposes of our history. The oldest there (No. 0)
is the lowest down on the cliff, and is of the smallest class, being
only 4.3 ft. by 23 ft. in width. All its woodwork has perished, though
it would not be difficult to restore it from the mortices left and the
representations of itself on the facade. There are several inscriptions,
but they do not seem integral. They are painted on the walls, and
belong, from the form of their characters, to the 2nd or 3rd century
of our era, when the frescoes seem to have been renewed, so that the
real tests of its age are, first, its position in the series, which make
it, with its accompanying vihara (No. 12), undoubtedly the oldest
there; the other test is the architecture of its facade, which so much
resembles that of the Nassick chaitya (b.c. 12!») that it cannot be far
off in date. It may, however, be somewhat earlier, as the pillars in
the interior slope inwards at a somewhat greater angle, and, in so far
as that is a test of age, it indicates a greater antiquity in the Ajunta
example.
1 For further particulars regarding the Royal Asiatic Society.' 1842, and repuh-
Ajiiuta caves, the reader is referred to a lished afterwards with a folio volume of
paper I wrote in the 'Journal of the | plates to illustrate it.
BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE.
Book. I.
tecture comes to be mitten in externa, will supply details that are
wanting in the examples just quoted. Meanwhile, however, their
forms are sufficient to place the history on a firm basis, and to
explain the origin and early progress of the style with sufficient
distinctness.
From the inscriptions and literary evidence, it seems hardly doubt-
ful that the date of the Karli cave is about 78 b.c., and that at Nassick
about 129 b.c. We have no literary authority for the date of the two
earlier ones, but the archaeological evidence appears irresistible. The
Bhaja cave is so absolutely identical in style with the Lonias Rishi
cave at Behar (Woodcut No. 43) that they must be of very nearly
the same age. Their pillars and their doorways slope so nearly at
the same angle, and the essential woodenness—if the expression may
be used—of both is so exactly the same, that, the one being of the
age of Asoka, the other cannot be far removed from the date of his
reign. The Bedsa cave exhibits a degree of progress so nearly half-
way between the Bhaja and Nassick examples, that it may safely
be dated 150 to 200 b.c., and the whole four thus exhibit the progress
of the style during nearly two centuries in the most satisfactory
manner, and form a basis from which we may proceed to reason with
very little hesitation or doubt.
Ajunta.1
There are four chaitya caves in the Ajunta series which, though
not so magnificent as some of the four just mentioned, are nearly as
important for the purposes of our history. The oldest there (No. 0)
is the lowest down on the cliff, and is of the smallest class, being
only 4.3 ft. by 23 ft. in width. All its woodwork has perished, though
it would not be difficult to restore it from the mortices left and the
representations of itself on the facade. There are several inscriptions,
but they do not seem integral. They are painted on the walls, and
belong, from the form of their characters, to the 2nd or 3rd century
of our era, when the frescoes seem to have been renewed, so that the
real tests of its age are, first, its position in the series, which make
it, with its accompanying vihara (No. 12), undoubtedly the oldest
there; the other test is the architecture of its facade, which so much
resembles that of the Nassick chaitya (b.c. 12!») that it cannot be far
off in date. It may, however, be somewhat earlier, as the pillars in
the interior slope inwards at a somewhat greater angle, and, in so far
as that is a test of age, it indicates a greater antiquity in the Ajunta
example.
1 For further particulars regarding the Royal Asiatic Society.' 1842, and repuh-
Ajiiuta caves, the reader is referred to a lished afterwards with a folio volume of
paper I wrote in the 'Journal of the | plates to illustrate it.