DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0166
Chap. VI.
P.ENGAL CAVES.
143
plastic arts before they undertook it. From the form of the characters
which are engraved upon it, it is undoubtedly anterior to the
Christian Era, but how much
earlier it is difficult to say.
From whatever point of
view they are looked at, these
Orissarj raves are so unlike
anything that we have pre-
viously been in the habit of
considering Buddhist, that it
may well be asked whether
we are justified in ascribing
their excavation to the fol-
lowers of that religion at all.
Not only is there no figure
of Buddha, in the conventional forms and attitudes by which he
was afterwards recognised, but there is no scene which can be inter-
preted as representing any event in his life, nor any of the jatakas
in which his future greatness was prefigured. There is no dagoba
in the caves1 or represented in the sculptures, no chaitya cave, no
wheel emblem, nor anything in fact that is usually considered
emblematical of that religion.
AVhen we look a little more closely into it, however, we do detect
the (Swastica and shield emblem attached to the Aira inscription, and
the shield and trisul ornament over the doorways in the older caves,
and these we know, from what we find at Bharhut and Sanchi, and at
Bhaja (ante, p. 112), were considered as Buddhist emblems in these
places. But were they exclusively so '< The trisul ornament is found
on the coins of Kadphises, in conjunction with the bull and trident of
Siva.- and we have no reason for assuming that the Swastica, and it
may be even the shield, were not used by other and earlier sects.
The truth of the matter appears to be that hitherto our knowledge
of Buddhism has been derived almost exclusively from books, which
took their present form only in the 4th or 5th century of our era,
or from monuments erected after the corruptions of the Mahayana intro-
duced by Nagarjuna, and those who assisted at the fourth convocation
held by Kanishka in the 1st century of our era. We now are able
to realise from the sculptures of Bharhut, of these caves, and of the
Sanchi gateways, and the older western caves, what Buddhism really
was between the ages of Asoka and Kanishka, and it is a widely
different thing from anything written in the books we possess, or
1 There may have been a structural j rttiy have disappeared,
dagoba attached to the series, which | -Wilson. ' Ariana Antiqua,' plate 10.
P.ENGAL CAVES.
143
plastic arts before they undertook it. From the form of the characters
which are engraved upon it, it is undoubtedly anterior to the
Christian Era, but how much
earlier it is difficult to say.
From whatever point of
view they are looked at, these
Orissarj raves are so unlike
anything that we have pre-
viously been in the habit of
considering Buddhist, that it
may well be asked whether
we are justified in ascribing
their excavation to the fol-
lowers of that religion at all.
Not only is there no figure
of Buddha, in the conventional forms and attitudes by which he
was afterwards recognised, but there is no scene which can be inter-
preted as representing any event in his life, nor any of the jatakas
in which his future greatness was prefigured. There is no dagoba
in the caves1 or represented in the sculptures, no chaitya cave, no
wheel emblem, nor anything in fact that is usually considered
emblematical of that religion.
AVhen we look a little more closely into it, however, we do detect
the (Swastica and shield emblem attached to the Aira inscription, and
the shield and trisul ornament over the doorways in the older caves,
and these we know, from what we find at Bharhut and Sanchi, and at
Bhaja (ante, p. 112), were considered as Buddhist emblems in these
places. But were they exclusively so '< The trisul ornament is found
on the coins of Kadphises, in conjunction with the bull and trident of
Siva.- and we have no reason for assuming that the Swastica, and it
may be even the shield, were not used by other and earlier sects.
The truth of the matter appears to be that hitherto our knowledge
of Buddhism has been derived almost exclusively from books, which
took their present form only in the 4th or 5th century of our era,
or from monuments erected after the corruptions of the Mahayana intro-
duced by Nagarjuna, and those who assisted at the fourth convocation
held by Kanishka in the 1st century of our era. We now are able
to realise from the sculptures of Bharhut, of these caves, and of the
Sanchi gateways, and the older western caves, what Buddhism really
was between the ages of Asoka and Kanishka, and it is a widely
different thing from anything written in the books we possess, or
1 There may have been a structural j rttiy have disappeared,
dagoba attached to the series, which | -Wilson. ' Ariana Antiqua,' plate 10.