DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0467
Chap. III.
BRAHMAXICAL ROCK-CTT TEMPLES.
443
which has been exhaustively treated by Mr. Burgess in the work
above referred to. Chambers' paper in the second volume of the
' Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society,' supplies, with Dr. Hunter's
'photographs, a vast amount of information regarding the MahavelH-
pore antiquities ; and Mr. Burgess's recent report on the Dharwar
caves completes, to a great extent, the information wanted to under-
stand the peculiarities of the group. Notwithstanding this, it is well
worthy of a monograph, insomuch as it affords the only representation
of the art and mythology of the Hindus on the revival of their
religion, which was commenced by the Guptas a.d. 318-46"), but really
inaugurated by the great Vieramaditya, a.d. 495-530, and which, when
once started, continued to flourish till the great collapse in the
8th century.
After all, however, the subject is one more suited to the purposes
of the mythologist and the sculptor than to the architect. Like all
rock-cut examples, except the Dravidian, the caves have the intolerable
defect of having no exteriors, and consequently no external archi-
tectural form. The only parts of them which strictly belong to
architectural art are their pillars, and though a series of them would
be interesting, they vary so
much, from the nature of the
material in which they are
carved, and from local circum-
stances, that they do not possess
the same historical significance
that external forms would af-
ford. Such a pillar, for instance,
as this one from the cave called
Lanka, on the side of the pit
in which the Kylas stands
(Woodcut No. 242), though in
exquisite taste as a rock-cut
example, where the utmost
strength is apparently required
to support the mass of rock-
above, does not afford any
points of comparison with struc-
tural examples of the same age.
In a building it would be cum-
bersome and absurd; under a
mass of rock it is elegant and
appropriate. The pillars in the caves at MahavelHpore fail from
the opposite fault : they retain their structural form, though used in
the rock, and look frail and weak in consequence ; but while this
diversity in practice prevailed, it prevents their use as a chronometric
24 '. Pillar in Kylas Ellora.
(From a Drawing by the Author.)
BRAHMAXICAL ROCK-CTT TEMPLES.
443
which has been exhaustively treated by Mr. Burgess in the work
above referred to. Chambers' paper in the second volume of the
' Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society,' supplies, with Dr. Hunter's
'photographs, a vast amount of information regarding the MahavelH-
pore antiquities ; and Mr. Burgess's recent report on the Dharwar
caves completes, to a great extent, the information wanted to under-
stand the peculiarities of the group. Notwithstanding this, it is well
worthy of a monograph, insomuch as it affords the only representation
of the art and mythology of the Hindus on the revival of their
religion, which was commenced by the Guptas a.d. 318-46"), but really
inaugurated by the great Vieramaditya, a.d. 495-530, and which, when
once started, continued to flourish till the great collapse in the
8th century.
After all, however, the subject is one more suited to the purposes
of the mythologist and the sculptor than to the architect. Like all
rock-cut examples, except the Dravidian, the caves have the intolerable
defect of having no exteriors, and consequently no external archi-
tectural form. The only parts of them which strictly belong to
architectural art are their pillars, and though a series of them would
be interesting, they vary so
much, from the nature of the
material in which they are
carved, and from local circum-
stances, that they do not possess
the same historical significance
that external forms would af-
ford. Such a pillar, for instance,
as this one from the cave called
Lanka, on the side of the pit
in which the Kylas stands
(Woodcut No. 242), though in
exquisite taste as a rock-cut
example, where the utmost
strength is apparently required
to support the mass of rock-
above, does not afford any
points of comparison with struc-
tural examples of the same age.
In a building it would be cum-
bersome and absurd; under a
mass of rock it is elegant and
appropriate. The pillars in the caves at MahavelHpore fail from
the opposite fault : they retain their structural form, though used in
the rock, and look frail and weak in consequence ; but while this
diversity in practice prevailed, it prevents their use as a chronometric
24 '. Pillar in Kylas Ellora.
(From a Drawing by the Author.)